shovan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2006
Just returned from the best Disney trip EVER! My DH and I went on our first WDW trip alone to attend the Food & Wine Fest. I can't believe we didn't do this before! I mean going alone & going to the F&W fest!' We arrived at the Beach Club on the 28th about noon. Our room wasn't ready, so we walked over to the WS in Epcot. To our delight, most of the F&W booths were already open & there were no crowds! The first booth we hit was Ireland, the Lamb Stew with a scone was awesome! I don't even like stew, but DH wanted to try it & boy was he right! The Meade Honey Wine is an awesome dessert-type wine, we bought 2 bottles! We hit Poland next & had a Potato Pierogie, which was just okay. We had the Cheddar Cheese Soup & the Maple Glazed Salmon in Canada with the Icewine, all were really excellent! YUM!
We slowed down after this, since we had an ADR at the Yachtsman Steakhouse that night. Even after everything else we ate on this trip, our meal at the Yachtsman really stands out. We were seated immediately and the table spacing was perfect. Still can't figure out the decor, as there were pictures of horses on the walls! The waitress said it was based on original hotel the Yacht Club was designed from. I wish I had taken pictures of this meal, everything was plated so pretty & tasted even better than it looked! We started with the Tuna Tartar which had an olive tapenade on top & a bread type cracker. This was the BEST Tuna I've ever tasted! Luckily we shared this appetizer because it was huge! I ordered the New York Strip with peppercorn brandy sauce & potato gratin. My DH ordered the Rib Eye with red wine butter & horseradish mashed potatoes. Our steaks were huge & absolutely perfectly cooked! We both agreed they were the best steaks we've ever had! Ruth's Chris / Smith & Wollensky could learn from these guys at the Yachtsman!!! The potatoes were also really good, I liked DH"S mashed potatoes better & he liked my potota gratin the most. We also had a bottle of Penfolds Bin 138 Grenache, Shiraz, Mouvedre Blend & the sauteed mushrooms, both were great. Lucky for us, we had a fridge in our room because we could not eat all of the steaks! We were also allowed to take the bottle of wine with us. We shouldn't have but we ordered the Chocolate Lava cake with White Chocolate Gelato but we did and it was really yummy! The waitress we had was great, always there when you needed her, but didn't hover! We will definitely go back on our next trip.
On Friday, even though we were still stuffed from the night before we were back at the Food Booths. We headed in the opposite direction & started with France. The goat cheese filled pastry was delicious. The Pomegranate Kir (champagne & pomegranate juice) was good, but not that special. At Turkey's booth we tried the Grape Leaves stuffed with rice. They were really good and different than any we've had at other Mediterranean restaurants. I don't really remember exactly where & what order we did everything, so I'll just some up the most memorable things we tried.
I think the two best dishes we had were both from Argentina. The Beef Empanadas ( a stuffed spicy meat pie) & the Grilled Beef Sirloin with Chimichurri Sauce were both really, really good! Be forewarned the Grilled Beef was medium rare which we like but many people might not. Chimichurri sauce is sort of an herb vinaigrette, it was really different and delicious. The Bodegas Malbec wine there was also really good, At the South Africa booth we had the Bobotie with Mango Chutney which was sort of a corn meal & meat casserole was very good. The Durban Spiced Chicken there was very similar to Jamaican Jerk Chicken. The Indaba Shiraz was really excellent. Australia had really good a Grilled Lamb Chop & the stand-out wine we tried at the booths was their Wolf Blass Cabernet. China's Pork Pot Sticker was better than expected and the Caramel Ginger Ice Cream was surprisingly different & good. In Spain we had the Albondigas which was like a meatball in a tomato sauce & the Papas Con Chorizo- potatoes & chorizo sausage both were very good. India's Vegetable Curry was great & my DH loved the Coconut Rice Pudding. The Hops & Barley Market stand had an unusual spin on Crab Cakes by putting a cold barley salad on top of the crab cakes. It was very good. The only beer we tried on this trip was the Sam Adams Cream Stout, my DH loves stout. I was surprised that I liked it also, it was very mellow & sort of sweet. The USA stand had a Lobster Roll, which was a finely chopped lobster salad in a roll. Good but not what I expected.
