All Ears® Guest Blog

So how exactly does one get from Canada to Istanbul in 1 hour? The International Food & Wine Festival at Epcot!

Hi, my name is Megan and I'll be blogging LIVE from Epcot's Food & Wine Festival for the next week or so. Tonight our group, myself, 23 and my parents, decided to cover the International Marketplace Booths that stretch from the Canadian Pavilion to the French Pavilion.

Upon entering Epcot, through the International Gateway, we purchased these adorable Disney Gift Cards themed to the Festival. They feature a small coiled wristband and a square card that you can load with any denomination from $5.00 to....well more than most would spend on the Food Booths!

We decided that we would rank the items on a scale of 0 to 5.

0 = awful!
1 = forgettable not worth trying
2 = mediocre, not worth trying
3 = good, worth trying once
4 = excellent, worth repeating
5 = exceptional, give me as much as i can get!

As we made our way to Canada, intending to work our way back to France for our dinner reservation, we noticed the crowds were relatively light and lines at the Marketplaces were a few minutes at most. I started at Athens, Greece, while my parents went to Krakow, Poland.

Our first round of marketplace items consisted of Spanakopita $3.50, a spinach and feta cheese filled phylo pastry, and Kielbasa with Potato Piergoies with caramelized onions and sour cream $4.50. We also sampled two Greek wines, one similar to a cabernet sauvignon and one similar to a sauvignon blanc, unfortunately we didn't catch the names.

Our party would rate the items as follows Spanakopita = 4 out of 5 Kielbasa & Pierogies = 3 out of 5.

For our second round we travelled to Montreal, Canada, our home country!

We ordered the Cheddar Cheese Soup $3.25, the Maple Glazed Salmon with Roasted Corn & Arugula $4.25 and a Moosehead Beer $5.50.

Our party would rate the items as follows Cheddar Cheese Soup = 5 out of 5 (Dad says 6!) Maple Glazed Salmon = 4 out of 5 (Dad & I) 5 out of 5 (Mom) Moosehead = 4 out of 5

For our third round we continued around the world to Istanbul, Turkey.

We tried the Meze $3.00, cucumber & tomato salad, pita bread and eggplant hummus and the Manti with Yogurt Sauce $3.50.

Our party would rate the items as follows Meze = 2 out of 5 Manti with Yogurt Sauce = 2 out of 5 This was our worst round of the evening. The pita was dry and the eggplant hummus had an odd spice to it. The cucumber & tomato salad was nice, but not good enough to buy the whole plate just for that item. The Manti were oily and the filling, beef & vegetables was tough and chewy as was the dough.

Our fourth round took place after a light dinner at Chefs de France.

We were all in the mood for something sweet. So we continued the theme of our dinner and went to Lyon, France where we picked up one Milk Chocolate Creme Brulee $3.75. In addition we had a glass of champagne, a grand marnier slushie and a pomegranate kir.

Deciding that this little portion would not satisfy all our sweet cravings we also visited Louisiana for the Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon Carmel Sauce $2.75.

Our party would rate the items as follows Chocolate Creme Brulee = 4 out of 5 Louisiana Bread Pudding = 6 out of 5! This seriously deserves its own rating category! Its a fantastic value for a rich, cinnamony, creamy, luscious and rich dessert. We could eat this every night of the Festival!

Well that's all for tonight! Tomorrow evening we will be returning to Epcot to continue our journey and we are planning on visiting the following marketplaces:

Lyon, France
Tokyo, Japan
San Francisco, USA
Hops & Barley Market
Cork, Ireland