The 2019 Food and Wine Festival has officially begun! While this year’s festival will feature many of the same booths and menus from previous years, four brand new booth offerings will be included on this year’s itinerary.
Two of these new booths won’t open until October 1. The Donut Box will include a sweet corn fritter with Fresno and red pepper jelly (my kind of donut) and a more traditional offering of strawberry dusted yeast donut holes. The second upcoming booth will be called Cool Wash and will be located next to the Test Track attraction. This booth will feature both alcoholic and non-alcoholic Coca-Cola slushees. But the other two new booths opened yesterday with the rest of the festival – The Alps and Appleseed Orchard.
Appleseed Orchard
Appleseed Orchard is different from any other Food and Wine booth that I’ve seen. First of all, instead of the traditional, small, outdoor booth, the Appleseed Orchard is located inside Canada’s circle vision theater. The food and drink areas are split between two bars on the sides of the theater – one side is a cider bar with popcorn and the other is a wine bar with a charcuterie plate. In the middle of the theater, guests were using the leaning poles as tables for their snacks.
This was an interesting use of the space and a nice break from the heat, but splitting the food and drink was confusing. The wine and cider bars were clearly marked, but the difference in food offerings were not, so I ended up standing in one line only to find out that I couldn’t order my charcuterie plate on that side. I had to navigate the leaning poles and stand in another line.
Of course, the charcuterie plate was worth the wait. It was mostly what you’d expect- various meats and cheese, but it was drizzled with Burton’s Maplewood Farm Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged Maple Syrup. The syrup was delicious (and available for purchase), but it didn’t taste like maple syrup. Honestly, it didn’t have any maple taste at all. It had a fruit taste, but not necessarily apple. The consistency was more like a fruit compote than a syrup. It wasn’t really sticky. It was a nice addition to the dish though, and I enjoyed it. Overall, this plate was worth the $6.50 Food and Wine Festival price tag.
The Alps
Onward to the land of the Matterhorn (The Alps)! This was a more traditional Food and Wine setup near the Norway pavilion. Since I was still craving savory items, I decided to try to venison stew and raclette Swiss cheese plate. The raclette cheese was nothing special. It came with a baguette, potatoes, and cornichons (French pickles). The cornichons were kind of dry, and the potatoes were not seasoned at all. They really needed some sort of salt or something to stand up to the cheese. I expected the baguette to be toasted, but it was not. I mostly disappointed by this purchase.
The venison stew, on the other hand, was delicious! Looking at it, I was a little worried the meat was going to be overcooked or have a canned taste – but it had a very nice flavor. The stew was served over a generous portion of crushed potatoes so it could be eaten with a fork. The entire dish was seasoned nicely, and it was filling for a Food and Wine sample.
None of the new plates that I tried were particularly amazing. However, with the exception of the raclette plate, they were a nice treat. I certainly wouldn’t avoid the stew or charcuterie, but I wouldn’t seek them out either.
Emile’s Fromage Montage
One other new addition to the Food and Wine Festival itinerary this year is Emile’s Fromage Montage. You can find it in the back of your Festival Passport. The challenge involves visiting several food booths and ordering five different cheese based dishes – Impossible Cottage Pie, Black Pepper Boursin Soufflé, Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese, Schinkennudeln, and Pao de Queijo. Once you collect all five stamps, you can visit the Shimmering Sips booth for a complimentary cheesecake. I haven’t completed the challenge yet, but the team at the Disney Food Blog conquered it! You can see their spoils below.
Yes, it’s a pretty tiny piece of cheesecake, but it seems like a fun challenge if you enjoy cheese (which I do). The great part is that, as long as you can hold onto your passport, you can return many times over the festival’s duration to complete your challenge. I’ve already received my stamp from my raclette cheese sample, and I look forward to returning to fill my passport!
Watch our full video tour below!
