food IS a theme park
Just wanted to share these adorable 2010 Epcot Food & Wine Festival pins with you guys! First off, Chip and Dale are pretty exhausted after dousing Spaceship Earth in chocolate!
Chip and Dale Conquer a Chocolate Spaceship Earth
Mickey’s dish seems a little [Read more…]
About twice a month, our resident Chef BigFatPanda puts together his amazing step-by-step, photo-filled posts where he and Chef Mickey show you their adventures in the kitchen cooking up Disney goodies! Today, Chef Big Fat Panda’s DIY Disney Recipes column brings us a savory, original recipe from this year’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival! Take it away, Chef!
Hey everyone! I’ve got something very good in store for you this time.
In my home — in my neighborhood — my family is semi-famous when it comes to Meatballs. In fact, a popular restaurant located in The Villages, FL, recently adopted our meatball recipe and now serves “Mama Maria’s Meatballs”. Maria is my cousin and took full credit, but that’s a whole other story 🙂
Polpetini Ingredients
So, as this is The Disney Food Blog, I am not able to just say: here is my family’s recipe. We gotta stick to the whole Disney recipe thing. But guess what? The recipe used for the Epcot Food & Wine Festival Italy booth‘s Polpetini (meatballs) this year is almost identical to [Read more…]
I promised a second new columnist this week, and here she is! Heather Sievers (you can read her bio here!) — a Disney expert, business owner, wife, and mom of two boys who calls Disneyland her second home — will be popping in from time to time to share some great stories about Dining in Disneyland!
The boys in my household LOVE a good steak, so a few years ago we opted for Steakhouse 55 instead of Goofy’s Kitchen which are side by side in the Disneyland Hotel. Don’t get me wrong, Goofy’s Kitchen is a blast, but if you are looking for something more peaceful, elegant, and rich in décor, you must check out Steakhouse 55. And while most people think of Steakhouse 55 as a dinner spot, one of Disneyland’s best kept secrets is the brunch served there!
From the minute you walk through the lobby, you are taken back in time. The décor features lush purple velvet chairs, beautiful lighting and walls covered in large black and white photos of old Hollywood stars. It is a completely [Read more…]
According to the Disney Parks Blog, Disney’s California Food and Wine Festival will not be held in 2011 and 2012. This decision is due to the significant construction happening in Disney California Adventure over the next two years and the difficulty it presents for an event like the Food & Wine Festival.
This festival, which just celebrated its 5th year in 2010, was much loved by Disneyland devotees and Disney food fans the world over. And after five years of climbing the ranks of American food festivals, bringing some incredible celebrity names to the table, and delivering what I felt was a very special event that only a place like Disneyland could produce (i.e. it was hip), I’m sad to hear that it will be postponed (just postponed, right, Disneyland? I know you didn’t say for sure it was coming back, but it is, right? It is???).
2010 Food and Wine Festival Welcome Center
My feeling when I visited the festival in 2010 was that Disneyland had gained a lot of ground over the past five years and was poised to grow the Food and Wine Festival into an even bigger success. I’m very sorry to hear that the potential is now there to lose ground on the progress and traditions that they’ve made, but I also know that Disneyland clientele will welcome the festival back with open arms if and when it re-appears.
I know I’ll be there.
In the meantime, you can check out our coverage from Disney’s California Food and Wine Festival 2010 here.
For years, I’ve been hearing from various sources that the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin’s Il Mulino New York Trattoria is the best Italian food on Disney World property, hands down, and I finally got the chance to try the restaurant on my recent trip to Orlando!
For those who haven’t been there, the Swan and Dolphin is located right between Disney’s Boardwalk Resort and Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, and is within walking distance of Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park. Open only for dinner, the higher-end restaurant’s prices range between [Read more…]
UPDATE:Bradley Falls Kiosk has updated its menu
!
While walking through the Animal Kingdom in October I came across a couple of new (to me!) snack spots on the path between Asia and Africa!
With one snack spot serving corn dog nuggets and chicken nuggets (well call this “The Nugget Shack”) and the other — directly across the way — countering with a menu of shrimp and pork egg rolls and vegetable egg rolls (I’ve deemed this “The Roll Shack,”) it’s almost like a Food Wars set-up! Corn Dog Nuggets are legendary in WDW; egg rolls are the snack of the future. Which menu will you pick…?
Vote in our nuggets vs. rolls poll below and check out the new menus at the end of the post!
The Nugget Shack
The Roll Shack
Loading ...
Nugget Shack Menu
Roll Shack Menu
It’s time for more 2010 Epcot Food and Wine Festival booth food pictures! As always, if you want to see full coverage of each booth, check out our Epcot Food and Wine Festival Booth Pages! Click on any booth or country name for detailed information, menus, photos, and prices.
