Deb's Digest

Have you ever had one of those meals where everything was perfectly delicious from start to finish? I did recently at one of my favorite restaurants at Walt Disney World, Flying Fish.

Several of us wandered over after enjoying the afternoon at Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival. Fortunately, our favorite server, Bob, was working and we sat in his section. After quenching our thirst with some good ol Florida water, we ordered a cheese plate to share and then started thinking about wine.

I should preface this by telling you wine is one of my indulgences. I love red wine and love to try new wines! When I go to a great restaurant, such as Flying Fish, I am splurging on dinner so I tend to splurge on my wine as well. So you don't think this is my typical price point at home, I used to shop for great buys under $10 but those are almost non-existent these days, so now it's what can I find under $18!

Bob has been my server a number of times and now knows the kinds of wines I like. He always lets me know what is new on the wine list and what "good buys" they have in stock.

A new wine had recently come to the Flying Fish that Bob thought we would enjoy. We decided to give it a try. WOW! We swirled, breathed the aromas and tasted -- all four of us at about the same time looked up from our glass with huge smiles! We had a winner!

This wine from Argentina is a "Bordeaux style blend: of Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon-Petit Verdot. It was smooth as silk and full of great flavors. Flying Fish price was $85 and that's about the same price range as my Google Search of wine stores indicated.

The Artisanal Cheese plate was enough for the 4 of us to nibble on while we looked at the menu. Unfortunately we gobbled up the cheese before I thought about taking a photo.

New on the menu, at least for me, was a Prix Fixe tasting option!

Flying Fish Cafe Signature Prix Fixe Tasting Menu $63.00/per guest

Appetizer: Duo of "Crispy Maine Coast Jonah Crab Cake" and "Our Very Own Caesar Salad"

Entree Duo of "Char-crusted Certified Black Angus New York Strip Steak" and "Potato-wrapped Snapper"

Dessert: Caramelized Banana Napoleon

Burgundy Wine Pairing Flight : $34.00

Now, on to our meal. I didn't take notes during the meal as my intention was not to write about it. However our experience was so wonderful, I wanted to at least share some photos. Suffice it to say, all food items were great!

Each of us ordered the same appetizer, one of the regular items on the Flying Fish menu:

The mozzarella was so incredibly fresh with mouth watering textures that we couldn't believe it was flown in from Italy, we all thought it had been made in-house.

Fresh Mozzarella di Bufala - Florida Yellow Beefsteak, Heirloom and Tiny grape Tomatoes, aged Balsamico, Exotic Peppercorns, Petite Basil, and Sicilian Olio Verde $15.00

Ginger and Teriyaki Char-Crusted Yellowfin Tuna - Asian greens, sesame-laced sea beans, oyster plant and forest mushrooms, with mido-dashi-lemongrass-wasabi Tobikko-Butter Emulsion $37.00

This side dish is to die for and worth taking any remaining home in a "doggie-bag".

Leek, Fontina and Truffle-laced Trofie Mac n Cheese $9.00

Tagliatelle Pasta a la Bolognese - Rustic Five Meat Ragout, arugula and pecorino Romano $26 (also offered as a Lacto-ovo friendly or vegetarian selection: Pesto-laced Vegetable Primavera $22

Rainforest Pepperberry-grilled Kurobuta Pork Tenderloin - leek, fontina and truffle-laced pasta Mac n Cheese, grilled asparagus with black missino fig, port wine, balsamico, carmelized onion and trumpet mushroom compote $36.00

We were all too stuffed to even think about dessert.

As I said at the beginning, everything just blended together perfectly from the service, to the ambiance, to the wine to the food. It was a great evening and one we will not soon forget! Thanks to the Flying Fish team!

The moral of this story is - you don't have to be a seafood lover enjoy fine dining at Flying Fish!

In preparation for my upcoming week long trip to the Disneyland Resort, I've been asking for meal recommendations.

Yesterday I shared your Breakfast Suggestions.

Today is LUNCH!

Thanks to everyone on Twitter and Facebook for posting lunch at Disneyland Suggestions.

Here is what you recommended:

Blue Bayou

Barb: Blue Bayou is our favorite all the way around. Great food and absolutely fantastic atmosphere!

Tracy: I have to say my all time favorite lunch restaurant is The Blue Bayou. It's not as crowded as the night and we always request a table by the water. It is cool and dark and far enough away from the crowds that it feels like you're somewhere else for the hour or two you're at lunch. It's very relaxing and quiet. Plus, you really can't beat the atmosphere!