On Saturday, we headed to MGM to catch the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show that we had not seen before. We arrived around noon and found that the Stunt Show wouldn't start until 2:00 so of course we decided to have a "light" lunch! Since we've never tried the Brown Derby before we decided to see if we could get in & still make it to the Stunt Show. We were told the wait would be about 30 minutes. We were seated right about 30 minutes later and our waitress was at our table almost immediately. She asked right off if we had a limited amount of time for dining! Since we'd been eating so much we each ordered an appetizer and shared an entree. DH ordered the Coconut Shrimp on Frisee salad with a citrus dipping sauce. It was great! I ordered the Mushroom Goat Cheese Tortelloni in tomato, balsamic vinegar sauce it was good, but not as good as DH's Shrimp! For the entree we ordered the Pan Seared Grouper. The waitress had the entree split for us before bringing it to the table, we didn't think to request this, she did, how nice! The fish was great, crispy on the outside, moist inside and tasted really fresh not fishy at all! It was served over roasted asparagus with a lemon butter sauce & a roasted onion marmalade on top. One of the best fish dishes I've had anywhere, the different flavors really worked! ( We're from New Orleans where it's easy to get really fresh fish so this was a really pleasant surprise! ) I had a glass of Fess Parker chardonnay that was really nice, DH had iced tea. We really enjoyed this meal, our waitress was great, we felt like we had a leisurely lunch and we were out with plenty of time to stroll and catch the Stunt Show. We were also impressed with the Stunt Show. Of course, I also took time to ride R&R Coaster, (DH is in WC & couldn't ride without family along to assist) I can't believe I did this alone, but I do love this ride!
We attended the Party for the Senses on Saturday Night. We had some really excellent foods, too many to even try to talk about! And lots & lots of wine! What really made this memorable was that one of the guest Chef's wife, daughter & friends joined us at our table ( Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel ). So we were treated to extra servings of his delicious Sauteed Duck Breast! Toward the end of the evening he also joined us at the table and Pierre Sparr (Pierre Sparr Winery) also brought over a bottle of wine and chatted a bit! What a treat that was, really nice people and interesting conversation!!! The only drawback was the cost and I found it difficult to find a certain food or wines mentioned in the brochure. It was great that there were 25 Food Tables some with more than one dish! & there were 23 different Wineries with three/four different wines at each table! But it was a really large room with alot of people moving about & Cirque du Soleil performing, so just a bit confusing. Also, my DH is in a wheelchair, so he couldn't hold plates & drive, so I ended up doing a lot of running back & forth between our table & getting food / drinks. I didn't like the way they let everyone rush in at one time causing you to make a mad dash for a table with chairs. (Not all of the tables had chairs & you didn't know if there were enough tables) I'm still glad we did it, but I don't think we'll go next time. For most people I think this is a worthwhile event even though it's so expensive. Most people were able to stroll the Food/Wine tables and chat with the chefs/sommeliers which would have made this more of a learning experience and more enjoyable.
I think the best event we attended was the Food & Wine Pairing at Alfredo's. The brochure said we would be served three wines & three tasting size portions. Well, the portions were definitely not tasting size, they were huge! The first course was sliced duck breast served on a frisee salad with a raspberry vinaigrette . It was paired with a delicious dry Rose', Centine Rose. Absolutely delicious! The second course was a Veal Scaloppini with Prosciutto & Mozzarella Cheese with a demiglaze/white wine sauce. This was paired with Centine Rosso wine, great combo. We thought it couldn't get any better, then they brought out the dessert! It was beautiful! A Chocolate Mascarpone Semifreddo (Icecream) in a Orange Caramel Sauce with a large sail shaped Gianduia Chocolate on top! This was paired with Banfi Rose Regale, a slightly sweet sparkling rose that goes wonderfully with chocolate! While we were dining the Manager of Alfredo's & a sommelier from Banfi Winery were talking about the food & the wine pairings. The room was small maybe 40 people total in a back room at the restaurant, so that was nice. We were able to ask questions & have discussion with the speakers. This was a really worthwhile treat! Especially at the cost of $40.00 a person! We can't wait for next year!
