Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Our little squirt has been with us for over 2 weeks, and we decided to venture out on our own for an afternoon. Hubs' mother lives in town, and has already asked to be the first-call for babysitting.

For our first post-baby date, we went to the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. This is one of our favorite theme park events. The festival lasts from the end of September until mid-November. During that time, there are cooking demonstrations, wine and food tastings, special tasting events (The Party of the Senses), celebrity chef appearances, an "Eat to the Beat" concert series, and multiple kiosks set up around the World Showcase which feature food from different countries around the world. The kiosks are our main focus when we go. Luckily, we are able to gain admittance to the park for free (thanks, Candlelight Show!).

There are about 25 kiosks, each with about 3 different menu options. Our game plan consisted of this: we would skip stuff that we would easily be able to get at a local restaurant; we would skip stuff that we have tried in previous years; and we would share dishes. Even with all these strategies, we only got a little over halfway around before getting full. Our first stop was Chile, where we had this tasty rock shrimp ceviche topped with popcorn.

Here is a montage of the other dishes we had. Clockwise from the top left:

crab cake with cabbage slaw and remoulade

chicken sausage with sweet corn polenta

lamb slider with tomato chutney

paprika beef stew with a bacon dumpling

gulab juman with rose syrup and pistachios

seared sea scallop with vegetable slaw and lemon oil

seared beef tenderloin with sweet potato puree

lobster and scallop fisherman's pie

center: sachertorte

There are still about seven more dishes that I want to taste, so hopefully we will be able to go back before the festival ends. Maybe next time, we'll be brave enough to take the squirt with us.