Day 3 Starring Rolls and French Family Traditions @ Monsieur Paul.
Mike and I were again the early risers and made rope drop at Hollywood Studios. After I kicked Mike's button on Toy Story Midway Mania, we grabbed a quick breakfast at Starring Rolls Bakery. We both had danishes. I only have a picture of my cherry. Mike had cheese.
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We then rode Tower of Terror
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and headed to Epcot for our Special lunch in France. Here we met Sally, Barb Paula and Hunter. This event took place at Monsieur Paul, the fancy schmancy restaurant upstairs from Chefs de France. This is a gorgeous restaurant. The winding staircase leading up to the luncheon was pretty easy to handle. I am afraid it was a lot more difficult to navigate after 3 plus hours of French Wine. I made it safely down, I am happy to report.
The napkins were folded into cute little tuxedos. Here was the menu.
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We were met with sparkling Lillet tonic with a raspberry inside. We also got a first course of cheese bread.
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Our next course was a wonderful baguette. Crunchy outside. In the words of Collette in Ratatouille, "This is what good bread sounds like. "
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It was served with this lovely Blanc from Samour. It was very mild, went well with the bread, as well as the appetizer that came with it.
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The appetizer was the BEST THING I HAVE EVER TASTED Vichyssois soup covered with puff pastry and infused with cream!! This was beautiful, velvety potato soup, covered in buttery puff pastry. The pastry came in tact. The server then came by to crack your pastry and poured in luxurious cream. One taste of this and my eyes rolled back into my head and I ascended into momentary bliss. I mean angels sang!! This was very very very good. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. If this were on the regular menu I would eat here every day on vacation. By now, you are saying "Niki shut up and show us the picture." Well here it is. TA DAAA
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The dish gave the wine a buttery taste as well. It was all pure decadence.
The main course was paired with this
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This wine had all of my favorite flavors. It was spicy. It tasted like dark chocolate and blackberries, one I found my favorite combinations.
I wish I had loved the main course as much as the wine. It was duck confit cassoulet with white bean stew made with smoked sausage. I love duck, so for me to go meh on this was so disappointing. T have enter duck was OK, but a bit oily. The beans just d u don't seem to go with the duck, especially since it contained something that reminded me of pol I should sausage/kielbasa. This made t b email beans seem oily as well. This was not really bad, I ate a good portion of it, but it was not something I would expect at a high end restaurant. Out of place with everything else we ate and drank.
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Next came the cheese plate. The blue was good, but I am not a real blue fan, so others loved it more than me. The other cheese beneath had no blue and was wonderful.
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The wine with this was a nice blend of Bordeaux, Merlot and Cabernet. It stood up well to the strong cheeses.
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Finally we came to dessert. I say finally because I was rather full and wasted by this time. One tip for this event THEY JUST KEEP POURING!!! All the time you are on the course, they come to refill your glass. I can't tell you how many glasses of the reds I had because I lost count. Not only were my fpDis friends all a blast, but the refills just kept coming.
This dessert had to be my favorite dessert EVER!!!! Trust me, I have had excellent desserts in my life because I live for my sweets. This tops them all. Think sophisticated ho ho. Chocolate mint cake roll with cream, thin dark chocolate silky smooth frosting and homemade mint ice cream. Again, angels sang when I put this in my mouth! It was paired with a sparkling blush wine JCB No. 69. This was fabulous, light and refreshing. Perfect end to a heavy meal.
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Isn't this just beautiful? It tasted even better than it looks, if you can imagine that!
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Hunter had a glass of this as you can see, but I suddenly lucked out. Everyone was too full to finish their bubbly. I can never say no to bubbles, so I begrudgingly finished everyone else's who could not. Then I got a refill. I admit I tend to overindulge, and I really did this time. I was feeling wonderful and happy and was walking sideways. But my overindulgence in these great French wines left me with no headache or hangover.
Then I doubly got lucky. Three of our party couldn't finish their dessert. This was just food for the God's, so could not go to waste. Kind actually got to take the remaining leftover dessert Togo back to the room!! How lucky am I?
Actually my friend Cap'n Mark and his family met my drunken self back at our room to go swimming, and he and n his family shared this wonderful minty concoction. They loved it as well.
Here is the Captain
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And Mike's cousin
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That night we were laid back. Mike's cousin and family came to the Beach Club, together with the Captain and family. We grilled out salmon and steak, with Asian rice pilaf, grilled asparagus and my c [locally] famous dark chocolate cinnamon fudge with sea salt I had whipped together the day before. This was a great day filled with food, wine, fun, family and friends. I am truly blessed.