Laura's Disney Lines

We didn't get to Epcot at all on Saturday because of the 13K race, but we more than made up for it on Sunday and Monday - on Monday we started about 12:30 and didn't finish until 8:30 - though we did take some time for some attractions!

Our first stop on Sunday was France, where we had the Quiche au Fromage de Chevre (goat cheese quiche) and I had the Sparkling Pomegranate Kir. Both were excellent - we both really enjoy the tang of goat cheese.

At Australia I tried the Grilled Lamb Chop with Caramelized Onions. Of everything I tried at the Festival I think I was the most disappointed in this - I thought it was a very small serving for the price, which at $4.75 made it the second most expensive food item in the entire Festival. I think the lamb tasted fine - there just wasn't a whole lot there to taste!

Next up was Italy, where I had the Insalata Caprese - three small balls of fresh mozzarella chese, some chopped basil and grape tomatoes in a light dressing. It was tasty, but I've had better - the mozzarella wasn't as fresh and tender as it can be. They weren't overly generous with the basil, either! Lee tried the Lasagna al Forno - baked spinach pasta with meat ragu. At $3.00 this may be the bargain of the Festival - it was a very generous serving! Lee enjoyed it, and I had a taste of the spinach pasta, which was good, though quite different!

At Germany we tried the Debriziner Sausage with Sauerkraut in a Pretzel Roll, and I had the S.A. Prum Blue Slate Riesling Kabinett, while Lee had a Beck's Oktoberfest. The sausage contained beef as well as pork so I didn't try that, but I had half the pretzel roll and some of the sauerkraut and I really enjoyed that - I love the pretzel sticks they serve at Le Cellier. This was not quite that good. The wine was nice, though I prefer the Spatlese that I had on Friday night. Lee said the sausage was ok, but he also liked the pretzel bread.

The Durban Spiced Chicken on a Skewer from South Africa was another winner in my book - in fact I liked it so much that I went back and got a second one that I ate all by myself, rather than splitting it with Lee. :-) The chicken was moist with a little crust on the outside from being grilled, but a really good flavor. It was served on a square of corn meal cake.

On this particular night India was NOT out of Samosas, so we finally got to try one. It's a fried vegetable dumpling filled with spicy peas and potatoes, and served with tamarind sauce. We also got another cup of the Curried Butternut Squash Soup that we liked so much the first night. The Samosa had a little bit more of a kick than the soup, but it wasn't too hot even for my tender palate.

At Turkey I tried the Pistachio Baklava and a glass of the Kavaklidere Selection Beyaz White Wine. I admit it, I'm a baklava snob - my mom, though as far as I know she has not a drop of Greek blood in her, makes excellent baklava, and just about every one I've ever tried can't compare to hers. (Though the pistachio baklava that the Morocco booth had two years ago was really good - quite different from Mom's, but still excellent. I forgot to mention before that I tried this year's Walnut Baklava from Morocco on Friday, and it was just ok.) This one had sort of an odd flavor - not really unpleasant, but not something I was interested in trying again. The phyllo was also quite substantial and not light and crunchy. The wine was good, though - it wasn't sweet, but it was a bit fruity and crisp. Overtones of pears and apples - that kind of thing. :-) Lee had the Manti with Yogurt Sauce which was the Turkish version of beef ravioli. He said the beef was quite good, and the yogurt sauce was different.

Our final tasting of the night, which we purchased 5 minutes before Illuminations started, was the Pecan Pie from the Oklahoma Rose Rock Diner. We thought the top and crust were a bit overdone on this particular one, but it was really very good, and not overly sweet like pecan pie can sometimes be!

On Monday we met our friend Kenny about 12:30 and started eating. First up was Oklahoma's Three Sisters' Cafe where we split the Three Sisters' Soup - Spicy Zucchini, Bean and Corn Chowder and Lee tried the highly rated Seared Buffalo with Scalloped Wild Onions. The soup was quite good - in addition to the veggies it had some crisp croutons in it. Lee liked the buffalo, though he didn't give it a rave review. I thought the wild onions served with it were good. Lee also got a cup of the Sweet Tea. He doesn't usually like things that are really sweet, and I have no idea how he could drink this since it was way too sweet for me, but he liked it.

