A Food and Wine DR 2016 - 3x Update and Complete 1/8/17

[pepperandchips]

If I recall, we slept in a tiny bit on Sunday, September 25. R was simply exhausted after the long day before and I felt bad waking him up. We started our day at my favorite park - Animal Kingdom - with a ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris.

I am really disappointed that they changed the ride and took out the "radio station coming in" bit since Hapa Duniani is 1.) a beautiful song and 2.) one of those happy sounds that just immediately transports me to vacation. That aside, I never hate the safari and of course I was just happy to be there.

We then went off in search of a mystical yeti on a train track that was frankly in disrepair...

(love this area down by the water)

R and I took our leave from the rest of my family and decided we were in need of refreshment so we stopped by my favorite Animal Kingdom savory snack spot, Mr. Kamal's, and ordered up some hot fried samosas.

As usual, these were fresh and delicious and filled our tummies for a stint so that we could get some real food. We did some damage over at the food and wine festival (food has already been reviewed, sorry guys!) and went back to DS to grab R's credit card - he'd left it when paying the tab at Homecoming's bar (where we stopped for to-go drinks and I forgot to take pictures or report on) on Friday night and fortunately it was still there.

The moment of sadness had come for R - I took him back to the airport and he returned to reality. Meanwhile, I returned to the WBC and called an Uber to drop me at the Beach Club so I could meet my mom and sister for more F&W goodies via international gateway. I was sad but in love with the gorgeous sunset and manage to grab a couple pictures.

There was only one thing that could alleviate my sorrow at seeing my best friend leave my happy place... DISNEY CHICKEN NUGGETS!

I know, I know, there was a whole festival of unique treats at my disposal and yet I wanted chicken nuggets. What can I say, sometimes a girl just needs fried things. Anyway, my mom and sister were kind enough to go with me to the Liberty Inn where I ordered the chidren's chicken nuggets. They were tasty and did their job and soon I was back to eating and drinking around the festival with everyone else. (The crappy night pics from my food and wine reviews came from this night).

We actually managed to find an empty bench near the Canada booth about 30 minutes before Illuminations and we decided to stay and watch. Fortunately the area next to the lagoon in front of us was reserved for a private party, so we had a fairly decent view of my favorite nighttime spectacular with a seat. We left as illuminations was ending, and I said goodbye to Epcot for this trip.

 

[pepperandchips]

Well, thank you very much for sticking with me especially as I all but fell off the face of the earth after my job transition in October. Here is my final dining review, which is sadly not very exotic but features my new favorite Disney food hack.

We spent the morning of my last day at WDW (my sister and mom stayed on a bit longer) at the Magic Kingdom, which was very fitting. We did quite a few attractions that morning and ended up hungry in Adventureland around 11:00. Sadly, my sister noted that the Golden Oak Outpost was no longer serving up her favorite loaded waffle fries. However, a brilliant idea suddenly dawned on me: Pecos Bill has a toppings bar!

So we split up - mom got in line at Golden Oak Outpost for naked waffle fries while my sister and I went into Pecos Bill for additional sustenance. I ordered the beef nachos and noticed that on the children's menu was... CORN DOG NUGGETS! So of course I had to order some for my mom.

Pecos Bill beef nachos $11.99

my plate from the toppings bar. I could eat so much more sour cream....

On first blush, the nachos were pretty underwhelming - toppped with sad shredded lettuce and udnerripe tomato, they looked pretty small and sad. Let me just tell you, these were like the neverending nachos! There are so many more in here than it looks like. Each of us loaded up a plate from the toppings bar and we put a good hurtin' on the nachos, but I recall there being a chip or two left over after we did our best. (We also had the fries and corn dog nugs)

Speaking of which, my favorite hack: ordering waffle fries at Golden Oak Outpost and loading them up with cheese and jalapenos and pico de gallo over at Pecos Bill to make loaded nacho fries. Holy mother of Pecos Bill those things were tasty!

The corn dog nuggets came with more, I think, but the nugget monsters may have dug into them prior to the glamour shot. They were not as fresh here as at Casey's, but hey, if you're in a corn dog pinch you know where to find them.

Overall, it was a great snack and a good way to end the dining I had been doing all weekend. I had a mini purple wall photo shoot, said farewell to my boyfriend Sonny Eclipse, and then departed MK with a "See Ya Real Soon", knowing I'd be back in December.

And that concludes my food and wine eating extravaganza. Keep your eyes peeled for my next dining report which I will try to wrap up more quickly and not just dip out on midway through...

See ya real soon! Melinda

 

[pepperandchips]

Sorry it took me so long to respond, friends!

I want to break the name of that soup into 2 words here, but I'll get an infraction Your meal at the Rusty Spoon looks really good though! Nice that you got to meet up with your friend.
Besides Steve and I you're the 2nd person who's mentioned going on Ellen for the first time in the last couple months in anticipation of it closing. And all of us have felt the same; glad we did it once, don't need to do it again! I agree those dinosaurs are cool though.

When I saw your picture of the chocolate dipped chocolate chip meringue I was like, "what is that?? I gotta get it!" Too bad it tastes like poo

OMG that soup name was hilarious. Our awesome server kind of gave us a wink and a nod about it as well. Regarding the meringue... yes, it looked so good, that's why I had to have it! But then the taste/smell... woof.

I'm fashionably late, but here and suddenly hungry. I have no idea why

Looks like a great trip so far. Loving all the F&W, so disappointed we are going to miss it this year. What is the snack thing you bought and how does it work?

Congrats on getting offsite and enjoying a great meal. Everything looks delicious, though totally with @ariane37 on the Shiittinonion soup. So want to go there....

YES haha at the soup name. I can't believe it made it to the menu but I think it says something about the casual atmosphere of an otherwise pretty nice restaurant. Love that they keep things relaxed!

The snack thing was the Food & Wine sampler. It was basically a set of 16 coupons (you could also buy one that had 8 coupons) as well as a fancy schmancy pin. I don't care about the pin, so I based the value on the sampler coupons only. They came out to $7.22 each (after sales tax), so if you were buying something at one of the F&W kiosks that ordinarily would have cost $7.23 or more, you were getting a discount. It's kind of how some people "work" the dining plan to get maximum savings - I definitely had to make sure to use the sampler for more expensive things, but those tiny cocktails are exorbitantly expensive and it was nice to try a few (or 16) for $7.22 each.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

and a very large portion of captain crunch ice cream

I'm sorry...did you say captain crunch ice cream?! Aaannnd I just added yet another item to my "must have" list

Also, thank you for making me crave WPE pizza. I may have to try the BBQ chicken next time...

Great reviews--looking forward to your next report!

 

[ariane37]

Keep your eyes peeled for my next dining report which I will try to wrap up more quickly and not just dip out on midway through...

And here's the answer to my question! I'll be on the lookout

 

[Vernie822]

R is usually the sweets person of the two of us and he definitely shared this, but I was absolutely in heaven. I am a grandma anyway and oatmeal is my favorite kind of cookie, but after the scrumptious ice cream softened the cookies and worked its way into all the crevices I was just on cloud nine. I may or may not recall licking my hands as we polished this off. YUM. Maybe the best thing I ate on that trip!

As we speak I'm writing a TR post about Ample Hills so I just had to add that I'm such an old lady too! Putting that Sprinkles sandwich on my list to try because, oatmeal, duh! So since you love oatmeal I thought I'd suggest the Nonna D's Lace Cookie ice cream at Ample Hills.. WOW.. It is SOO good.. And will satisfy your old lady heart!

 

[pepperandchips]

Oops posted in wrong thread!

 

[Mrallison83]

Wow Great post!