Laura's Disney Lines

On Saturday night, Lee and I attended the "Taste" event, which is a new addition to Disney's California Food and Wine Weekends this year. It's very similar to Epcot's Party for the Senses - except that Taste was better.

If you're not familiar with Party for the Senses or Taste - both are food and wine tasting events. Guests pay one price for admission ($100 in this case), and then can partake as much as they wish from a series of food and wine tasting "stations". At Taste, each of the fourteen food stations featured a different dish and chef from one of the Disney parks, resorts, or Downtown Disney restaurants. (You can find the menu HERE.) The portions were sample-sized, but very nicely plated and presented. For example, my favorite was Cafe Orleans' Cajun Spiced Shrimp, served on a corn cake with ratatouille and a drizzle of Mornay sauce. As you can see from the photo, it looked really good, and tasted even better. The wine tasting stations featured one of nine different wineries, each pouring at least three different wines. There was also beer from the Karl Strauss Brewing Company available.

And as if that weren't enough...there were several cheese and fruit stations, which later in the evening were turned into the dessert stations, featuring an assortment of delectable desserts. (My one complaint is that there wasn't enough chocolate. But then there's never enough chocolate...)

So why did I like Taste so much more than Party for the Senses? It was Party for the Senses (PftS) on a smaller scale, that's why. PftS is in a huge building (the former Millenium Village at Epcot) which accommodates a large number of people. I found it quite crowded and overwhelming - there were too many people and too many food and wine choices. At Taste you could realistically try one of everything without completely stuffing yourself, and you could move around the room without feeling like a salmon swimming upstream. In addition to "standing tables" inside, Taste had quite a few tables *and* chairs set up outside, which gave people the option both to sit and to get away from the noise a little bit.

And I must also admit that I was somewhat predisposed to enjoy Taste when I found out who the entertainment for the evening was going to be - a group called "Barrage". We saw them several years ago at Epcot and really liked them...and they put on a good show at Taste, too. They are kind of hard to describe, but here's a blurb from their web site: "Barrage - A high-octane fiddle-fest that features an international, multi-talented cast performing an eclectic mix of music, song and dance." Picture a group of young and very energetic violinists accompanied by drums, electric guitar, and bass. They played everything from Irish reels to Duke Ellington to Bolero. All while jumping around the stage, step dancing, and even singing. Whew.

Taste started at 6:30 and ended at 9:30 - I hadn't expected that we would be there for the entire time but we were. Promptly at 9:30 the lights inside the building were turned up and we got the polite Disney announcement: "Thank you for coming. We hope you will visit again soon." Translation: "It's over, so get out of here already!" On the way out they handed out nice bags for us to carry our souvenir wine glasses in - that was a very thoughtful touch.

We had a really good time. I'm not sure this is something that we would want to do *every* year, but we certainly enjoyed it. We will be going to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival this fall, and had planned to attend Party for the Senses...but now I'm wondering if I really want to do that - it might be quite a disappointment after Taste. (And the only night we have for PftS also happens to be the night of the Tower of Terror 13K, which Mike Scopa has written about in his blog. We thought it sounded like a lot of fun - but it conflicts with PftS. Of course a lot of people would say that given the choice between running and eating we'd be crazy to choose running...but that's just the kind of people we are.)

"Taste"fully yours...

Laura