White Water Snacks - Grand Californian Hotel

mjcollin: The counter service at the Grand California (White Water Snacks, name?) has a Chicken Nacho that is so awesome. Get it to-go

Cocina Cucamonga - DCA

petricat666: cocina cucamonga in DCA. Huge amount of food for a really good price.

Pizza Port

BeccaG: for something more substantial r family loves 2 split salad & chicken fuzilli at pizza port. It's quick serv at near table quality.

Bengel BBQ - Disneyland

BeccaG: if u want something smallish Bengal BBQ is great with some of the more unique flavors in the park.

Don: Bengal BBQ is amazing in Adventureland right across from Indy. Get the Bacon Wrapped Asparagus or the spicy chix skewers... Sit at table near the river and watch the river traffic go by.

Carnation Cafe

disneykarene: Carnation Cafe on Main Street.

Lisa: Carnation Cafe - loaded baked potato soup because it is awesome. Pacific Wharf - apple & chicken salad in a sourdough bread bowl.

Boudin Bakery - DCA

MaryJean: Boudon Bakery, if it's still at DCA, has excellent salads and soups available in bread bowls.

Don: In DCA go to Boudin's Bakery and get a soup OR chinese Chix salad in a sourdough bowl! Grab a table by the water and feed the ducks with your bread top.

Multiple Recommendations:

Laura: Cafe Orleans is our favorite. Pommes Frites are wonderful and we like to share this part! Anything is great to eat for lunch. French onion soup is delicious! And, the mickey beignets....yuuuuummmmmmm!!!! Fresh out-of-the-oven. (Also love Carnation Cafe for that loaded baked potato soup! Creamy/delicious!)

Don: Storytellers Cafe in the Grand Californian hotel. Excellent salads and the Club Sandwich is excellent. And one of my favorite I have to do every trip, Grab a Corndog from the Corndog Truck at the end of Main Street. Sit at a table in the Plaza Inn to people watch and views of the hub, castle and tomorrowland

Becca: Carnation cafe is good for lunch too! But my fave place is the mexican place in frontierland! Best burritos! Plaza has really good fried chx....and for a light lunch try a bread bowl near splash mtn (much shorter line than the soup place in new orleans square)

disneyfolly: I love the gumbo at Royal St veranda for lunch. And swing over to Bengal Bbq for skewers! Blue Bayou is a must.

MaryJean: I agree with Blue Bayou as best place for lunch. I also have had a good experience at Carnation Cafe.

Mary: There's a secluded little place by Rivers of America just past the tables of the Hungry Bear. no chairs, but you can sit on the cement planter edge...hard but roomy.

Don't Bother with:

disneykarene: Tortilla Joes, not very good Mexican food

Thanks again everyone for your wonderful ideas!!!! Dinner soon to follow!

Did you know AllEars has an entire area on Disneyland?

With menus for all the eateries?

And Reader Reviews for the hotels and dining?

Hey, see this little green button? Well, it allows you to share this blog with your family and friends quite easily. Give it a try; it's pretty neat!

In preparation for my upcoming week long trip to the Disneyland Resort, I've been asking for meal recommendations.

First up, Breakfast!

Thanks to everyone on Twitter and Facebook for posting Breakfast at Disneyland Suggestions.

Here is what you recommended:

Storytellers in the Grand Californian Hotel:

disneykarene: Gotta do Storyteller. Buffet is pricey but great. We split omelet off menu wt extra toast. Yummy!

blabbermouse79: Storytellers Cafe in GCH. Great variety and fresh Mickey Waffles!

attrievel: Storytellers Chip & Dale - no Chip, only Dale, weak char selection - Brother Bear & Tarzan. Food ok

Disney_trooper: Storytellers Cafe at Grand Cali for bfast. Excellent buffet with made to order omelets!! its a forest animal character meal too

Barry: Storytellers' Cafe at the Grand Californian has a buffet and an a la carte menu. The food is good value for the resort (they have their own version of banana stuffed French toast). it is a character breakfast led by Chip and Dale.

Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel

gabriellyn: Goofy's Kitchen was great! Went for my 40th in Feb. Great interaction with lots of characters & food was fab too!

Jodie: Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel has a super fun character breakfast. It's fairly loud and rambunctious, but for the kid at heart it's a blast.

Plaza Inn:

Famactivities06: Plaza Inn - Good - Variety of Chars, Interaction after bfast time. Bad - Cafeteria-ish. I don't get that feeling at Crystal Plc and La Brea Bakery - Large portions, eat outside, relatively quick. Not too impressed w/Storytellers or Plaza Inn vs WDW char bfasts

sk8iesh: I enjoyed the Plaza Inn character breakfast. It had just totally random characters, which was pretty fun

Carnation Plaza

BeccaG: Minnie and friends at carnation plaza! BC you can seen so many characters in a very short time. We got pix w/10 in under 1:30!

