lilfaeriebrat
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2016
My thoughts and food reviews from opening weekend.
I'm still sadly disappointed that the bigger name chefs are not there this year with the Sunday paid culinary demos. Love the new signage on all the booths, I spent a good while yesterday looking at each sign to see if there was a hidden Mickey in each. I'm not sure if there is or not but quite a few do have a hidden Mickey. Saturday morning when all the booths opened up figuring out the order and pick-up lines was a bit chaotic, it was nice to see the addition of the signs come Sunday. I'm glad that the mobile ordering option has been removed because the pick-up lines were long enough as it is and since the food items do tend to run out and take 30 to 60 minutes to restock mobile ordering just adds to the complications of juggling the pick-up line and food order from the the central kitchen in a timely manner.
There are no F&W giftcards this year. So if you've attend one in the past and enjoy having that wristlet card, bring yours from a previous year. I was rather annoyed Saturday at constantly having to pull out a payment card to by the booze instead of just having the handy dandy wristlet. If you enjoy hanging out at the backlot in the for the 3 presentations bring food with you or plan to do food runs during the breaks. LA Style has been moved from the backlot to the main corridor. In it's place now it a very cute backdrop for photo ops with Chef Goofy.
Our food samplings:
Banoffee Tart - My new favorite dessert, feed these to me ALL day long! I had assumed that this was going to be a banana and coffee tart but it actually doesn't have any coffee.
Impossible Cheeseburger Mac & Cheese - If I'm eating plant based meat I want it to be Impossible. Nothing to overly special about this it's mac and cheese with thousand island sauce and Impossible meat. Nice way to introduce people to Impossible that haven't tired it.
Salmon with Pea Puree I loved the lemon relish. This was a nice pop of flavor. The salmon was slightly over cooked but that's to be expected when it's sitting on a hot plate waiting to be served. The black rice was a little under done for me but this may be the way the rice is supposed to be, I'd never had it before.
Fried chicken and Waffle Sandwich- We actually had this twice. The first time it was so good, the chicken was moist the waffle was perfect, the mimosa slaw was sweet and the orange bubbles were delicious. Sunday night, we're getting ready to leave and DH wants to grab a bite before heading out and decides to grab another. This was was an Epic fail. Chicken was very over cooked, you could tell just by looking at it the color difference between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. He went back and asked for a different one and was told they all looked like this. Complete let down, the chicken tender was so over cooked the roof of his mouth was getting cut up. Would I get this again yes however I would look at what's coming out of the window before I get in line to pick up the food.
Creamy Pablano Pasta - Too spicy for me, I had one little bite of the pasta just to try it. My DH liked the flavors but again hot plate hurt this dish because the pasta ended up over cooked and mushy. Putting that aside he would get this again.
Grilled Shrimp tacos - This was a fun play on tacos where instead of the usual flour or corn tortilla a slice of jicama was used as the tortilla. The coldness of the jicama helped with the spice for me. (I am a total wimp when it comes to spice) The pineapple chili salsa is where the heat is so you can ask for it on the side and use it sparingly if you're a wimp like me.
Caramel, peanut chocolate macaron - Yummy and rich. I wanted a glass of milk with this and I only ate a third. This macaron seems bigger to me then the ones in the past but I could be wrong. It was good and I would get it again if I was craving chocolate but the Banoffee would be my go to for just a sweet tooth.
Shrimp and Braised Corn with Chorizo - We got 3 shrimp in our boat and a lot of corn. I didn't taste any chorizo. Is it possible they went light on the chorizo and another boat would have had more chorizo flavor? Hard to say until we try this again if we do. I enjoyed the braised corn but my DH didn't, it was dry and chewy almost made me think dehydrated partially instead of braised.
Mini Chicken Chimis - I love Disney Chimis and this had a very similar flavor profile as the ones you can buy around the park. I think if I wanted these again I would just go buy the big meat one for less money. They were so small you don't even notice the chicken.
Meatless Meatball sub - I enjoyed this last year, the year before and again this year. I still make the same comment about it however, It needs more sauce.
Brisket Fries - The brisket was really good, fully smothered in BBQ sauce. The sauce was a little sweet so if you don't like sweet BBQ sauce then skip this. The thing with this dish that confused me was the addition of the nacho cheese sauce. I don't understand why it was added and I don't think it was needed, however any fires that didn't have brisket got dunked in the extra cheese sauce because it was there.
Cocktails:
Honey bourbon lemonade - Nice balanced drink, you get the sweetness from the honey, the tartness from the lemon and the bourbon flavor. If you're a bourbon drinker this is something I could see being drank on a porch on a hot summer day while rocking away. Don't like bourbon? Find someone who does to share it with so you can at least try it. I had a few sips and someone else killed it.
Watermelon lemonade Vodka - This looks like it will be my festival go to.. at least until I try the Berry Mule. The drink is served with some fresh basil, which adds another layer to the drink. It is a little tart from the lemonade and very sweet from the watermelon. After I had some of the basil with the drink it made me think of a play on a mint julep which I love. So if you like mint juleps try this.
