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.

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