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| beware of the candy monster . . |
epcot food and wine festival
we took the day off today and spent the day together at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We left home around 10 and headed over. We headed straight for the world showcase part of Epcot and began with the Mexico side of the park. We took a few rides, the Mexican fiesta boat ride, the Viking boat ride, watched a few movies in Norway and France, shopped our way through each country interspersed with tapas sized bites from food stalls from countries from around the world.
Here is what we tried:
Mexico – Corn and Queso Empanada
China – Pork Potstickers
Italy – Veal Polpetini w/ Rosemary Breadstick
Morocco – Beef Kefta in Pita, Felafel in Pita
Ireland – Kerrygold Cheese Plate w/ Apple Chutney, Brown Bread and Irish Butter
Canada – Chicken Jalapeno Sausage w/ polenta and Cheddar Beer Soup
My overall impression is that most things had a bit of the Disney effect. Meaning, not spicy or with much seasoning but good for the masses to try out items they might otherwise pass by. The prices are a little high for tapas but we had expected that and it wasn’t just awful We weren’t super excited about anything we ate in particular, until we made it to Canada. Both items in Canada blew us away. The sausage was both moist and spciy with polenta underneath to counter the spice with carmelized onions and roasted red peppers. The Cheddar Beer soup – sharp white cheddar with a hit of spice lingering. We buzzed by the festival booth to run through the cookbook. Seeing the soup in there, we picked it up. I am sure it will emerge from our home kitchen soon. We had a few bottles of water in the backpack and didn’t try drinks or desserts this time. We rounded out our day by hitting the free tasting bar presented by Coke trying different pop shots for various countries and riding through the incredible Disney greenhouse in the land where they are researching ways to grow food with hydroponics and in different ways like vertically to support density or longevity. It was really fascinating. There is more than you could do in a day but we had a good one.
asian sweet potato salad
bought Tyler Florence’s new book, Family Meal, over the weekend and tonight I baked some pork chops with fruit & fire (apricot/jalapeno but not spicy) and panko and made Tyler’s recipe for asian sweet potato salad. It is boiled sweet potatoes with a carrot ginger dressing and greens and cucumbers dressed with only lemon, dates and crunchy wontons. A light fall dinner with tons of color and flavor.
florida fall
stone crab
we went to my parents new place in Sarasota over the weekend. They just moved to Florida from Colorado to get away from the snow and have a nice house on a cute little lake. My mom is busily cleaning up after the previous owner and has appliances being delivered this week so we ate out dinner and lunch.
Dinner was at Z’s favorite crave, El Toro Bravo which is a New Mexican hole in the wall where it is love at first bite and that’s no toro!
Lunch was both new and old tastes at Philippi Creek Village Oyster Bar. My mom, dad and I had fresh stone crab claws. The server told us that Stone Crabs are harvested by breaking off their claws and cooking them immediately on the boat while releasing the crabs back into the water. Wikipedia says they are a ‘delicacy’. The meat was served cold or hot and we chose cold with a lime aioli. The meat was sweet and firm and kind of a lot of work. We enjoyed it along with our Sunday lunch of crabcakes, mahi and grouper bites.
My Urban Pantry 