Random Disney Pics

As I am off tonight to catch a late screening of Iron Man 3 with my son, tonights post will simply be some of my favorite pictures we have taken all around Disney World.  Besides I’m still full from last nights post.  Did you miss it?  OMG, then you have to go back and read all about the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot.  I hope you have an amazing Friday and a truly magical weekend.

 

“Help I’m getting dizzy!”  I love the Tea Cups, but since I get vertigo at the drop of a hat, I normally have to pass.

 

Oh the joys of playing Toy Story Midway Mania!  There are many secrets hidden in this game that will give you higher scores.  For example, keep shooting the barn doors and soon the entire barn turns around with nothing but 1,000 targets on it!  Can you find any other secrets?  There are 15 total secrets in all.

 

Speaking of Toy Story Midway Mania, this audio-animatronic of Mr. Potato Head is the most advanced audio-animatronic currently on Disney property.  Mr. Potato Head has the ability to know when your looking at him, and even when no one is paying attention to him!  He has remove his ear himself and put it back on!  If your not in a hurry, you should stay around and talk with him for awhile.  You’ll be surprised at what he might say to you.

Night falls out the back of our resort window here at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort.  This resort is absolutely beautiful, is in walking distance to Downtown Disney, and there are always rooms available here for those last minute. unplanned trips.

 

Beautiful Princess Ashley riding on her galliant steed on the Carousel.  Yes, we ALL still ride the carousel every time we go to the Magic Kingdom and it is always a great time.  Where else can you get pictures like this!  What a memory!

 

Here is C3-PO getting our starspeeder ready for our next voyage to the forest moon of Endor.  The new Star Tours 3D ride is a blast and it now has over 60 different movie “parts” in it so the ride is guaranteed to be totally different almost every time you ride it.  You will never have “a bad feeling” about riding the new Star Tours.

 

This Sorcerer Mickey is totally made of chocolate!  It was on display at the Food and Wine Festival and it totally blew our minds.  You don’t get to see things like this every day at Disney World.

 

Here, dwarf peppers grow hydroponically at The Land Pavillion at Epcot.  This means that they are growing without any soil whatsoever!  They are given a constant watering that has no additives or pesticides of any kind, only nutrients that would have been in the soil.  Hydroponically grown fruits and veggies tend to grow a little slower than normally grown items, but they are much better for you without all of the junk that we currently add to our food.

Ok, that’s it for this beautiful Friday evening.  I’m off to enjoy Iron Man 3, and I appreciate your spending time with me this evening.  Have a magical day!

 

Disney’s Food and Wine Festival

I cannot properly express the huge amount of love that I have for the Food and Wine Festival that takes place at Epcot each year.  I already love Epcot because strolling through the different countries in the World Showcase is just the best of all worlds: I get to learn something new about new cultures, I get to try the most delicious foods from around the world, I get to take in entertainment from each country, and of course I love taking pictures of all of the beauty that is all around.  The Food and Wine Festival just makes it all the better with the new food, wine, and cheese offerings.

 

When they say “taste your way around the world” they mean it.  At the Food and Wine Festival, Disney has set up small food carts all around the World Showcase, but not just from the countries that are represented in Epcot.  There are many different countries from all around the world, which makes it better because I can eat at the represented countries anytime I want.  The larger offerings really make for such a large variety that there is no way you could eat at every cart in a single day.

 

Here I am enjoying a panko encrusted lamb chop and I had to be reminded NOT to eat the bone too!

My wife and I both load up little card on a scrunchy wristband, then as we see a food cart that we would like to try, we walk up to the line, order the item we want, then swipe the card and we are good to go.  The items all vary in price, but for example, that lamb chop up there came with a side of hummis and cost $5.00.  That is not bad at all considering your at Disney and that is a pretty big lamb chop.  Of course the portions are smaller than what you would get at a restaurant, but keep in mind that you are still walking around and trying many different kinds of food, so smaller is actually better.  My wife and I hit each hit up around 10 different carts during our last trip there, and between the two of us, we spent less that $60 in total.  We can hardly eat at a sit down restaurant anywhere in Disney for $60 so again the prices are very good, and I promise you will leave full and had tons of great food.  We will often make a trip to the Food and Wine Festival our evening meal during this time and we have never been unhappy with that decision.  Plus any money you have left over on your card can be spent anywhere in Disney World, so your not trapping your money and forcing yourself to spend it at the festival.  I’ll end this post by showing you pictures of some of the great food we enjoyed last October and trying to describe each dish as best as I can, but remember that I’m no Bobby Flay!  Here we go on our foodie trip around the world:

 

This is a delicious hunk of grilled steak with a very heavy topping of pesto and oil sauce.  You can really see the oil there on the right hand side of the container.  That is a white, buttery polenta ball underneath the skewer.  This meat simply melts in your mouth, and the pesto sauce gives it a very uniquely Italian zesty flavor.  This is one of the dishes that I went back for seconds on.

 

This is a huge skewer of jumbo shrimp that has been bathed in a hot siracha sauce.  There is cracked black pepper on the shrimp as well, and there is a very distinct lemony tang to the shrimp as well.  The siracha was a little too intense for my liking, but as you probably guessed, it didn’t stop me from eating all of the shrimp.

 

This was some of the most light and tasty salmon I have ever eaten.  They used a very strong piece of lettuce to make a wrap out of it, and on top was some very savory cole slaw.  They poured a Japanese soy sauce over the entire dish and that really made the salmon pop.  This was a very great palate cleanser in between the other meat heavy dishes we enjoyed.

 

This little baby is a cheesy lobster and crab Shepherds pie.  This was a HUGE portion and was absolutely chock full of massive pieces of lobster and crab, as well as potatoes and some carrots.  This dish smelled almost as great as it tasted.  You truly felt like you were in a pub in Ireland as you enjoyed the hearty flavors of this take on the famous Irish dish.  This dish went very well with a stout Guiness!

 

This is pure love on plate.  This is about the best chocolate lava cake I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.  When you put your fork in the top of this cake, it explodes with chocolate and you just want to smash your face into the place and eat it all very quickly!  Yes, this was another dish that called to me so strongly that I had to go back for seconds.  Warning though, this dish is extremely rich!

 

This is a Hawaiian pulled pork slider and while it looks a little plain, there is nothing plain about the taste.  There is a Hawaiin BBQ sauce on the meat and it was such a unique taste of sweetness and smokiness all at the same time.  Then you get a taste of the secret ingredient hiding under the meat, a pineapple chutney that really put some zing into this dish.  The bread was a little overwhelming and could have been a little bit softer, but overall a very great and savory dish.

 

Ok, I have saved THE BEST for last.  Straight from Belgium, this is, without a doubt, THE VERY BEST Belgium waffle you will put into your tasting machine!  OMG, this thing is heavenly and I literally licked my plate clean on the way up to get a second helping.  The fine folks from Belgium have cornered the market on waffles and this was a fine example.  The batter used in this waffle is probably 90% air because it was extremely light and airy.  It had the perfect blend of sweetness to it, but it by far was not overly sweet.  It is covered in a strawberry compote that was thick and delicious.  Of course the whipped cream on top certainly did not hurt anything.  Oh and this puppy was served very warm.  If you go to Food and Wine and don’t try this Belgium Waffle then you wasted your time and money!  This is the star of the show.

As always, thanks for spending a little time with me as I whet your whistle with some of the best food offerings Disney has each fall.

I’ll see ya real soon at this years Food and Wine Festival as we head down to Disney World this October.  I’ll be that guy in line to buy his fourth Belgium Waffle.