Saturday, October 10, 2015

Dressing for Disney: Epcotiversary in America (and a bit of Food & Wine Festival)

Welcome to the third installment  of Epcotiversary. Not sure what that is? Click here to read more and catch up on months past.

Speaking of months past, for those of you keeping score, John and I married in May, making this our fourth monthly Epcotiversary. But there's only two previous posts, you say? 

We celebrate our Epcotiversary on the 16th of every month. June was celebrated in Morocco. July in Mexico. August in... well, I was in California for the D23 Expo. So we skipped that month but plan to double up in the future. In fact, we planned to double up for this month, but we decided to add in some Food & Wine booths to our monthly country and figured trying to cram in two countries AND Food & Wine booths would be a bit much. So, long story short, three installments of 'Epcotiversary,' four months of marriage. Ya still with me? Ok...


When John picked 'America' out of the mug, I was a bit bummed. I mean, America is probably the least inspired in regards to food stuffs in the World Showcase. Turkey legs, burgers, a quick service steak, and funnel cakes pretty much sum up the offerings. But, the whole point of Epcotiversary is to hit every country, so carry on we must. (It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.) What did we do/eat/drink? Read on to find out. 


We parked in the front entrance of Epcot in order to hit up a few of the booths new to Food & Wine this year. (All of which I've been involved with through my new position at Buena Vista Construction Company!)  Our first stop was the Chew Lab booth, which is situated in the area where the Butterfly Garden usually resides during the Flower & Garden Festival.  Here we tried the N.Y. Strip and a glass of cabernet. The steak was cooked perfectly and all the components made it really yummy. I liked the wine, but John didn't care for it. It was served chilled, which turned him off.  Carrying on, we stopped at the Cheese Studio for some cheese fondu and sourdough bread dipper. Do I even have to tell you that this was delicious? It was. 




We had made it all the way back to Japan when the skies opened up and one of those notorious Florida rain showers kicked up. We took shelter under the pagoda next to the entrance to Mitsukoshi for what we thought would be a passing shower. Thirty minutes later, it was still sprinkling, but the park was closing within the hour, so we decided to brave the elements and head on. 

We made it to America and decided to check this one off the list by sampling a food item from the Food & Wine booth in America. Cheating? Maybe. But hell, we made up the rules for Epcotiversary, and we say it's fine. We shared the pimento cheese slider. It was tasty, but not a great value for the price. ($5 or so, two to three bites). 


It was still sprinkling so we ate quickly and continued around the World Showcase lagoon. As we circled back into Future World, Spaceship Earth and the Fountain of Nations were illuminated against a stormy sky and lookin' mighty fine. 



We slid back by the Sustainable Chew booth (right next to the Chew Lab, where we began our journey) and split the zucchini ravioli (a *great* value for the money, at $4 and change it was HUGE and was plenty to split) and the vanilla panna cotta (a *terrible* value, smaller than a shot glass at $4+ and tasted like flavorless jello. Yuck!)



Last but certainly not least was the liquid nitrogen chocolate truffle from the Chew Lab. *This* was tasty and very unique. I'd get it again; it'd be perfect on one of our hot 'autumn' days here in central Florida. 


It wouldn't be an Epcotiversary if we didn't get a couples selfie (an 'us-ie'?); here's a soggy selfie for ya. 



Thanks for reading along! 

2 comments:

  1. So fun! I would love to have been able to do something like this when Steve and I got married! Great memories of your first year of marriage.

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