Ray: We really like Carnation Cafe on Main St. They have great food and you can't beat the atmosphere of an outside sit down Main St and watching all the people rushing to start their day. I also second the Riverbell Terrace. Enjoy, wish we could be there! :)

AJ: Definitely Carnation Cafe for TS breakfast -- the cinnamon roll french toast is incredible. Also, Goofy's Kitchen is a nice brunch with lots of different characters. For counter service, I'll go along with the River Belle Terrace group! People are still locked into Fantasyland and Tomorrowland in the morning, so New Orleans Square is quiet. (I don't recommend Minnie's Breakfast at the plaza -- bad crowd flow, but the mix of characters is fun)

Becca: I agree with carnation cafe..my fave spot! Riverbelle is great too..so peaceful in the morning.

River belle Terrace

Jill: Just breakfast (I have opinions about other meals too:) ...RiverBelle Terrace. Absolutely lovely and perfect atmosphere on the patio. The food is decent, but sitting out on the patio along the river, in the shade of trees watching the people walk by was my favorite, by far.

Lisa: River Belle in Disneyland for pancakes, eggs, fruit, potatoes, giant cinammon rolls and those infamous Mickey pancakes. Please ship me one Mickey pancake along with a mint julep from New Orleans Square.

Pam: I also vote for the River Belle Terrace. If you go there first thing in the morning, there's hardly anyone there and it's so nice sitting out by the Rivers of America watching the Mark Twain go by. Also, the coffee shop at the Disneyland Hotel is a nice little spot, and they have the best bearclaws!

Pam: The birds at River Belle Terrace. LOL They definitely are NOT afraid of you. The last time I was there I had a duck standing beside me the whole time, and little birds kept landing on my tray and would even hop up to my plate. I kinda felt like Snow White. lol

Shelly: River Belle Terrace, Club 33 brunch, Storyteller's, and of course, you can't beat those ginormous cinnamon rolls from Main Street!

Thanks again everyone for your wonderful ideas!!!! Lunch and Dinner soon to follow!

Did you know AllEars has an entire area on Disneyland?

With menus for all the eateries?

And Reader Reviews for the hotels and dining?

Hey, see this little green button? Well, it allows you to share this blog with your family and friends quite easily. Give it a try; it's pretty neat!

I ended my last blog with a photo of us being silly!

Ok, where was I?

We composed ourselves and headed over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area. It's time to go see Monster's Inc! It was one of the few "must sees" I had on my list for California Adventure.

I loved everything about this attraction. The themeing at the entrance was awesome!

Ann decided to do her impersonation of Roz... what do you think?

Plus, there was a great photo op there as well!

I think there is something to say about not reading much about attractions before you go on them. I honestly don't know if or what I had read about Monsters, Inc, but let me say it was awesome! The themeing was SO well done, kudos to the Imagineers who worked on this attraction. The attention to detail was ever present, the ride followed the storyline fairly well an it was one of my favorite parts of my Disneyland Resort experience!

After our ride with Mike, Sully, and Boo, LindaMac wanted to ride California Screaming! It had been down earlier in the day but she spotted it running. So off she went!

She was SO excited when she got off the ride. We gave her a huge round of applause for being... er braver.. yea, that's it, braver than the rest of us!

We walked past the Golden Vine Winery and well, had to relax with good friends and a glass of wine.

After a brief rest, we soon found ourselves at the west coast Tower of Terror.

Since we were in the Hollywood Section and the park would be closing in about an hour, we decided to revist the friendly monsters....

We had two fantastic rides and really turned into children. The attraction was pretty empty so we quickly exited and got right back on the ride.

We were headed out of the park and found ourselves inside the amazing Disney Animation Building. We had missed the final showing of the day of Turtle Talk but found plenty to amuse ourselves with. We practically had the whole place to ourselves.

I couldn't really get a good photo of the main area that you walk into....but there are several very large movie screens with Disney animated features playing.

Soon, we were face to face with the Mirror!!!

Next Beast's Library where Lumiere helped us discover what Disney character LindaMac is!

One final glimpse of Disney's Calfornia Adventure!

Across the way, Disneyland was still open. Being my last night, I wanted to see everything I could so in we went. We rode Indiana Jones one last time...a favorite of all of us. And soon, Disneyland was going to close too.

