Food & Wine Booth Reviews

My whole plan for stopping at Epcot last Thursday was so I wouldn't be tempted to go back again until we were there for our anniversary trip.  That plan failed in spectacular fashion.

On Sunday, Geoff and I headed out for more Food & Wine fun.  The problem with hitting Food & Wine on the weekend is that it gets crowded - fast - with crazy locals like us.

So we were there in time for the booths to open at 11.  This plan worked great - it took a good hour for the World Showcase to start getting crowded, and even by the time we left around 12:30, it wasn't terrible.  But it was HOT!

Beef Skewer - Argentina

Our first stop was Argentina.  Geoff wanted to have the beef skewer with chimichurri sauce.  It was really tasty, the sauce was flavorful and the beef was nice and tender.  It was served on top of a bonito puree.  I'm not sure what bonito is (Wikipedia and Google tell me it's a fish, but it didn't taste anything like fish.)  It tasted like potatoes.  I would give it a 4.

Next we moved over to Mexico.  We got our food and then were able to meet up with AJ from the Disney Food Blog.  It was great to get a chance to meet her - I did a review for Party for the Senses a couple years ago, and she's used my Food & Wine pictures on the site (because I've always been the crazy person who takes pictures of her food.)

Shrimp Taco - Mexico

Since moving to Florida, shrimp and fish tacos have become one of my new favorite things, so I definitely wanted to try this.  It had just the right amount of spice to it without being spicy, and the cabbage added a nice crunch.  The only thing Geoff and I wished was that the shrimp were grilled instead of fried.  The fact they were fried didn't do much for the dish.  Definitely a 4, border line 5.  I thought it was good, but if the shrimp were grilled it would have had a fresher taste.

Black Raspberry Wine & Lettuce Wrap - South Korea

We decided to be a little adventurous at South Korea and ordered the Black Raspberry wine.  We were curious.  It was interesting, it was fruity without being sweet, definitely more tart like a raspberry would be.  I wasn't a huge fan of it, I'm not sure I could drink a full glass, but it was good to try.  I'd probably give it a 3...worth a try, but I'm not going to get it again.

We also got the Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork & Kimchi slaw.  Geoff likes Kimchi, so he was excited for this.  We started by using forks because the piece of lettuce didn't lend itself to being wrapped very well.  The flavor was good, and once we had a little less filling, we were able to take a bite with the lettuce, which added an extra layer of crunch and took down the spice factor just a little.  The spice was good, but it was a creeping spice, not like a Buffalo Wing where you notice it as soon as you bite in, more lingering so you taste the spice after you eat the food.  I'm not a fan of those spices as they usually catch me off-guard!  I'd give this a solid 4.  I think they should use a better lettuce leaf.

Shrimp Ceviche - Florida Local

The last booth I'll do in this post is the Florida Local booth.  It was really more like an extension of the Caribbean booth though.   Anyway, the first item we had was the Shrimp Ceviche with a Plantain Chip.  The ceviche was good, spicy, but more like Mexico where it wasn't overwhelming.  The plaintain chip I thought was dry.  I love plantains, but Geoff wound up eating the chip.  Oh, and these stupid boats they're using?  It started leaking through the boat.  I'm not a fan.  I would give this a high 3.  I'm not sure I would get it again, but they would need to improve the plaintain chip with it if I were to get it again.

White Corn Arepa with Pork and Sweet Corn Salad - Florida Local

This was another hit and miss dish for me.  The corn salad was excellent, super tasty and fresh with just enough sweetness.  The arepa on the other hand was dry and a little flavorless for me.  Overall I'd probably give this dish a 2.  While the corn salad was delicious, I have a hard time recommending someone buy this dish for just the corn, the arepa was disappointing.

I'll have the second half of our day up tomorrow!