The Feast of Fools- In the famous words of Liz Lemon, "shut it down!"

[Shenanigoat]

I am so jealous! I had decided before our last visit to JIKO that I would get the halibut but somehow I decided to see what all the fuss was about the filet. I'm still wondering, wasn't impressed...that halibut looks so GOOD!!!!!!! Isn't it fun to sit at "the cooking place"!!!!!!

I don't see what the fuss is about the fillet either, so I didn't order it. I guess it's more "popular" signature, than awesome signature. How wast that mac & cheese though? I do want to try that some time.

Mmmm... you have me thinking that I should try to fit Jiko in on my upcoming trip. Looks delish!!

Too funny on your meal stalker!

A to-go bag for your unfinished wine... brilliant idea!!

I hope you do try Jiko! It was really nice and my favorite of the trip.

Your meal looked good, although I am with the other majority on eating Ostrich I'm afraid. I like the idea of where you were sitting though

The cooking place was a great place to sit, especially solo. I guess with one other person it would be nice, but more than that would be a pain. I've read some people just pop in there, no ADRs and are able to grab a meal there.

That dessert is quite tasty, I'll agree.

Tasty and tart.

I haven't tried Jiko yet but this looks amazing

I hope you get to try it sometime, totally worth the money.

Yum, fab review of Jiko

Thanks!

I agree that the lemon meyer curd dessert is so delicious and probably the best dessert I've had at WDW. Of course, I also don't like overly sweet desserts so that might have something to do with it.

Ah, an anti-sweet solemate. It seems like too many disney desserts are all sugar, blerg...

Great review - Glad to see such a glowing review of Jiko's. I'm eating there solo in about 3 weeks.

Can I ask about the seating - are they tall chairs at the cooking place where you were seated? One of things I hate about being solo is they try to seat you at the bar but my short little legs and my big butt just don't get along well with tall bar chairs.

The chairs are tall. I'm quite the shorty myself and I got up there OK, but there isn't a ton of butt room.

We are eating at Jiko a week from tonight! Thanks for the review! That dessert looks delicious!

I hope you have a great meal!

I love that you had a meal stalker.

When I got to the dessert photo, I thought it looked like a sour cream ice cream "bunny" sitting on top of one of the ghosts that chases Pac Man.

Paging Dr. Freud...

What have you been drinking, and have you brought enough to share with the whole class?

I love your review of Jiko. I cannot wait to try it in January.

Thanks for reading and enjoying. I'm sure you'll have a lovely meal in January.

I can't believe that we're only on day one! What a great first day! Love the meal stalker and your one person ostrich genocide campaign! I feel the same way about birds...they just creep me out.

It was quite the first day, that's for sure. I'm glad you understand my bird fear, most people think I'm weird...er

Love it! I can't wait to read more!

I'll get to typing propbably after this weekend!

Mmmmmmm. We do heart Jiko. Almost worth the 2.5 hour drive just to go eat there.

Almost worth it?

Girl, you have got to start posting more often! I LOVE your reviews!!!!

It's work. We retail drones are busy this time of year. It's really gotten in the way of my posting time. The Overtime has been great though and will fund further trips to WDW. I'm trying to aim for at least 1 post a week until the holiday rush is over.

Wow! Your dinner sounded soooo good! You got awesome service, too! Lemons are my favorite!

Yay Team Lemon!

Dinner was soooo awesome and the service so good that I was bummed by some bad tables/service at other places. Oh well, that's what happens during F&WF and free dining.

 

[Stefy]

The cooking place was a great place to sit, especially solo. I guess with one other person it would be nice, but more than that would be a pain. I've read some people just pop in there, no ADRs and are able to grab a meal there.

I guess that makes sense seeing as its a smaller area We have never been to Jiko's, but am thinking the first time we eat there we could get a table and then go back for a walk up to sit at the Cooking Place for flatbread another time (we are on DxDP and still trying to find more restaurants to use up TS credits) What you think?

 

[whogirl'smom]

Ostrich of the World, look out! That was a great review and everything looked quite tasty. I have some Meyer Lemon hand lotion in the kitchen that you would love! It smells good enough to eat.

 

[Golf4food]

Shenanigot - you weren't eaten by a rogue Ostrich were you? No updates for over a week! What are we all to do?!? Hope all is well.

 

[franandaj]

am thinking the first time we eat there we could get a table and then go back for a walk up to sit at the Cooking Place

We actually ate at the counter our first time and had a table the second time. I enjoy the counter at all places like Flying Fish and Napa Rose, tables are nice if you have a party of four, but I prefer to dine at the counter with my spouse and myself. I enjoy cooking and love to watch the professionals at their jobs.

We'll be there agin next month at a table because the dinner will be part of the safari, otherwise I would try to sit at the counter.

 

[Stefy]

Thanx for that, was telling DF about it as we were watching the 2010 planning dvd yesterday and it showed a brief shot of people sitting at the counter I think if we are in the area one lunch time we might do a walk up for the Cooking Place.