At Morocco we all tried the Chicken Bastilla. This is something I've had at the Marrakesh restaurant and really like - it's mildly spiced chicken wrapped in phyllo dough and baked, then dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Sounds like an odd combination but it really works!

The guys split the Crispy Sukiyaki Beef Roll at Japan. Lee enjoyed this - the roll was made to order with warm beef rolled up in warm rice, and then the slices were lightly grilled to brown/toast the rice.

Lee had the New England Crab Cake with Barley-Lentil Salad at the Hops & Barley Market. It was a pretty generously-sized crab cake, and it had a whole lot of crab and not much filler. Which meant I didn't really like it - I like the filler better than the crab. :-) Lee enjoyed it, though. I think he had a beer, too - I'm not sure you can buy something at the Hops & Barley Market without buying a beer to go with it!

At Ireland Kenny got a Boxty and Lee and I split one - but we'd had that before. Lee had the Grilled Beef with Chimichurri Sauce at Argentina, and said that was excellent. It was another generous serving, and the beef was served on top of some really good mashed potatoes - I got to enjoy that part. :-)

Neither of the guys was interested in anything from Chile, but I tried the Tomatican with Manchego Cheese. This was a tomato stew with corn, onions, and garbanzo beans. I couldn't really detect the Manchego cheese, though. The serving was large and filling - but I wasn't really that impressed with it and couldn't eat it all, and Lee didn't want more than a few bites.

Kenny and I both had the Greek Salad at (where else?) Greece. I tried the Boutari Moschofilero that was the recommended pairing, another not sweet but nice crisp white wine. The salad was topped with sliced Kalamata olives and goat cheese, with a light vinaigrette dressing and a wedge of pita bread. A nice change from all the meat that we'd been eating!

After that we stopped eating for a while and enjoyed The Voices of Liberty, The American Adventure, visited the Festival Center in the Wonders of Life pavilion, played games in the Siemens exhibit under Spaceship Earth (Kenny and I apparently have a future as surgeons and Lee as a fast-driving secret agent), and visited The Land where we saw the Circle of Life movie and did the Living with the Land boat ride.

It was time to eat again after that. :-) Lee got the Maple Custard topped with Almond Crumble from Canada. Not nearly as good as the Maple Creme Brulee that Le Cellier serves, though, and it was a tiny serving.

We stopped at New Zealand and had Lamb Sliders - roasted lamb with mustard sauce on a soft roll. These were another of my favorites - and the CM serving them up was very generous with the lamb (when I had one again the next day the CM was pretty stingy and just gave me two pieces of lamb, as opposed to the 5-6 I had this first time). We also received an impromptu "Magical Moment" - the CM pouring the wine had somehow ended up with two extra glasses of Villa Maria Pinot Noir and gave them to Lee and Kenny, though Kenny passed and the woman behind him was happy to take it. I don't usually like red wines much, but this was not bad (hey, when it comes to red wines, from me that's high praise!) - it didn't have that oaky, smokey, tannic bite that I dislike.

The guys had the buffalo at Oklahoma again, and we stopped in front of Japan to listen to the Matsuriza drum group. While we were standing there Kim and Marta saw us as they were passing by on their way around the world. We chatted for quite a while before we all moved on. At Poland Lee tried the Cabbage Roll with Spiced Beef. He wasn't too impressed by the first bite that was all cabbage, but once he got to the beef part he liked it.

By this time we were running out of new things that we wanted to try, and were having some of our favorites instead. So I had another Samosa and Lee had some Rice Pudding at India, and I had the Chilaquiles again and Lee had the Beef Quesadilla at Mexico. In fact we ALL had something from Mexico - here's Marta, Kim, and Kenny with their Chilaquiles.

Marta and Kim wanted to get out of the park before Illuminations started so they left, and Kenny, Lee and I watched it from World Showcase Plaza. It really wasn't crowded at all and we enjoyed the show, even though it was three out of four nights that we'd seen it (and who knows how many hundreds of times Kenny has seen it!)

We had a good day, and it was nice of Kenny to come out and play (and eat!) with us.