After our pranzo in Italy we needed a bit of time and digestion before hitting Food & Wine. Luckily, there are a still few more things to do in Epcot besides eating, really. We headed back to Future World to experience Spaceship Earth. The uninitiated among us will refer to this as the Big Golf Ball. The über Disney geeks will correctly refer to the as a geodesic sphere.
Super artsy photo I took.
This is an omnimover attraction that takes you on a journey through the history of human communication. What, that doesn’t sound riveting? This mural is the cliff notes version of the ride:
We drew on caves, then went to space.
Kidding aside, the animatronics on the attraction are quite impressive. There was an extensive refurbishment in 2007 that brought the technology up to date. It also changed out the narration. Over the years it’s gone from the esteemed Walter Cronkite, to the venerable Jeremy Irons, to the tolerated Dame Judi Dench.
Hieroglyphics, good…
TV better…
…Room sized computers and groovy yellow tights. End of story!
The sun is setting, our bellies are settled so let’s to head back to World Showcase, Emkay?
De lovely
If I’m going to be a professional-type blogger I need to capture all the details. My goal was to take a shot of each booth and menu board we visited.
Belgium Booth
Menu board, very informative.
Sorry, this will be the end of my professionalism. I got too excited about the food to be a good blogger do-bee.
I read a ton about what the best choices at this year’s festival. The Belgium dish, Potato Leek Waffle with Braised Beef got a lot of buzz. One, for the flavors, but mostly because of it’s appearance. There’s no way around it, the dish looked hideous. However, it tasted fabulous!
Looks like something the dog coughed up. Tastes like heaven.
Believe it or not, there is a delicious waffle underneath that savory stew. Disney chefs, this is for you: Put the waffle on top of the stew! It will look more inviting and it will keep that waffle nice and crispy. You’re welcome.
Accompanying our dish is the Leffe Brune. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious a**, I actually visited Belgium and the brewery in Bruges where this heavenly beverage is created. I haven’t been able to find it since in my area, so it really brought me back...
Leffe Brune
Gorgeous Planters were everywhere.
Capitalizing on the Locavore trend, Food & Wine recently added the Florida Local Booth.
Florida Grass Fed Beef Slider with Monterey Jack and Sweet & Hot Pickles. Orlando Brewing, Sun Shade Organic Pale Ale
The Grass fed Beef slider was the rumored favorite. Though it was a little well done for my tastes, the flavor was excellent. For me, the star of the dish was the spicy pickles. They made the already good burger great. The pale ale was tasty, but unremarkable.
This next dish, Crispy Pork Belly is from Brazil. This had gotten mixed reviews due to inconsistency in the execution, but I couldn’t resist giving it a try. When pork belly is in the house, you gotta have it.
Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans, Onions, Avocado and Cilantro. Cerveharias Kaiser Brewery Xingu Black Beer.
Good news. My portion was cooked perfectly. The fat was rendered and crisp and the meat was tender. All of the other components were delectable, especially the black beans. Winner. The Black beer was full-flavored and paired well with the dish. I’m a sucker for dark beers, as you may have gleened.
Time to take a walk-about to Norway. While it’s not my absolute favorite pavilion, it is quite lovely. It contains one of the two “rides” in World Showcase. The Maelstrom.
Charming Village Area
Maelstrom Waterfall
Fast-paced? Pfft.
The ride here is just fine if you’re walking right on. Otherwise, skip it if it’s more than a twenty minute wait and come back later. The “plunge” is really more a dip. This is one of those quirky attractions that is adored more for it’s strangeness than it’s quality. Really, when you think of Norway, do you think of trolls? Me neither.
Mural you can reflect upon in the queue.
The Stave Church greets you at the entrance of the pavilion. Inside there was a museum. This was a nice place to cool off and check out the exhibits. This time I found the doors locked.
Stave Church
Come to find out that they’re making this into a meet and greet for the new movie Frozen. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
No visit to to Norway is complete without a stop at the Kringla Og Bakery Café. This contains the tantamount snack, the School Bread. This is a must have, regardless if you’re stuffed full of Food & Wine cuisine.
Bakery case. So many things left to try!
School Bread. A classic.
One component to Food & Wine that shouldn’t be over-looked is the Eat to the Beat concert series. The line up this year was quite stellar. On this evening we got to enjoy Edwin McCain of “I’ll Be” fame. We caught the last few songs and the band was just fantastic.
Not the best seats, we snuck in late.
No worries, he came right on out to serenade us.
He’s not this blurry in real life.
The lady sitting behind us was FREAKING OUT! Her husband was less impressed. I think he knew where is stood. It turns out that we had a mutual friend in the drummer and Jeff got to chat up with him. A great take.
So beautiful. Don’t you want to go there right now!
We just skimmed the surface of Food & Wine on this day, but we would be hitting it hard again before the trip is over.
We ended the evening as everyone should, enjoying IlluminNations. This one always gives me a lump in the throat. On our very first trip as a family, on the first night, we got to view this from prime seats at the Rose and Crown. I think it sealed the deal for all of us. This place is like no other.
“We hope you enjoy our story tonight: Reflections of Earth.” Whoo…
Next Up: Getting up close and personal with New Fantasyland.