Tastings at Epcot Food & Wine Festival 2009

Visit #1

We made our first trip over to the F&W tonight. Our hope was to scope out the booths, figure out what looked tasty to us, and perhaps more importantly, what looked like it was getting a decent amount of prep & cooking on site.

We aren’t big evening eaters (as you’ll see in coming weeks), when dining out we tend to share/split appetizers and entrees. We may each get our own salads and skip appetizers completely. We rarely order dessert – I’ve been told that my sweets and cookies are worth the wait and worth the calories – we’re more often disappointed than thrilled with dessert and usually end up kicking ourselves for wasting the calories.

Thus, tonight we tried three items from two booths (I’m not counting beer of course :)).

First up: Shanghai, China – Chicken Ürümqi – I’d describe this as grilled dark meat chicken in a very mild sauce, no hint of garlic or ginger or chilis that my palate could detect. We’d give this an “eh” – not bad, not good, wouldn’t get it again. I really should have put some sriracha hot chili sauce* on it.

Second booth: Cork, Ireland – Kerrygold Cheese Selection, Lobster & Scallop Fisherman’s Pie, and Guiness – we had tried the Kerrygold Cheese Selection last year and really liked it (details: Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Ivernia Cheese with Apple Chutney and Brown Bread), it was on our list to get again. Thus, this cheese plate gets a “repeater” – good overall, the apple chutney is really good (I daydreamed about making it myself for the last year), the cheese is excellent, and the brown bread was just okay. I understand that irish brown bread is supposed to have a dried texture and be more coarse, but this seemed DRY and stale. On to the big winner!! Lobster & Scallop Fisherman’s Pie!!! I had been seeing great things about this on the ‘net, plus it was being finished in an oven right in the booth; so we had to give it a try. It was delicious! Disney should put this on Rose & Crown’s menu immediately. The scallops and the lobster pieces were NOT overcooked, the sauce was seasoned just right, and even the mashed potato was good. Nick loved it too, even though he’s not as much of a scallop eater as I am (I love them) nor does he typically like lobster. Oh, the Guiness, it was fabulous as usual.

So, in summary, we hope to go back to the Cork, Ireland booth before F&W ends. AND we really hope that the great Lobster & Scallop Fisherman’s Pie doesn’t disappear into the F&W mist. Are you listening Disney World? Put this on the menu at Rose & Crown – PLEASE.

Nora

* sriracha hot chili sauce – love love love this stuff, I eat it straight up on brown rice, I put it into the dressing for our “asian” salad, I put it into bouillon when I have a cold