Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2011

Nothing like an impromptu trip to Epcot to liven up the week. Random, but awesome.

The lovely Brittany (from Eating Bird Food) just happened to be in the Disney area for a conference and asked if I would join her for dinner this evening. I immediately said yes and suggested we check out the Epcot Food and Wine Festival for eats. Brittany had a free pass through her conference and I have an annual pass, so it worked out perfectly.

We each loaded $20 on a shared festival passport and tried to fit in as many booths as we could in our short 2 hour time span before the park closed.

We started in Belgium with last year’s favorite – Belgium Waffle with Berry Compote and Whipped Cream.

Just as rich and delicious as I remembered.

Next we headed to New Zealand for the Seared Sea Scallops with Kumara-Red Curry Puree and Apple Radish Salad.

The kumara-red curry puree was interesting. I assumed it was sweet potato at first and thrown off on first bite. Not my favorite dish, but it wasn’t bad either.

In Singapore we tried the Shrimp Cake with Singapore Noodles.

The noodles were cold, not something we were expecting, but the shrimp cake was flavorful.

I got a little excited for the Bunny Chow in South Africa.

How can you go wrong with curried veggies in a bread basket?!

Hawaii is one of the latest additions to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. I had read ahead of time that the Tuna Poke was a new favorite among regulars.

Hands down, my favorite dish of the evening. The salty seaweed salad on the bottom was even better than the tuna. Yum.

Last, but not least, we dined on a Greek Salad at the Greece booth.

It really didn’t take Brittany and I long to make our way around all the booths. However, I was a little sad to see a few of my favorites missing from years past (where was the strawberry shortcake?!) and they were seriously lacking in the veg friendly department (last year Kelly and I stuffed ourselves silly on vegetarian dishes, but this year there wasn’t much).

I was also surprised to see such a large crowd out and about on a Thursday evening in November. I wonder if Veteran’s Day tomorrow had anything to do with it?!

When we completed the circle Brittany and I still had a good chunk of change left on our passport, so we grabbed dessert from my Dad’s favorite bakery in France.

We split the Strawberry Tart and Chocolate Mousse and called it a night.

It was fun to catch up with Brittany. Before I resigned from my old job in January, we had twin jobs in the same industry. Hearing her stories from the week reminded me how much I do not miss working tradeshows. Nope, I do not miss it at all.

I’m beat. Time for bed. Good Night!