China
A perpetual favorite of mine, the China booth always offers generous portions of both food and alcohol. This year, a visit to the booth will easily get you enough food for a full meal!
The pork pot stickers are a fantastic appetizer for the barbecue chicken stick, which actually has a lot of flavor (sometimes it seems like flavor is hard to come by when it comes to chicken). The black pepper shrimp and noodles is a massive portion, and could easily be a snack for two. And while we weren’t sold on the ginger ice cream (a last minute addition to the menu!) — the flavor was a bit too strong for our palates — the portion is certainly large enough to split among the whole family.
After absolutely loving the Green Tea Plum Wine Cooler last year, we decided to try the Happy Lychee this year…and boy was it happy. The amount of vodka in this thing was atrocious! If your goal at the festival is to get tipsy as quickly as possible — head to the China booth first.
As always, service here was impeccable.
You can see more pictures, the full menu, and prices on our China Booth Page!
Pot Stickers
Ginger Ice Cream
Xinjiang Barbecue Chicken Stick
Black Pepper Shrimp with Sichuan Noodles
happy lychee
Green Tea Plum Wine Cooler
Ireland
The Ireland booth is another one with looooooooong lines and happy customers! The Fisherman’s Pie is usually the reason behind both! While the booth is selling other items (including a Kerrygold selection of cheeses and a chocolate lava cake), it’s the Fisherman’s Pie that brought ’em in last year, and it’s the Fisherman’s Pie that’s bringing ’em in this year! Hit this booth either very early or very late. Scratch that. Forget about late. Hit it early!
You can find the full menu, prices, and more pictures on our Ireland Booth Page.
Ireland Kerrygold Cheese Selection
Lava Cake, Fisherman's Pie, and Meade
New Zealand
There are two reasons why the line at the New Zealand booth might be long this year: 1. It’s right at the entrance to the World Showcase, so it’s the first booth a lot of hungry folks will hit; and 2. The lamb slider and the scallop dishes are getting top marks from a lot of hungry folks. 😉 Check out more photos, the full menu, and pricing on our New Zealand Booth Page.
Seared Sea Scallop with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon Oil
Lamb Slider
Let us know what YOU’RE loving at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival! Until then, feel free to check out more food pictures on our booth pages!
Fisherman’s Pie and Lava Cake photo, and Lamb Slider photo from Kelly Tressler via the Disney Food Blog Photo Extravaganza Group on flickr.
Scallop photo by Karen Westfall (who just had the most adorable little baby Westfall, ever).
There really is no cupcake like a red velvet cupcake. Rich, red velvet cake, smooth, tangy-sweet cheesecake…
And it’s like Christmas came early this year at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, because Starring Rolls Cafe has taken the perfection of the Red Velvet Cupcake and made it just a little bit better.
The Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake.
Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake
That’s right. They’ve added cheesecake to the mix, and it’s pretty outstanding. I first heard about this cupcake from Ryan at Main Street Gazette and I happened to be in Orlando at the time. You can bet I high-tailed it over to [Read more…]
Heather Sievers, the multi-talented inventor of Time Out Spots AND our Disneyland correspondent and food expert (we’ll be announcing her on Thursday as our Disneyland Columnist!!!), reports on Mickey’s Halloween Party in Disneyland!
My family has attended Mickey’s Halloween Trick or Treat Party (as it used to be called) since it first started at Disney’s California Adventure in 2005. A few years back it was changed to “Mickey’s Halloween Party,” and this year it was moved to Disneyland.
The event is limited to a certain number of guests and [Read more…]
Disney Halloween Decor...Featuring Caramel Apples
Happy Halloween! Don’t forget to check out some of the many spooky and fun treats found in Disney Parks:
Halloween Cupcakes in Disney Parks
Disneyland Halloween treats
Disney World Halloween Treats
Even MORE Halloween Treats in Disney Parks
And here are some of our favorite Disney food posts from around the web:
Watch Me Eat heads to WDW’s House of Blues for the Gospel Brunch!
Disney Parks Blog showcases an incredible Halloween Wedding Cake!
Main Street Gazette tempts us with a trip to Karamell Kuche!
Eating (and Drinking) Around the World makes Sweet Potato Puree with Mango BBQ sauce from the Epcot Food and Wine Festival.
Theme Park Mom comments on La Hacienda de San Angel’s decor!
Wine-Girl.net reviews the Disney World Downtown Disney Portobello Meatball Bar.
Scott Joseph Orlando Scott Joseph also takes us to La Hacienda de San Angel with his expert review.
Everything WDW reveals the 2011 date for the Wine and Dine run!
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
