We’re back with another 2012 Epcot Food and Wine Festival booth review today with pictures from two more Marketplace hot spots: Australia and China!
Looking for your other favorites? Check out our Epcot Food and Wine Festival Booth Pages.
To see detailed information, menus, photos, and prices, just click on any booth or country name, and you’ll see our all-new photos from the booth!
China
The China Marketplace Booth has been known for large portion sizes and fun cocktails at the Festival since 1996. It’s a very popular booth this year!
China Marketplace Booth
This year’s menu got a relatively big renovation, although a few of the items remained (or were tweaked and renamed.)
2012 China Marketplace Booth Menu -- Click to Enlarge
First up — making its debut in 2012 is the Mongolian Beef with Chinese Steamed Bun. The stir-fried beef had excellent flavor from the traditional vegetables, and I really loved the creamy sauce.
Mongolian Beef with Chinese Steamed Bun
Pork Pot Stickers were an item that stuck around from the past few years. I imagine there would be a revolt if you tried to have a China booth with no pot stickers!
Pork Pot Stickers
To be honest, these are not the best pot stickers I’ve ever had, but the portion size is good, and the sweet dipping sauce was a nice addition.
Pork Pot Stickers -- Inside
Last year’s Xinjiang Barbecue Chicken Stick has been replaced by Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce and Pickled Vegetables. In this pic, it doesn’t look like the satay comes on a stick, but I found out the hard way that…it does. Ouch!
The flavor here is good, and the pickled vegetables offer a nice taste and texture contrast.
Chicken Satay with Spicy Peanut Sauce and Pickled Vegetables
The Mango Tapioca Pudding is new this year — and very pretty! I’m a big tapioca pudding fan (my parents used to get it for us and call it “fish eyes in glue,” and what kid wouldn’t love that?!), so I was excited to see this on the menu. It was an enjoyable dish, as well — mix up the mango flavor into the tapioca!
Mango Tapioca Pudding
There are ALWAYS fun drink choices in China as well. New this year (and replacing my favorite Green Tea Plum Wine Cooler!) is Sunny Guava with Coconut Rum. This was fantastic.
Sunny Guava with Coconut Rum
And the Happy Lychee always makes for a happy AJ. 😉 They dialed back the alcohol a bit last year, and they seemed to have followed suit in 2012. But you never know what you’re going to get.
Happy Lychee
And you can’t leave the China Booth without a refreshing Tsingtao Beer!
Tsingtao Beer
Australia
The Australia Marketplace Booth has been delighting Festival guests with tastes from Down Under ever since it debuted in 1997.
Australia Marketplace Booth
The Menu for 2012 is very similar to last year’s offerings, with fan favorites like shrimp and lamb chops back for another go ’round. There’s one big difference: chefs have taken a completely different approach with the lamb chop. More about that in a sec.
2012 Australia Marketplace Booth Menu -- Click to Enlarge
The Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies is just gorgeous, isn’t it?
Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies
Gone are the goat cheese salad and Shiraz reduction from last year’s menu, but the pesto and potato crunchies make for interesting flavors and textures.
My lamb chop was cooked expertly, and the pesto and potato crunchies (which are really just crushed up salt and vinegar potato chips it seems to me!) were awesome!
Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies - Cross Section
I was thrilled to see the Shrimp on the Barbie with Pepper Berry Citrus Glaze back in 2012! This dish was one of my surprise favorites last year because of the delightfully spicy sauce. The shrimp are cooked to perfection as well.
Shrimp on the Barbie with Pepper Berry Citrus Glaze
And with what is quite possibly one of the best cakes ever, the Lamington scores big as the featured dessert.
Lamington
These little dessert cakes are enjoying quite the renaissance in pastry circles. Moist sponge cake is covered with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with coconut to make this delightful bite. There’s a pretty good chance that you won’t want to share!
Lamington - Inside
Overall, two thumbs up to Australia and China for some delicious new dishes.
What are YOU lovin’ so far at this year’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival? Leave us a comment below and let us know!
And be sure to pop over to our Epcot Food and Wine Festival Menus for more pictures of all your favorite dishes.
Also, if you’re headed to the Festival, check out our DFB Mini-Guide to the 2012 Epcot Food and Wine Festival e-Book for a full schedule of events, touring strategies, tips and tricks, and a full section on the World Showcase booths this year. Be sure to check out our mid-point sale for great deals on our e-book bundles just in time for your trip!
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I’m so sad to see the Green Tea Plum Wine cooler is no longer around! My favorite Disney drink of all time.
Wendy — It was one of my favorites, too! I sympathize!! You may be able to get them to whip it up for you at Joy of Tea, though! They have something similar on the menu.
Wow, thanks for posting about this! I didn’t know about the festival and am really bummed that I can’t go. Now that I know they have a food & wine festival, I’ll definitely have to swing by next year! Is it usually the same time of year?
I loved the barbecue that the China booth had last year (I honestly can’t remember what it was called at the moment), and wished they had kept it! The chicken satay with peanut sauce had me super excited, but I think my expectations were a little too high. It was good, but there’s a Thai place by me that does it much better. My husband always gets the pot stickers there, so he was happy they were still on the menu.
We also enjoyed the lamb from Australia, but we ended up scraping some of the mint sauce off of it. It was good with, but it overpowered the meat a bit. We liked it much better once we could actually taste the lamb! 🙂
Jennifer L. — Yes, it’s about the same time every year, beginning on the last Friday of September. 🙂
Dana — Thanks for your feedback and reviews!! What were your other favorites from the festival?
Oh, the lamb looks so good. I’m also partial to any Chinese food, so this post is doubly tempting. In the dozens of times we’ve been to WDW we have never been able to get away during during the Festival time period, but due to some changes,next year will be a definite trip for us. Can’t wait.
I have yet to make it to the festival but as I was reading this I just happen to be enjoying a glass of the rosemount estate traminer Riesling from Australia. I highly recommend it. Although at 3.00 a glass that’s quite the mark up. It was around 10.00 Canadian / bottle.
I love tapioca! Hope they bring it back next year. 🙂 And is it me (and my poor observation), or are the booths fancier/better themed this year?
Hey AJ! We meet at Snack Attack and I have to tell you how great of a time we had. As far as my favorite at the festival it was by far the Mongolian Beef with Chinese Steamed Bun. I actually gave up being vegetarian for a day just for this guy. I had to go back for a second one in the evening even though I was already so full. Keep up the great work.
I just returned from WDW (why do these trips go by so fast?) and we had the Shrimp on the Barbie at Australia, one of many things we tried. I’m not a big seafood fan but I enjoyed these. The sauce had nice spice to it.
We also got the potstickers from China. We had these at the Festival 2 years ago and enjoyed them as well. I agree – not the best I’ve had – but I’ve also had worse.