 

[hmgray95]

Paging Ms. Love....are you still with us? We miss your reviews!

 

[Shenanigoat]

I feel really bad, bad llama.

Seriously, I didn't realize how long it's been. Two weeks? Time really does fly when you get older. I do have two (moderately) good reasons for my absence though:

My new job is retail-y, so I'm pulling crazy hours right now, and sadly one of my co-workers lost her Grandmother a week ago. So I had to pick up some of her shifts, along with my already overtime. Upside- more money for presents... for me. Downside- awesome co-worker is really sad and I haven't seen my husband in about a week.

And then added into that, I am sending this message from my brand spanking new computer. Literally installed today, and my first order of business returning from a late shift is to get on the Dis. Priorities, ya know?

Old Faithful finally a'sploded and as an early Festivus gift my loving Spouse got me a wonderful new computer. I'm heartbroken over my old computer going senile though. (virus, I think? the Spouse knows that stuff, not me. I just look at pictures of grammatically incorrect cats and the Disboards) Luckily, the one thing I do know about computers is to back up picture files (thanks to a geneologyfiend mother), so I haven't lost anything that's too important. So, even if I'd had time to Dis I wouldn't have had a computer to do it on.

Things are still going to be a bit crazy for me, until Christmas. That's just the way it goes when you work serving the public during the most wonderful time of the year. But I swear, on the charred remains of my former computer, that I will get a post up before Monday, or my name isn't Shenanigoat!

Also, I'm honestly touched that people noted my absence and missed me enough to post, hoping I wasn't kidnapped by a secret underground pro-bird organization. And I'm terrified to go back into the Friendie board. Think of all the booze pictures and silliness I'll have to catch up on.

Shenanigot - you weren't eaten by a rogue Ostrich were you? No updates for over a week! What are we all to do?!? Hope all is well.

Paging Ms. Love....are you still with us? We miss your reviews!

 

[hmgray95]

So glad you're back and that the underground pro-bird secret society didn't take you off to be pecked to death! I understand about the job thing though....DH worked at Best Buy while attending college, so I completely remember what those days were like during the holidays!

 

[Golf4food]

...hoping I wasn't kidnapped by a secret underground pro-bird organization...

I think this is the subject of Dan Brown's next book...

Glad you're ok.

Carry on.

 

[Shenanigoat]

Hello interwebs It's good to be back. On the subject of my bird hating, would you like to hear some irony?

My favorite Disney character is Donald Duck.

Sometimes I'm too weird even for myself.

Moving on the the food and day #2.

Day #2 was to be my first full EPCOT day. This was also the very first day of the 2009 Food and Wine Festival. Yes, I totally Rope Drop the F&WF.

Gentlemen, start your tastebuds.

The sky was a little forebode-y but Wall*E and I weren't going to let that stop us. Lunch was scheduled for noon, but there were oh so many tasty booths on the way to France.

My first step into the wonderful world of F&WF was:

Wellington New Zealand

Land of sheep, Hobbits, and oily slaw.

Wall*E was kind enough to share with me.

Up first we have Lamb Slider with tomato chutney

This was alright, not great or anything. I make better meatballs at home, and that's kind of what this was like. Just a meatball. (To be fair to all balls of meat not made by me, I make awwwwwwwwwesome meatballs. Like, write a letter to your Pappy good. It's not really fair for me to compare all the circular shaped meats I run into to the paragon of amazing that are my own personal meat wads, but you gotta go with what you know.) As you can see there is a bit of a oil/water-y pool starting on my plate. Thin tomato sauce makes me crazy, so this was a bit of a let down. The brioche roll was nice though. If I had a ranking system this would get a "meh".

Seared Sea Scallop with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon oil

The lemon oil is listed as a featured player, and is sure was. The oil was at a 10 and it needed to be around a 5. The scallop was lovely though. It's hard to describe in words how a perfect scallop should be, but this was it.

So Wellington was just OK. The good balanced the bad. The view however? Perfect.

Next up: (Monday afternoon PST, pinky-swear) Lunch at that old stand by:

Les Chefs de France

Or as I like to call it, Old Faithful

 

[Stefy]

Ooh that scallop looks yummy

Glad to have you back, looking forward to more

 

[onelilspark]

You're back!

 

[Shenanigoat]

Chefs de France opens for lunch at noon, and boy howdy was this place busy. I was expecting as much, due to it being Free Dining and also the first day of the Food and Wine Festival. I seriously couldn't get a shot without a least a Duggar sized crowd out front.

For the first time in.... ever, I wasn't seated in the sunroom in the front. I was still seated in the sunroom, but back on the side, with a pretty decent view of Morrocco.

I really felt like I was in France, because the table next to mine was so close I could have shared appetizers. I'm piglet sized myself and I could barely sqeeze my cheeks between our two tables. Luckily my table neighbors were a really nice family, who were also taking pictures of their food, so I didn't weird anyone out with my Dis-business.