I'm still sadly disappointed that the bigger name chefs are not there this year with the Sunday paid culinary demos. Love the new signage on all the booths, I spent a good while yesterday looking at each sign to see if there was a hidden Mickey in each. I'm not sure if there is or not but quite a few do have a hidden Mickey. Saturday morning when all the booths opened up figuring out the order and pick-up lines was a bit chaotic, it was nice to see the addition of the signs come Sunday. I'm glad that the mobile ordering option has been removed because the pick-up lines were long enough as it is and since the food items do tend to run out and take 30 to 60 minutes to restock mobile ordering just adds to the complications of juggling the pick-up line and food order from the the central kitchen in a timely manner.
There are no F&W giftcards this year. So if you've attend one in the past and enjoy having that wristlet card, bring yours from a previous year. I was rather annoyed Saturday at constantly having to pull out a payment card to by the booze instead of just having the handy dandy wristlet. If you enjoy hanging out at the backlot in the for the 3 presentations bring food with you or plan to do food runs during the breaks. LA Style has been moved from the backlot to the main corridor. In it's place now it a very cute backdrop for photo ops with Chef Goofy.
Our food samplings:
Banoffee Tart - My new favorite dessert, feed these to me ALL day long! I had assumed that this was going to be a banana and coffee tart but it actually doesn't have any coffee.
Impossible Cheeseburger Mac & Cheese - If I'm eating plant based meat I want it to be Impossible. Nothing to overly special about this it's mac and cheese with thousand island sauce and Impossible meat. Nice way to introduce people to Impossible that haven't tired it.
Salmon with Pea Puree I loved the lemon relish. This was a nice pop of flavor. The salmon was slightly over cooked but that's to be expected when it's sitting on a hot plate waiting to be served. The black rice was a little under done for me but this may be the way the rice is supposed to be, I'd never had it before.
Fried chicken and Waffle Sandwich- We actually had this twice. The first time it was so good, the chicken was moist the waffle was perfect, the mimosa slaw was sweet and the orange bubbles were delicious. Sunday night, we're getting ready to leave and DH wants to grab a bite before heading out and decides to grab another. This was was an Epic fail. Chicken was very over cooked, you could tell just by looking at it the color difference between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. He went back and asked for a different one and was told they all looked like this. Complete let down, the chicken tender was so over cooked the roof of his mouth was getting cut up. Would I get this again yes however I would look at what's coming out of the window before I get in line to pick up the food.
Creamy Pablano Pasta - Too spicy for me, I had one little bite of the pasta just to try it. My DH liked the flavors but again hot plate hurt this dish because the pasta ended up over cooked and mushy. Putting that aside he would get this again.
Grilled Shrimp tacos - This was a fun play on tacos where instead of the usual flour or corn tortilla a slice of jicama was used as the tortilla. The coldness of the jicama helped with the spice for me. (I am a total wimp when it comes to spice) The pineapple chili salsa is where the heat is so you can ask for it on the side and use it sparingly if you're a wimp like me.
Caramel, peanut chocolate macaron - Yummy and rich. I wanted a glass of milk with this and I only ate a third. This macaron seems bigger to me then the ones in the past but I could be wrong. It was good and I would get it again if I was craving chocolate but the Banoffee would be my go to for just a sweet tooth.
Shrimp and Braised Corn with Chorizo - We got 3 shrimp in our boat and a lot of corn. I didn't taste any chorizo. Is it possible they went light on the chorizo and another boat would have had more chorizo flavor? Hard to say until we try this again if we do. I enjoyed the braised corn but my DH didn't, it was dry and chewy almost made me think dehydrated partially instead of braised.
Mini Chicken Chimis - I love Disney Chimis and this had a very similar flavor profile as the ones you can buy around the park. I think if I wanted these again I would just go buy the big meat one for less money. They were so small you don't even notice the chicken.
Meatless Meatball sub - I enjoyed this last year, the year before and again this year. I still make the same comment about it however, It needs more sauce.
Brisket Fries - The brisket was really good, fully smothered in BBQ sauce. The sauce was a little sweet so if you don't like sweet BBQ sauce then skip this. The thing with this dish that confused me was the addition of the nacho cheese sauce. I don't understand why it was added and I don't think it was needed, however any fires that didn't have brisket got dunked in the extra cheese sauce because it was there.
Cocktails:
Honey bourbon lemonade - Nice balanced drink, you get the sweetness from the honey, the tartness from the lemon and the bourbon flavor. If you're a bourbon drinker this is something I could see being drank on a porch on a hot summer day while rocking away. Don't like bourbon? Find someone who does to share it with so you can at least try it. I had a few sips and someone else killed it.
Watermelon lemonade Vodka - This looks like it will be my festival go to.. at least until I try the Berry Mule. The drink is served with some fresh basil, which adds another layer to the drink. It is a little tart from the lemonade and very sweet from the watermelon. After I had some of the basil with the drink it made me think of a play on a mint julep which I love. So if you like mint juleps try this.
