Hawaii – Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2014

This Epcot Food & Wine Experience took place on October 22, 2014

After our culinary demonstration with Walter (more on that later this week!), we had a stroll around World Showcase and stopped for a few tastes here and there. Our first stop was at the Hawaii Marketplace for Kalua Pork Sliders (the guys) and a Tuna Poke (me).

Kermit with Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad and Lotus Root Chip

This is pretty simple, the only way to truly screw it up would be to use crappy tuna. Although this tuna isn’t deep red in color or as “beefy” as some, it had a good texture and flavor. I’m a huge fan of seaweed salad, this was a little sweeter than I typically prefer.

All in all, this is a solid choice at Food & Wine if you like sushi or sashimi. It’s a refreshing choice on a hot Florida evening!

close-up – tuna poke sprinkled with sesame seeds

Nick and Walter both had a pork slider (you know that Nick and I shared ours). We recently introduced Walter to the joys of eastern NC pulled pork and he was interested to see how this compared.

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

Nick also ordered a Kona Big Wave Golden Ale, it was the featured pairing. The beer pairing worked fine and the beer itself was pretty good – not so great that we’re going to run out and get some to keep in the refrigerator at home, but we’d order it again in the future if it was offered.

the portion of pork was good sized

The pork wasn’t dry (yay!) and was quite flavorful (yay again!). Walter really liked his slider, but he said that he thinks Nick’s Uncle’s pork is still the best.

it was a little difficult to appreciate the sweet and sour pineapple chutney under the mayo

So far, the food has always been pretty good at the Hawaii Marketplace. The food is consistent, week after week, year after year – that’s a very good thing to appreciate during Epcot Food & Wine Festival!

I can’t say for certain that we’ll have these two choices again before the Festival ends, but it’s pretty certain that we’ll check out whatever Hawaii has to offer next year.