I had a F&WF seminar/demo later, so I skipped the booze and went straight for my at home usual; ice tea. It ain't fancy, but it's for me. I also got a cold piece of bread and cold butter. Cold bread in restaurants makes me a sad panda, but I kind of expect it at Disney by now.

I must confess that I almost didn't go to Chefs de France this trip. I was looking at the menu for Rose & Crown, where I've only been into the pub portion. I noticed the Rose & Crown menu is soooo tiny though. And over the course of my ADR deciding time, it got smaller. I'm defidently going to be going to R&C on my next trip, but I had to go to Chefs de France for one reason and one reason only. To score the cutest photo ever:

Behold! The Cute!

Chef Remy came by to make sure everything was going well with our meal. I must admit that I totally !squeed! when I saw him. Ratatouille is an absolutely precious film and I'm super glad that Wall*E and I got to meet Remy. His cart pusher (cart valet?) had to call me over because, like Baby, I was stuck in the corner and the cart couldn't get back there. After Remy greeted us my usual appetizer came up:

Cassolette d'escargots de Bourgogne au beurre persille. Or for the non-french; snails w/butter and green stuff.

Look at that S car go!

Ahh, sweet tongue tantalizing treats. I could eat these like candy, I swear. They were not as hot as I've had them served to me before. Maybe my server saw me chatting it up with Remy and put the hold on my snails for a minute? Anyway, still good. My table neighbors thought I was brave for ordering this, but I told them I have a strong belly and relentless tastebuds.

For my main course, I switched it up (as I usually do here) and ordered the:

Filet de Saumon

The salmon was cooked perfectly fine, but was nothing to write home about. (Apparantly good enough to write to the Dis about though) The mushy mush in the back was ratatouille, which tasted way better than it looked. They have a ratatouille at Disneyland which is much better, but this was still very passable. The potato was under seasoned, and I just kind of mixed it in with the mush.

Usually at this point in the meal I get the creamy brooley, but it was so hot outside I ordered something to cool me down, before sweating my way around World Showcase.

Profiteroles au chocolat

A new entry into the "things I never thought I'd say" book- This could have used a lot less chocolate. Also, did this used to be 3 puff pastries, or am I just crazy? Perhaps it's both. I suppose I wouldn't have minded the chocolate overload if it had been dark chocolate, or something other than offbrand Hershey's syrup. It was just far too milkchocolate-y for my tastes. I did however see many other people totally snarfing down their plate of chocolate milk, so your mileage may vary.

The funny thing about where I was sitting this meal was I could see all the people who try to enter the restaurant at the other end, you know what I'm talking about:

It was kind of like that whole American Idol "other door" thing that really cracked me up for some reason a few seasons ago. I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy sometimes.

So this meal was exactly what I thought, a pretty good meal (worth a DxDP credit in my thoughts), but I wasn't wowed or anything. This is like getting Mom's meatloaf... if my Mom made meatloaf, which she doesn't. OK, technically she does, but it's like eating a shoe, I'm sure my analogy stands for most of you though. This is Disney comfort food for me.

Next review for day #2:

Culinary Demo- Barcelona Tapas.

Wherein we ask- How peeved does a Chef get when his food is served at room temperature.

The answer? Very peeved.

 

[Shenanigoat]

So glad you're back and that the underground pro-bird secret society didn't take you off to be pecked to death! I understand about the job thing though....DH worked at Best Buy while attending college, so I completely remember what those days were like during the holidays!

Thanks for understanding. It has been crazy, but I know it's almost over. Christmas is when I loose my fa-la-la-la-la la-friggin mind.

I think this is the subject of Dan Brown's next book...

Glad you're ok.

Carry on.

lol on Dan Brown's book. I just recently explained to my coworkers that I don't like birds and now they all think I'm weird....er. I love how the Dis is nonjudgemental.

 

[oybolshoi]

Nice update - love the picture of Remy & Wall-E.

You are spot on about Rose & Crown's menu ... if they shrink it any more it's going to disappear entirely. It's a bummer. Also, in case you didn't get there on this trip ... beware Harry Ramsden's fishie-chippies which shrank to the point that Jay and I could barely share a serving, which is not how it was back in the halycon days of 2007.

 

[whogirl'smom]

It's so good that Wall-E is making friends!

We had really good profiteroles at a restaurant in Venice Beach (5 on a plate!). I agree that yours needed a life preserver, though!

 

[jessrose18]

signing on

 

[Stefy]

I love this pic, soooo cute

Love your CdF review, those profiteroles look so good

 

[Flossbolna]

love the Remy and Wall-E picture. I tlooks like Remy is asking where Wall-E got his mousears from - they would fit Remy perfectly as well!

Somehow Chefs really doesn't look that interesting to me. Even though I am European I don't want to eat snails (sorry!) and the rest does look a bit bland?