Epcot Part 2: Food and Wine Festival 2010

For the past 15 years, Epcot has put on the Food and Wine Festival. I have only been one other year, but was excited to be able to head their for free this year to check out all that their was to offer. Since it's November and the last week of the event, it was the perfect day. There was not a cloud in the sky, it was cool and not crowded at all. We didn't have to stand in any lines and we got to try a lot of different things. We started the day off a little after 9 and hit Soarin' and Spaceship Earth before the rest of the park opened. I also got to check out the Christmas items in the stores, and meet Duffy!

Duffy is a huge character in Japan that they just introduced to the states last month. He is said to be Mickey's Teddy Bear, that Minnie made for him for when he goes away. They always come out with new outfits for Duffy and I even saw a few people walking around the parks with stuffed animals of him. I was happy to get a picture with him as he is super cute!

We started at Canada and made our way 1.5 times around, ending at America's stage for the Hanson concert (!!! See Epcot: Part 1). Canada was probably in the top 2 food stand of the day. We got the Cheddar Cheese Soup which I thought was amazing, and Chipotle Sausage with 2 Corn Polenta. The sausage had a little kick to it that was balanced out by the polenta and was the perfect start to the tour.

Next we went to Ireland and had a Lobster/Scallop Pie which was really good as well. There were big chunks of seafood and it was a very decent size compared to some of the other offerings. I'm just not sure how it was Irish really.......oh well! Belgium was next and while I was tempted to get a waffle, I passed and sipped a white wine, Lady of Spain, that I got quick at the Spain booth and Adam got a flight of beer. The Leffe Pale Ale was my favorite, it was a very mild beer and an extremely light color. We did end up going back and getting a waffle that was simply amazing, it was light and when mixed with the whipped cream it was heavenly!

Now that Adam likes sushi just as much as I do, we went to Japan and got a Spicy Tuna roll and a California Roll. The tuna wasn't really spicy, and neither was the wasabi, but the rolls were both pretty good, and it was a good deal for what you got. We rounded out that 'meal' with a Sam Adams beer flights at America. We sat in the stage area for the concert and contemplated how we were going to get the best possible seats while sipping our beer. I am not a huge Sam Adams fan, so I stuck to the Oktoberfest. We got wine in Italy and more beer flights in Germany, where they had a cute grassy area with tables that we stood at.

We also got sausage on a pretzel roll in Germany, which was another one of my favorite things. I LOVE pretzel rolls, and the sausage had a good flavor to it that wasn't as harsh as some brauts. I think the size may have helped with that too.

I really wanted to try South Africa's food, as I have never eaten  African cuisine, but it always intrigued me. They had beef on top of a sweet potato puree with a mange barbecue sauce. I enjoyed the beef and the sauce, but the sweet potato had definitely been sweetened with some spices, which made it less enjoyable. I would have preferred it with some salt and pepper, to take away from the sweetness that was already presented in the mango sauce.

The pork postickers at China were good, but nothing exceptional in terms of potstickers. Poland had Kielbasa and potato pierogies which were very good. I have started to like pierogies more and more over the years, and since I'm polish I'd say that's a good thing! I really did enjoy these, and when I told Adam that I have my grandmothers pierogie dough recipe he agreed that we should definitely be making our own at home, so there's a new project for a weekend meal! Next up was Mexico and I really didn't find anything jumping out at me, so we got a couple of margaritas, which is something that you really just can't go wrong with! We stopped and had some more beer and fondue. The fondue was a complete disappointment and had no flavor at all, it didn't even taste like cheese. I had high hopes that weren't met at all, but the cheese soup had set the standards pretty high early on.

We sipped some more beer while waiting in line for Hanson and then said our goodbye to the world for this year. But don't worry, we will be back next Fall!