Photo Update: Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival has begun
Get ready, get set … This year’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival has begun! We took a walk through the park last night during the cast member preview (also open to the public) and brought you back some pirogies, no, wait … pictures… we brought you back pictures of our food. Sorry. You’ll have to visit yourself for a taste.
As you head back to World Showcase to begin your culinary adventure, you’ll pass this Mickey topiary making a salad. As someone commented on our Twitter feed, it’s a salad making a salad.
Our first stop was at the Hawaii stand for this great Kālua pork slider with sweet and sour Dole Pineapple chutney and spicy mayonnaise. Yum. Note the price listed is for four of them.
Right across from Hawaii is one of the stands where you can get some Food & Wine merchandise. Here’s the new logo on a hat and a handy plate you may want for holding your food and drink at the same time.
Here’s the front and back of the Taste your Way Around the World T-Shirt.
A shirt featuring the characters.
Or maybe you’d like to drink your way around the world.
A Duffy doll dressed for the occasion.
A cute wine glass ornament.
Our next food stop was in Canada for the most popular item sold each year, the cheddar cheese soup.
If you’re not paying attention, you may miss the stand for Puerto Rico. It has its own path near the front of World Showcase, not far from Hawaii.
Puerto Rico is one of few areas with its own sectioned-off area of tables.
Heading back the other way, towards Mexico, you’ll see a new marketplace called Patagonia. If you’re a fan of the grilled beef skewer with chimichurri sauce, this is now where you’ll get it. Note the great pose by the cast member.
I’m sure this tastes better than it sounds, but we skipped the steamed green lip mussels.
This is our publisher’s new favorite, sweet corn cheesecake from the Mexico marketplace.
Instead of the bacon cupcake, bacon fans will want to try Nueske’s pepper bacon hash with sweet corn, potatoes, hollandaise and pickled jalapeños at the Farm Fresh marketplace. It was very good.
You may see a couple of areas like this one. It’s a special Premium Package Disney resort guests can purchase. In this area, they can relax and enjoy flavors from six continents and go to an after-hours party. Click here for more information.
Some in our group tried two different kinds of waffles from the Belgium marketplace. This is the potato and leek waffle with beer-braised beef.
This is the Belgian waffle with berry compote and whipped cream.
Two dishes from the Brazil marketplace. On the left is the Mocequa de pescado AKA Regal Springs premium tilapia with coconut lime sauce and steamed rice. On the right is the crispy pork belly with black beans, tomato and cilantro. Both were great. We especially loved the tilapia.
Brazil is another marketplace which features its own area. This one has seats too. Bonus!
Since this was a preview of the festival, we haven’t yet experienced this year’s concerts, classes, special events or the Festival Center, which all started today. We’ll definitely be back many times. It runs every day through November 10.
Check out the Sept. 18 episode of “Orlando Attractions Magazine – The Show” below for our interview with one of the festival chefs and an organizer:
