EPCOT Center Food & Wine Festival Adventures - An Introduction

The Official Food & Wine Cookbook!

I've been back to Orlando twice now to enjoy the delicious delights that the EPCOT Center International Food and Wine Festival has to offer! My first visit was good, but unfortunately brief, as we had to leave by 4:30 in order to get my mother back for a performance. On that trip I did purchase a cookbook with recipes for some of the Festival offerings; the cookbook is reasonably priced, at $14.95.

The second visit, on Monday 08 November, was so amazingly epic that it is hard to find adequate words to describe the adventure. I went to the festival this time with some of the most awesome people I know: Ben, Colleen, Linda and her husband Josh.

Linda, Josh, Myself, Colleen, and Ben

We started our day just as World Showcase opened at 11 AM. Our wacky antics are probably not all that interesting to most people, so I'll omit mentioning those fun little snippets of our day. I will, however, review the food and drink we sampled around the World Showcase.

Festival Map (Click here to see a larger version)

This year there were 28 kiosks set up around the World Showcase. The five of us managed to hit 23 of these kiosks (My mother and I visited a few on the previous trip that I will also review). So in all: we hit 24 out of 28 Kiosks.

In order to accomplish this feat of gastronomic proportions, it's important to have a "Plan of Attack". How we decided to go about tackling the huge array of choices was to select a few locations around the map as "Base Camps" where we would hunker down while sharing and sampling the various small plates. After we picked some locations, we would then all venture off individually to a different kiosk and return with our delicious booty. This meant that we could experience 5 kiosks with relative speed. We went about halfway around the Showcase before stopping to digest before attempting to complete the circuit.

Because we tried so many foods, I'm going to divide the kiosk food reviews into a few separate blog posts. I'll include a recipe for whichever item I felt was the most delicious at the end of each post as well.

Food & Wine: A Prelude

For the past several years I've been going to the EPCOT Center Food & Wine Festival. It's been a pilgrimage to spend tons of money to sample delicious morsels of food from around the world at my favorite theme park of all time (this has given me an idea for a future posting... hmmm...).



Food and Wine Festival 2007


My family and I have been going to the Food and Wine Festival since 2006, but I only got really into photographing it (and becoming somewhat obsessed) until 2007. I've usually gone at least 3 times during the month and a half long festival and still only been able to sample a few of the delicacies offered there.

I work for Walt Disney World now. I was working on the soft open (Preview day) for the festival and the first few days of its operation. Have I gone this year yet? No! I work in Future World and in all the days I was working, I never once went past the Fountain of Nations.

Why? Because I am crazy and tired, that's why. :(

Now there are only 18 days left of the festival. And I'm going to try to go at least three times this year. I'm planning on going this Saturday with my mother, husband, and son where we can hopefully meet up with my younger brother, who is currently in the College Program.

Colleen, Christina, Myself, and Ben Being Silly

On another day I plan to visit the festival with some of my dearest friends: Colleen, Ben, and Stephanie. Colleen, Ben, and I already have had one "Around the World Showcase Adventure" with Christina, but this will be our first Food & Wine together.




The other visit I will have to make will be a trip to see some people I have not thought about in a very, very long time....

HANSON!

That's right, HANSON of "Mmmbop" fame will be playing at the Food and Wine Festival on November 8 and 9. So needless to say I will have to attend one of those days, alone if I must. There will be pictures, and I will post them for all to see.

I will take lots of pictures and write about the delicious foods they are having this year. If it's anything like the previous years, it will be epic!

The World Showcase at Night, what a lovely sight