I’d say that we didn’t eat like pixies this weekend…except that I really don’t know what pixies eat! 🙂

Thursday evening after the Expo we visited one of our favorites: Earl of Sandwich. Even when it’s busy the lines are never as long as they are at the one in Florida. I had my favorite Holiday Turkey Sandwich with turkey, cranberries, stuffing and gravy. So good.

Lee had the All-American, a turkey sandwich with cranberries, cheese, lettuce and tomato.

Last time we were here we’d really enjoyed the brownie bites. I went looking for them while we were standing in line. There was one container left, and in the time that that I traveled the length of the counter looking for more, someone came and grabbed them! Argh! So we had one of the regular brownies instead. It was pretty good.

Friday morning after the 5K we had breakfast at White Water Snacks at the Grand Californian. It was fairly busy since it had just opened and there were a number of other 5K runners with the same idea. At WWS you order any hot dishes at the register, and they give you a number, then deliver it to your table. It can sometimes be a very slow process, but it went pretty quickly that day.

I had the Breakfast Burrito with scrambled eggs, tomato, cheddar cheese, bacon and red bliss potatoes. It was quite good, though it didn’t come with any salsa, and all that was available was bottled hot sauce. I appreciated that it came with fruit.

Lee tried the Buttermilk Biscuit Sandwich with fried eggs, smoked bacon and cheddar cheese. The “biscuit” was more like a burger bun – not really very biscuit-like. But otherwise he enjoyed it, and it was very filling.

Lee had to participate in a conference call for work, so I went to DCA by myself for a while. It was a coolish drizzly morning, and when Ghirardelli opened I went there to try their Sea Salt Caramel Hot Cocoa. It was good – I got a medium, but I would have been satisfied with a small.

We had lunch at Rancho del Zocalo in Disneyland. I tried something different this time: Chile Verde, chunks of pork braised in a tomatillo sauce, served with rice and beans. It had a really good flavor, but I thought the pork was a little dry. It wasn’t really tender at all.

Lee had the Carne Asada & Red Chile Enchilada Platter – carne asada and two cheese enchiladas with tortillas, rice and beans. He always enjoys this.

That evening we had an early dinner at Al Fresco Tasting Terrace at DCA. We split the Flatbread Two Ways – it has fig, apple, and arugula on one side and tomato, olives, and pancetta on the other.

Lee enjoyed the Beef Tenderloin Sliders.

I had the Bruschetta, which is one of my favorites.

Since we only had a 10K the next day we enjoyed some wine, too. 🙂 I had a glass of the Silverado Sauvignon Blanc. Lee tried the Red Blends Wine Flight. The wine flights are not presented as nicely as they used to be – they used to bring a carrier with all three glasses, and include a card that had information on the three wines. This time the server simply brought the three glasses and told Lee what they were.

The Terrace is really a lovely area – it’s always very peaceful and relaxing up there. The Pixar Play Parade was going on during part of the time we were there, but it was still very easy to tune it out.

Saturday morning we went to Disneyland for Extra Magic Hour which started at 8:00. After the park opened at 9:00 we went to Rancho del Zocalo for breakfast. Several months ago it replaced River Belle Terrace as the breakfast location in Frontierland, and we had tried it yet. Most of the breakfast menu is similar to the one that was offered at River Belle – in particular the Mickey Mouse Pancakes – but Mexican-inspired entrees like Chilaquiles , Fajitas, and a Chorizo and Egg Burrito, are also available. But the item that didn’t come over from River Belle was my favorite: the Cinnamon Roll French Toast. I missed that.

Lee had the Tamales for breakfast. Two pork tamales with rice and beans.

I ordered the Kid’s Fruit Plate, which came with sliced fruit, a mini oat bran muffin and vanilla yogurt. I also ordered a side of scrambled eggs. The fruit and muffin were quite good, but the yogurt is that artificially sweet yogurt. It’s too sweet and leaves a funny aftertaste.

The “American” selections are served at one counter and the “Mexican” selections at another. The Mexican selections didn’t seem to be nearly as popular, so I wonder how long they will be available. The kitchen area is larger than in River Belle and there seemed to be more people working so the lines moved a lot faster than at River Belle. And at Zocalo the beverages are self-serve, so that seemed to help, also.

Other than the absence of the Cinnamon Roll French Toast, we thought Zocalo’s breakfast offerings were very good. While there’s no indoor seating, there is quite a bit that’s covered, in the event of rain.

We had lunch with friends at Carthay Circle Restaurant. Our server, Melynda, was a hoot, and really played well with us. One of the guys asked that there be at least 42 grains of rice with his entree. She explained, with a perfectly straight face, that it only came with 41, but that she would personally talk to the chef and see what she could do. 🙂 (She really exceeded herself – there were at least 200!)

There are a few set items on the Carthay Circle Restaurant menu but there are always seasonal specialties, too, especially the soup and salad. I ordered the seasonal soup and salad in lieu of an entree. The soup was Spicy Tropical Sun Gold Tomato Broth, with jerked pork shrimp, mushrooms, pineapple, and mango. It had a very pretty color and a good flavor – it was a little bit spicy.

The Carthay Circle Escarole Salad salad was also very nice. It had strawberries, tangerines, and jicama with citrus vinaigrette. I particularly enjoyed the vinaigrette, as it wasn’t overly citrusy.

Lee had the Tangerine Ginger Grilled Chicken and Soba Noodle Salad. It had all kinds of things in it: edamame, cucumber, macadamia nuts, heirloom tomatoes, mint and cilantro. He enjoyed it.

The friends we were with tried the Meyer Lemon Custard Tart for dessert. The white squares on top are made of crispy meringue. It was a beautiful dish and they said it was very good.

That evening we met a friend for a pre-half marathon dinner at La Brea Bakery Cafe. I’d never considered this for a pre-race dinner, but they had several pasta choices in addition to the usual salads and sandwiches I associate with this restaurant.

I had the Mixed Greens Salad, and I had them add pan fried salmon to it. It was a very nice salad. The salmon was a little underdone in the middle, but I didn’t bother to send it back.

Lee had the Kabocha Squash Ravioli. He really enjoyed it. I tried some and it was very good – just a little hint of sweetness.

Our friend Jill had the La Brea Bakery Burger with sweet potato chips. She said it was really good. I tried a couple of the sweet potato chips and they were very tasty.

Sunday morning after we’d finished the race and showered we went into Downtown Disney to have breakfast at the UVA Bar and Cafe (our friend Eddie had clued us in to this place!). There was a line, but we only waited about 10 minutes for a table.

We both wanted celebratory glasses of bubbly! They have a very nice prosecco here. But I was very surprised when she brought it in stemless wine glasses…there had been a big demand for sparkling wine that morning (go figure) and they were out of clean flute glasses! This photo just doesn’t have quite the same impact without a champagne flute in it.

On race mornings they do a subset of their regular breakfast menu, because they are SO much busier than usual. I had the Farm Fresh Eggs – scrambled and served with country potatoes (but no peppers!), choice of bacon or sausage, and choice of white/wheat toast or English muffin. Nothing fancy, but it tasted good.

Lee had the Chilaquiles. He was very happy with this. I tried a little bit, and it was quite good.

Think he was hungry? 🙂

That was our final meal for this trip. It was nice to try some different places, but we enjoyed visiting some of our favorites, also.

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