Thanks to Disney Food Blog reader Galloping Gourmand for relaying his reviews of a few brand new dishes featured in this year’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival! You can find his reviews of several seafood dishes here!Heirloom Tomatoes with Oregon Blue Cheese, Red Onions, and Basil
Found at this year’s United States Booth, there is not a lot I can say about this dish — I am practically predestined to like it. Nothing brings me more joy than shopping my local farmer’s market for some heirloom tomatoes. I love to mix and match them in a good gazpacho, put them in a sauce, use a few different ones in a salad. This was a very simple dish. I chose to brush off the blue cheese and just have the tomatoes, which were wonderfully ripe and flavorful. The basil and onions were a good complement to the tomatoes. Why spoil that with an strong blue cheese?
Heirloom Tomato and Bleu Cheese Dish From United States Pavilion
Lettuce Wraps with Roast Pork and Kimchi Slaw
Kimchi is a dish that is about 2800 years old and eaten at practically every meal in Korea. It’s so important that a cabbage shortage in South Korea made the news on NPR recently (kimchi involves fermenting cabbage). It comes in many styles, and I don’t know enough about the dish to tell you what this particular style was. Many people are crazy for it, so you can ask them. I just know that I like it. A lot.
In this particular kimchi, found in the brand new South Korea booth at this year’s Festival, chili peppers were out front, but so was a strong pickled flavor. The pork was definitely in the background to me, so much so that it almost seemed like a filler. The lettuce we were meant to wrap it in was fairly unmanageable and we ended up eating it with a fork. It didn’t make any difference to me. Either way I think this was the best individual dish of the festival.
South Korea Booth Lettuce Wrap
Cheese Fondue with Croutons and Roasted Potatoes
The Charcuterie and Cheese booth was the first place I stopped, and I was severely disappointed. The cheese had a very strong wine flavor and almost no cheesiness. Actually, I wasn’t sure if it was wine or not; that’s just the flavor I eventually settled on for it. Maybe that was the pure flavor of the cheese, but when I asked what kind of cheese they used the servers at the book were quite rude. The told me they didn’t know then practically waved me off. The croutons were not toasted. “Bread Squares” would have been more truth in advertising. Either way, they added nothing to the fondue. When I used the roasted potatoes everything came together a bit more. The overpowering wine (?) flavor was tempered a little but not enough for my tastes.
I’d love to ask those who tried it what they thought. What kind of cheese was that? Was it a mixture? Was there wine or was it hard cider?
Cheese Fondue with Bread and Potatoes
Let us know what you thought of the newest dishes at the festival in the comments section below!
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The cheese and charcuterie booth was the single biggest disappointment of all the booths for us this year – there was so much potential and it failed on every level. The fondue was runny and bitter when we tried it; the “croutons” were just pieces of bread cut into squares; and the potatoes were cold. A perfect storm of culinary BLEH!
And the meat platter … we could hardly tell the difference between the ham and the beef; the duck was the best of the three and I don’t even like duck.
Epic Fail.
I agree, the lettuce wrap was the best of the festival. Or at the very least #2 ( I did love the Tuna Sensation.)
Agree with Brenda, the cheese & charcuterie booth was a disappointment. I missed the mouse trap!
Hubs and I LOVED the lettuce wraps! We had so much filling in both pieces that it was like a meal!!!!! I wish they had those year round!! BIG WIN in our book!!!!
Nice review, GG.
I have yet to try any of these, but I’d have to go with the lettuce wrap out of all of the items. It’s very hard to figure out a particular cheese combination, but it’s most likely with a bit of wine mixed in if it has a sort of zing to it. The people serving it DO need to have a clue, incase of allergies.