We also attended three FREE Wine Seminars. These were really fun & informative. You do have to line up early (about a half hour) because there is limited seating but it's worth it. They bring you in to the hall in Festival Center and seat you at long white clothed tables. There are usually four glasses of wine with a tasting amount (about a third of the glass full) in a real wine glass (not plastic). Pierre Sparr of Pierre Sparr Wines was the most entertaining and informative, but the guest speakers change throughout the Festival. Each one we attended was really worth our time, be sure to try these if your going to the Food & Wine Festival! Bon Appetit!
We slowed down after this, since we had an ADR at the Yachtsman Steakhouse that night. Even after everything else we ate on this trip, our meal at the Yachtsman really stands out. We were seated immediately and the table spacing was perfect. Still can't figure out the decor, as there were pictures of horses on the walls! The waitress said it was based on original hotel the Yacht Club was designed from. I wish I had taken pictures of this meal, everything was plated so pretty & tasted even better than it looked! We started with the Tuna Tartar which had an olive tapenade on top & a bread type cracker. This was the BEST Tuna I've ever tasted! Luckily we shared this appetizer because it was huge! I ordered the New York Strip with peppercorn brandy sauce & potato gratin. My DH ordered the Rib Eye with red wine butter & horseradish mashed potatoes. Our steaks were huge & absolutely perfectly cooked! We both agreed they were the best steaks we've ever had! Ruth's Chris / Smith & Wollensky could learn from these guys at the Yachtsman!!! The potatoes were also really good, I liked DH"S mashed potatoes better & he liked my potota gratin the most. We also had a bottle of Penfolds Bin 138 Grenache, Shiraz, Mouvedre Blend & the sauteed mushrooms, both were great. Lucky for us, we had a fridge in our room because we could not eat all of the steaks! We were also allowed to take the bottle of wine with us. We shouldn't have but we ordered the Chocolate Lava cake with White Chocolate Gelato but we did and it was really yummy! The waitress we had was great, always there when you needed her, but didn't hover! We will definitely go back on our next trip.
On Friday, even though we were still stuffed from the night before we were back at the Food Booths. We headed in the opposite direction & started with France. The goat cheese filled pastry was delicious. The Pomegranate Kir (champagne & pomegranate juice) was good, but not that special. At Turkey's booth we tried the Grape Leaves stuffed with rice. They were really good and different than any we've had at other Mediterranean restaurants. I don't really remember exactly where & what order we did everything, so I'll just some up the most memorable things we tried.
I think the two best dishes we had were both from Argentina. The Beef Empanadas ( a stuffed spicy meat pie) & the Grilled Beef Sirloin with Chimichurri Sauce were both really, really good! Be forewarned the Grilled Beef was medium rare which we like but many people might not. Chimichurri sauce is sort of an herb vinaigrette, it was really different and delicious. The Bodegas Malbec wine there was also really good, At the South Africa booth we had the Bobotie with Mango Chutney which was sort of a corn meal & meat casserole was very good. The Durban Spiced Chicken there was very similar to Jamaican Jerk Chicken. The Indaba Shiraz was really excellent. Australia had really good a Grilled Lamb Chop & the stand-out wine we tried at the booths was their Wolf Blass Cabernet. China's Pork Pot Sticker was better than expected and the Caramel Ginger Ice Cream was surprisingly different & good. In Spain we had the Albondigas which was like a meatball in a tomato sauce & the Papas Con Chorizo- potatoes & chorizo sausage both were very good. India's Vegetable Curry was great & my DH loved the Coconut Rice Pudding. The Hops & Barley Market stand had an unusual spin on Crab Cakes by putting a cold barley salad on top of the crab cakes. It was very good. The only beer we tried on this trip was the Sam Adams Cream Stout, my DH loves stout. I was surprised that I liked it also, it was very mellow & sort of sweet. The USA stand had a Lobster Roll, which was a finely chopped lobster salad in a roll. Good but not what I expected.
