On Sunday I returned for my second taste of this year’s Food and Wine Festival.

There was a new Festival guide map at the turnstiles for the weekend.

We went to the Blue Sky Cellar to get our AP button and recipe cards – but the button was the same as last weekend. The cast member said they will change on Mondays. So the next day the new button and recipe cards would be released. The Festival is mostly on weekends…but the buttons are released on Mondays??? Doesn’t make much sense to me.

Last week I mentioned the AP Passport – which was $45 for 6 tastings (food only), which made it not a good value at all unless you stuck to the three items that were $7.50, $7.75, and $8.00. I’m happy to say that they fixed that – the passport is $39 now. So if you buy food items that cost $6.50 or more, and there are six of those, then you will at least break even, if not come out a little bit ahead.

AND, for those of us who purchased it last week when it was $45, there is a $10 gift card by way of apology. I went to the Blue Sky Cellar where they scanned my AP and punched a hole in the lanyard, then gave me the gift card. It didn’t matter that I’d already used several tabs off the lanyard. So I thought they handled that well.

At 11:00 on Sunday morning, the lines were already long at the Festival Marketplaces. Last Friday the wait was mostly to order, but this week there were lengthy waits both to order and to pickup the food. In some cases the booths were waiting to be re-supplied with one of the food items – most are prepared in a remote kitchen somewhere. In other cases, there’s some plating that happens in the booths, and that seemed to be going very slowly.

Cast members were building masking tape queues – it had rained earlier and they had to wait until the ground was dry.

The good news is that there still seemed to be plenty of interest in the Festival Marketplace booths, and lots of people were trying and enjoying the various food and beverage offerings. But by the end of the second full weekend I would’ve thought the supply and service issues would have been worked out a little better. (The long line in the photo below is for pick-up – it’s especially slow at the beer and wine booths.)

From the Viva Fresca! Marketplace I was finally able to try the Anaheim Chile and Roasted Cauliflower Burrito with Jack cheese and avocado-lime crema. Last weekend they ran out of them, and it was going to be a 15-20 minute wait. This time they were also out of them, but were expecting more within 5 minutes. There were probably 8 people in front of me also waiting for the burritos. Once they arrived they were served up pretty quickly. This was really good – it’s now my favorite Festival item. For $5.50 it’s a generous serving. The flour tortilla is stuffed full of mild green chiles, cauliflower and lots of melted cheese. It’s a little spicy, and the avocado crema helps to cool it off.

From the same Marketplace I also ordered the Fried Shrimp Soft Taco with pickled red onion and jalapeno, queso fresco, and avocado-lime crema. This was actually two soft tacos – one on a white corn tortilla and one on blue corn. These were also very good, though the pickled vegetables were a little strong and made me cough. I liked them, though. $6.50 for this one.

At LA Style I tried the Pork Belly Bao Taco – also with pickled vegetables, for $6.50. These pickled vegetables weren’t nearly as strong, though. This dish was also a winner – the steamed “taco shell” was soft and chewy and the pork belly and veggies inside had a very good flavor. It wasn’t nearly as fatty as I expected.

Both last weekend and this weekend I went to one of the Beverage Seminars. I booked these at the beginning of March when the schedule first went up. They are $15/person (plus tax and gratuity), paid in advance, though the reservation can be cancelled up to 24 hours in advance. There’s very little availability for the remaining sessions. Most of them are wine tastings (and you’ll find wines from some of the wineries for sale in the Festival Marketplaces), but there are also beer and liquor tastings as well.

The beverage seminars are held outside at the Sonoma Terrace. The area is open-air and only partially covered. Plenty of shade, but not windproof. The trees around it sometimes shed leaves, blossoms, etc. that can end up in the wine glasses.

About 30 minutes before the seminar starts, cast members start going down the line and checking off names. Showing a photo id is also required at this time, as only those aged 21 and over are allowed into the tasting area. You don’t need to be there 30 minutes early – they will continue to check off names as people arrive at the end of the line. Anywhere from 10 minutes before to 5 minutes after they will let people in. It’s open seating, and first come,first serve, so if you want to sit in the front, you’ll want to be one of the first 8-10 people in line. The presenters have microphones, so you don’t need to be in the front to be able to hear them.

The first tasting I attended was Hill Family Estates. They grow a lot of grapes that they supply to well-known wineries, but they started making their own wines, also. The presenter was Ryan Hill, who was a very engaging speaker. We sampled three wines, a chardonnay and two red blends. They weren’t really to my taste, but a lot of people in the audience enjoyed them. Ryan had lots of interesting things to tell us and there were a number of questions, so this seminar lasted about 45 minutes.

This past weekend I went to Sparkling Wines: Cava, Champagne, and Prosecco. This one started late – it was supposed to start at noon but we weren’t even admitted into the area until after that. I was expecting to taste Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) Champagne and Prosecco, but we didn’t get to try any Cava. And unfortunately all three wines we sampled had been sitting around too long and there were no bubbles! Very disappointing. We tried a real Champagne from the Champagne region of France (Landon), as well as the Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee, which is a sparkling wine from California made in the Champagne method. The third wine was Rosa Regale, which is a red sparkling wine made in the Italian style. I’d had the Iron Horse and the Rosa Regale before, and enjoy them very much. The Landon was also very good.

This seminar was presented by two Disneyland Resort Sommeliers. They seemed a little nervous, and the seminar was only about 30 minutes.

Last weekend I also went to one of the Culinary Demonstrations. These are held on the stage in the Hollywood Backlot. There’s a demonstration kitchen set up, but NO samples are served. There are benches available for those who arrive early enough, with standing room at the back. Since there’s no samples, there doesn’t seem to be nearly the demand for these that there was in the past. While all of the benches were full, there was still plenty of standing room.

We saw Chef Jamie Gwen – we remember seeing her at previous Festivals. This was her first demonstration this year and she was very excited to be back!

She made buffalo meatball sliders – with two meatballs piled on top of each other. They looked very good. She was an entertaining and informative speaker – I learned how chefs dice an onion. 🙂

Also in the Backlot area, but on the opposite stage (where the Mad T Party band used to perform) are the Lifestyle Seminars. There is quite the variety of topics for these – in addition to gardening and wellness tips, there’s also topics like home brewing, “Improving Social Media Photos”, and “The Recipes of Star Wars.” A number of the sessions also feature artists creating pieces of art right in front of you. Jason saw this session by Stephen Fishwick.

And this past weekend I saw Craig Fraser.

It looks like these are pretty lightly attended – there’s only one row of bench seating and not much standing room behind it.

As part of the Festival, several of the artists also have art featured in “Off the Page” and have signing sessions scheduled there.

Post a Comment