Top Picks from Epcot's Food & Wine Festival 2009

This year marks the third year in a row that I've attended Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. When I started going to the Festival, anything that wasn't Mac & Cheese was considered "ethnic" food and a little too adventurous for my pallet. It's now 2009 and I look forward to visiting the Tangierene Cafe (in Morocco, when not visiting the Kiosks obviously!) and introducing my boyfriend to one of my perennial favorites, escargot. Things have definitely changed, and now I bring you my top picks of Food & Wine 2009!


I'll start with what was easily our favorite dish of the Festival. Seen in the image on the right are the items we tried from the Paris, France kiosk. On the left is Escargot en Brioche , while on the right is Cabernet Short Ribs with Mashed Potatoes. The item I want to talk about is the short ribs. They poured a warm Cabernet sauce on top of this concoction that made the entire dish pop. It was comfort food, plain and simple. Like a warm hug on a cold day, except it was terribly hot out! We seriously could have sat on this bench all day and just kept eating them, they were that good. The meat was tender and the mashed potatoes were just the right consistency, not gummy how some massed produced potatoes can get. Both my boyfriend and I agreed that this was by far our favorite dish of the Festival.

We'll go now to a second beef dish from Cape Town, South Africa. Seen on the left is the Seared Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Puree, and Mango Barbecue Sauce. I must admit a few things here; 1) I'm fairly picky about my meat, I like it medium rare, which is hard to do in a mass setting 2) I'm not a fan of Sweet Potatoes and 3) I'm also not a fan of mango. All signs point to me just not enjoying this dish. But in the spirit of the Festival, I gave it a try. While the meat was overcooked (at least by my standards!) it was still tender enough to cut with a plastic knife, so that gets a pass. When you took a bite of each ingredient together, it was like a party in your mouth. The mango wasn't overwhelming and complimented the sweetness of the potatoes nicely. The sweet potatoes in return helped to calm down the tangy taste of the barbecue sauce. All which went wonderfully with the beef. All in all, we were impressed with the dish and it made it on the short list.

The desserts this year ranked high on my list. I have a huge sweet tooth, so I had a ton of them on my list to try going down, but just wasn't able to get around to all of them. Really, any of the desserts I tried I would recommend highly and for different reasons. We had the Strawberry Shortcake which was just loaded with strawberries and fresh whipped cream from the Desserts & Champagne booth. From the same booth we picked up the Grand Marnier Parfait. It was frozen, and it's consistency was like Orange sherbet. On a hot day it was perfect. What made it especially great was the orange coulis on top, just a phenomenal flavor, bright & citrusy...exactly how it was supposed to be! We tried the Warm Chocolate Lave Cake with Bailey's Ganache from Cork, Ireland. A small portion, but it was so rich, we were almost glad it wasn't larger! From Santiago, Chile we tried the Alfajores which are Dulche de Leche cookies. Basically a butter cookie with dulche de leche in the center. They had them chilled, so they were cold when you got them. Another great choice on a hot day! They were sweet without being overpowering and since they were our last snack for a while, were a great option to cap off a segment of snacking. Finally, probably my favorite of all the desserts was the Praline Bread Pudding with a Bourbon Caramel Sauce from New Orleans, Lousiana. As I mentioned previously, one of my favorite things about the Festival is trying new things. Because of this festival, I learned that I love bread pudding! (I've ordered it twice at restaurants since I've gotten home, they've been good, but not as good as this one!) It was warm and soft, and each bite just melted in your mouth. I was in heaven.

Some observations from the festival as a whole... I was very impressed this year. The quality of the food was amazing. There was really only one item that we didn't like. And honestly, it was more that we didn't care for it than that it was bad. Others around us loved it! (The Fisherman's Pie from Cork, Ireland in case you're wondering!) Just wasn't for us. There was also a time that I was handed a plate of food, and in doing so, touched the gloved hand of a Cast Member. That Cast Member imediately changed gloves. The next person wouldn't have known whether or not he did that, but the commitment he showed to food safety wow'd me.

This was the first year I've ever checked out an event besides just the kiosks and I had a blast. Also headed over to the festival center, got a glass of champagne and port in some air conditioning while we listened to a free speaker. It was a nice way to cool off. I highly suggest planning out some of the events ahead of time as this year some of the usually free events were $8 and there were some unhappy people being turned away. All in all, Food & Wine is still a hit, and I'm already making plans for my pilgrimmage next year!