On Saturday, we headed to MGM to catch the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show that we had not seen before. We arrived around noon and found that the Stunt Show wouldn't start until 2:00 so of course we decided to have a "light" lunch! Since we've never tried the Brown Derby before we decided to see if we could get in & still make it to the Stunt Show. We were told the wait would be about 30 minutes. We were seated right about 30 minutes later and our waitress was at our table almost immediately. She asked right off if we had a limited amount of time for dining! Since we'd been eating so much we each ordered an appetizer and shared an entree. DH ordered the Coconut Shrimp on Frisee salad with a citrus dipping sauce. It was great! I ordered the Mushroom Goat Cheese Tortelloni in tomato, balsamic vinegar sauce it was good, but not as good as DH's Shrimp! For the entree we ordered the Pan Seared Grouper. The waitress had the entree split for us before bringing it to the table, we didn't think to request this, she did, how nice! The fish was great, crispy on the outside, moist inside and tasted really fresh not fishy at all! It was served over roasted asparagus with a lemon butter sauce & a roasted onion marmalade on top. One of the best fish dishes I've had anywhere, the different flavors really worked! ( We're from New Orleans where it's easy to get really fresh fish so this was a really pleasant surprise! ) I had a glass of Fess Parker chardonnay that was really nice, DH had iced tea. We really enjoyed this meal, our waitress was great, we felt like we had a leisurely lunch and we were out with plenty of time to stroll and catch the Stunt Show. We were also impressed with the Stunt Show. Of course, I also took time to ride R&R Coaster, (DH is in WC & couldn't ride without family along to assist) I can't believe I did this alone, but I do love this ride!
We attended the Party for the Senses on Saturday Night. We had some really excellent foods, too many to even try to talk about! And lots & lots of wine! What really made this memorable was that one of the guest Chef's wife, daughter & friends joined us at our table ( Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel ). So we were treated to extra servings of his delicious Sauteed Duck Breast! Toward the end of the evening he also joined us at the table and Pierre Sparr (Pierre Sparr Winery) also brought over a bottle of wine and chatted a bit! What a treat that was, really nice people and interesting conversation!!! The only drawback was the cost and I found it difficult to find a certain food or wines mentioned in the brochure. It was great that there were 25 Food Tables some with more than one dish! & there were 23 different Wineries with three/four different wines at each table! But it was a really large room with alot of people moving about & Cirque du Soleil performing, so just a bit confusing. Also, my DH is in a wheelchair, so he couldn't hold plates & drive, so I ended up doing a lot of running back & forth between our table & getting food / drinks. I didn't like the way they let everyone rush in at one time causing you to make a mad dash for a table with chairs. (Not all of the tables had chairs & you didn't know if there were enough tables) I'm still glad we did it, but I don't think we'll go next time. For most people I think this is a worthwhile event even though it's so expensive. Most people were able to stroll the Food/Wine tables and chat with the chefs/sommeliers which would have made this more of a learning experience and more enjoyable.
I think the best event we attended was the Food & Wine Pairing at Alfredo's. The brochure said we would be served three wines & three tasting size portions. Well, the portions were definitely not tasting size, they were huge! The first course was sliced duck breast served on a frisee salad with a raspberry vinaigrette . It was paired with a delicious dry Rose', Centine Rose. Absolutely delicious! The second course was a Veal Scaloppini with Prosciutto & Mozzarella Cheese with a demiglaze/white wine sauce. This was paired with Centine Rosso wine, great combo. We thought it couldn't get any better, then they brought out the dessert! It was beautiful! A Chocolate Mascarpone Semifreddo (Icecream) in a Orange Caramel Sauce with a large sail shaped Gianduia Chocolate on top! This was paired with Banfi Rose Regale, a slightly sweet sparkling rose that goes wonderfully with chocolate! While we were dining the Manager of Alfredo's & a sommelier from Banfi Winery were talking about the food & the wine pairings. The room was small maybe 40 people total in a back room at the restaurant, so that was nice. We were able to ask questions & have discussion with the speakers. This was a really worthwhile treat! Especially at the cost of $40.00 a person! We can't wait for next year!
We also attended three FREE Wine Seminars. These were really fun & informative. You do have to line up early (about a half hour) because there is limited seating but it's worth it. They bring you in to the hall in Festival Center and seat you at long white clothed tables. There are usually four glasses of wine with a tasting amount (about a third of the glass full) in a real wine glass (not plastic). Pierre Sparr of Pierre Sparr Wines was the most entertaining and informative, but the guest speakers change throughout the Festival. Each one we attended was really worth our time, be sure to try these if your going to the Food & Wine Festival! Bon Appetit!