Walt and Mickey said "See You Real Soon"

As we headed back to the Grand Californian, we all knew this wonderful day was coming to a close. Raleigh and I recalled some of the days highlights.

All good things must come to an end and my trip was quickly coming to a close.

I said goodbye to my dear friends Mari and Raleigh and hoped I'd see them again soon.

My ride to the airport was picking me up at 9:30, so LindaMac, George, Ann and I decided to have one last breakfast together - the character meal at Storytellers!

Characters were fun and there were lots of them. Chip and Dale, Timon, Terk, Brother Bear, Meeko.

We had barely sat down when Meeko came running over to me with an Autograph Book. I wasn't sure at first what was going on and then realized he, umm, borrowed it from a young girl at a nearby table! Soon as I realized what he had done, I got right into the fun and gave him a hard time for taking away her shiney book!

The food was super..best omelet of my whole vacation I think!!!!

We had an incredible server who was always at the table getting something or refilling something. She was great fun too!

Overall a great experience! I highly recommend!

As I rode to the airport I reflected back on the last 3 weeks. A trip that began by flying out of Maryland and into Orlando. I visited several countries, crossed the Panama Canal, and docked in Los Angeles. What an amazing amazing experience. How fortunate I am to experience so many incredible adventures. I never dreamed, even 10 years ago, I would travel to the places I have visited.

To all of you who have followed my blog of this journey through the Panama Canal. Thank you. I hope that you enjoyed my narration and the photos. I enjoyed sharing it with you!

To all the people I met along the way, including those I traveled with, thank you for making this another amazing journey of discovery, imagination, wonder and friendship. I look forward to future adventures.

Til next time.....

Follow my Panama Canal Cruise and Disneyland Blogs. Beginning entries at the top, for most recent entries scroll down.

Deb

May 27, 2008
Disneyland Resort
Weather: Partly Cloudy and 70s

Part 2

When I left you last blog, we were headed out of Disneyland down Main Street and found my good friend Steve Barrett's Hidden Mickeys Disneyland book in a Main Street Shop window!

I'll pick it up from there.....

Mari and Raliegh had texted to say they were over at Disney's California Adventure. They found a good counter service place, Pacific Wharf Cafe, that was still serving breakfast. None of us really ate that morning as we were in the park for Magic Morning so.....off we went.

We hadn't seen Mari and Raleigh since, well, 2 nights earlier...that mediocre dinner at Napa Rose where we attempted to celebrate their anniversary (I know, I still need to write the review).

Anyway...Raleigh wasn't too interested in having his photo taken, so here is Mari :)

Here is the YUMMY breakfast croissant I had from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. I only ate a small piece of the pastry but I can tell you this was better than any breakfast sandwich I've had from WDW counter service. YUMMMMMM

We all quickly rediscovered our Childish Delight and had just a wonderful day. Here is our first photo op. Somehow our curiosity got us captured in a large fish net!

Someone suggested we stroll by Toy Story Mania in case of a soft opening..but alas, no Cast Members in sight...

We approached Golden Dreams, a movie about the history of California, with a little Disney imagineering included. Most of us had never seen it before. LindaMac had a couple days earlier and decided to pass on this showing. Mari told us it was probably going to close soon, so we decided to do it.

The movie was good and I learned a few things. There is a great montage at the end (think American Adventure in Epcot) but I didn't recognize a lot of the folks. We also had a special visit from Whoopi, in the true spirit of Disney imagineering.

Somewhere along the way, we returned to the Pacific Wharf Cafe for lunch. Again, the food was realy really good. There was plenty of it even if you didn't eat the bread bowl!!

Next, another new experience for us East Coaster's -- A Bugs Land! We loved this land and took our time exploring all the nooks and crannys!

While we were checking out the Hopper figure.....

.... who should appear, but Flick!!! We enjoyed a few minutes playing with him.

A Bug's Land is really designed for the little ones and it was really cute to see some of the seating along the paths. That said, our merry band of adults really had a great time.

If we had the luxury of time, we would have gone on more of the attractions here. But, we opted to enjoy Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. What fun we had!!!!!!

We continued to wander, kind of aimlessly and found ourselves at the Boudin Bakery Tour. Short, informative and we got a small slice of Sourdough Bread too!

Then we really started getting silly!!!

Whew... ok, that's it for today.

Stay tuned!!!!

I'll finish my trip blog next time!!

Follow my Panama Canal Cruise and Disneyland Blogs. Beginning entries at the top, for most recent entries scroll down.

Deb