Walt Disney World: It's always about the food. Always. Part Two

Today we went to Epcot. For those unfamiliar with Epcot in October, the park hosts a month long special event: The Food and Wine Festival. Throughout the World Showcase area of the park, there are over 25 special booths featuring two to three food tastings and at least one beer and/or wine, focusing on a specific cuisine from around the world.

We understood that items under $4 would count as Snacks for the Disney Dining Plan, however when we started to walk through the booths, we saw on the menus that even items that cost more than $4 had the Dining Plan Snack Symbol next to them.

Today we set out to use no more than seven snack credits. We stopped at six because we were getting a bit too full. We shared each sample five ways. Yes, five. In many cases, the boys only had one small bite but we all enjoyed tasting a little bit of so many different items.

Our first stop was the Argentina booth, because it was near the entrance to World Showcase and because I was once an exchange student in Argentina. I love Argentine food. We had an empanada and a skewer of beef with chimichurri sauce. The best part about these, (both were excellent,) was that the skewer of beef was deliciously tender. So often mass-produced beef skewers are not tender.

Next we went to the Poland booth. We ordered Kielbasa and Potato Pierogie with Caramelized Onions and Sour Cream. These were pretty standard dishes but they were tasty nonetheless.

I love me the lamb so naturally we ordered the Lamb Chop with Red Wine Sauce and Murray River Sea Salt from the Australia booth. Again, this was very good. (Yes, I marked up my map with a Sharpie so we could figure out where we really really wanted to go. Yes, we have to go back to eat more. Did I mention that there are 27 booths?)

At Germany, we ordered Spaetzle Gratin with Ham and Cheese. This serving was very generous and it was the boys' favorite dish of the day. I thought it was ok but only took one bite.

The Hops and Barley booth at the American Pavillion had a New England Lobster Roll. I did not realize that "Lobster Roll" means "Lobster salad." The flavors of the salad, the mayonnaise and vegetables, overpowered the lobster. Doc and the boys ate most of it and enjoyed it. Even Sweet But Sneaky, who hates shrimp. (So what does that tell you about the texture and flavor of the lobster?)

For lunch we had the fish and chips from the walk-up counter in the United Kingdom area. I was disappointed in this dish. I like Fish and Chips. It may have been the Heinz tarter sauce; It did not have the flavor I like for tarter sauce, and I really like tarter sauce on my fish. It might have been the lack of lemon juice; I like to squeeze lemon on my fish. We split three servings between the five of us and I gave most of mine to Mr. Genius because he finished his serving and was still hungry for more.

At 3:35 we attended the Sam Adams beer class and tasting event near the American Pavillion. I found this brief talk (it was less than 15 minutes,) very informative actually. We learned about the history of Sam Adams beer and a bit about how beer is made and how flavors are achieved. I am not a fan of beer. I get full quickly and can only drink very cold beer. It was fun to try the samples and Doc managed to finish my leftovers. Our friend and traveling companion Flat Joe joined us for the tasting, too.

Later I ordered a chocolate croissant from the French pastry shop

For dinner we went to another restaurant which I have wanted to visit as long as I have wanted to come to Walt Disney World, is the Biergarten Buffet at the Germany Pavillion. Again, this restaurant met and exceeded almost all of my expectations!

Our server was awesome. He was friendly and he spent some time talking to our table, answering our somewhat personal questions about growing up in Germany, and giving us great service. We shared a table with a family of three: The couple was about our age and her mother joined them. The tables at Biergarten seat 8 people each so smaller groups are seated together. Our children were well behaved, in my opinion, and the other group complimented their behavior and was friendly to our family throughout our meal. The situation worked very nicely for our families.

There was brief entertainment - a live band performed for 15 minutes at the top of each hour. We learned that SBS does not like polka music. At all. I suspect that the volume contributed to his opinion. I enjoyed the music and "show" very much.

But then there was the food!

Doc ordered a liter of Oktoberfest beer, as did the three other adults at our table. I tasted the beer and it was very good. The others did not finish their beer and our server brought them cups to take their leftover beer with them after dinner. The very large serving cost only $12, which seems very reasonable for resort pricing.

I will say that the potatoes at the buffet disappointed me. There were no potato pancakes. The spaetzle was not as tasty as I had expected, although my experience with this dish is rather limited. I did not see any mashed potatoes either. Do Germans eat mashed potatoes? They certainly do in my parents home!

That said, the rest of the food was wonderful. Of particular note:

• There was a lovely "sausage salad" that was very thinly sliced 1" diameter sausage with a light dressing. The adults at our table enjoyed it very much.
• There were cold slices of sausage on the salad buffet which I also enjoyed.
• Sauerkraut. I love sauerkraut.
• Rouladen. While Doc and I agreed that it was not as good as my mother's, we both enjoyed it!
• Sauerbraten. Oh my! I love love love sauerbraten and this sauerbraten was, in my opinion, very good.
• Red cabbage. Mr. Genius said he prefered my red cabbage. He said, "This is ok, but it tastes different than yours." He was correct. I do not put ginger in mine. This red cabbage had ginger in it. I have no complaints. It was good.
• German potato salad. This was Mr. Genius's first taste of this dish and he loved it. Naturally.
• There was a carving station with turkey and pork. I passed on these but I noticed the others had them. They had applesauce to serve with the pork. (So where were the potato pancakes??)
• Dessert! I have since learned from two friends with far more experience with German food than mine, that the light, wonderful dessert I had was called kasekuchen. It is a cheesecake but not heavy like American cheesecake. SBS and CS enjoyed it also.

I would definitely return to Biergarten. It was a comprehensive enjoyable meal!

It is too late for me to post my stories about today but I hope you enjoyed the food reviews!