2013 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival – Hawaii Marketplace – Pork Slider & Tuna Poke

Well, it’s the last night of the Food & Wine Festival and there are a few things that we really wanted to try that we haven’t gotten around to yet… Let’s start with the Pork Slider (nick) and the Tuna Poke (me).

Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole® Pineapple Chutney & Spicy Mayonnaise

Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole® Pineapple Chutney & Spicy Mayonnaise

Nick thought this tasted sweeter than last year (we don’t remember the chutney being so sweet, I think it was more spicy and tangy last year). This was okay, but he wouldn’t jump up and down to get it again (in other words, it may not make it to the “must have” list if it reappears next year… and that’s saying a lot because Nick likes pork… just not pork with sweet stuff on it).

close-up

close-up

It’s easier to see the pineapple chutney in the photo that it was in the dark on the walkway – I’m not sure that either of us recognized it as such until we got home and saw the photos. The bun was nice and soft so that was good, as I said, it wasn’t a FAIL, it just wasn’t OMG Wonderful either.

featured pairing - Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad & Lotus Root Chip paired with Lucien Albrecht  Gerwurztraminer Reserve

featured pairing – Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad & Lotus Root Chip paired with Lucien Albrecht
Gerwurztraminer Reserve

I had a plastic glass (oxymoron) of the Gerwurztraminer earlier in the Festival and thought it good enough to have again. It was sweet to be sure, but a light sort of sweetness, not a syrupy sort of sweetness. There were four cubes of tuna (good quality tuna though), a large portion of seaweed salad, and a lotus root chip (which was actually crispy).

tuna poke - originally this was on my "maybe" list

tuna poke – originally this was on my “maybe” list

The tuna was better once I figured out to shove it down into the sauce on the seaweed salad. I love seaweed salad, especially when there are a lot of sesame seeds in it. So, I enjoyed this dish – but it was more about the seaweed salad than about the tuna. The seaweed salad paired nicely with the wine, the tuna while lovely to look at was a bit too mild to have many flavor components going on.

The next two items on our list for the last evening were

  • Seared Rainbow Trout with Bacon, Frisee & Maple Minus 8 Vinaigrette (nick) – it was SOLD OUT
  • Kerrygold® Cheese Selection: Reserve Cheddar, Dubliner with Irish Stout, and Skellig – it was also SOLD OUT (how in the devil do you sell out of Kerrygold® cheese? you can buy it at the grocery store)

As we walked around the World Showcase a few items were sold out here and there. The most surprising thing was that Greece WASN’T SOLD OUT of the griddled cheese; last year they ran out repeatedly.

 

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