Overheard at Disney

A father to his son while looking at the pool area of the Boardwalk Villas:

“That sh*t has a long-a** slide”

Keep it Classy Disney Guests…

You never know what you’ll find at the Asian market…

One of my little pleasures is wandering the aisles of ethnic groceries and finding things I’ve never seen before… and on a recent trip to the Asian market I spied this on the shelf:

“You’re Having My Baby” started running through my head…

but when I looked further I figured legendary singer and songwriter Paul probably had nothing to do with this glutinous rice and red yeast-based Anka sauce… but a look at the instructions was all that was needed for yet another smile…

maybe I’ll just have to give this sauce a try, listen to “Puppy Love”, and undulate a bit in the kitchen…

The TARDIS has landed…

and other Epcot Odds and Ends…

Over the past several weeks we’ve made more than one visit to Epcot (which should come as no great shock to Dedicated Readers), and have come across a few interesting things (that are not necessarily related to the Best Time of Year AKA the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival), so let’s take a look, shall we?

For many weeks there was construction in the France pavilion (see a picture from mid-September above) on the Aurora meet-and-greet area.

By the end of September a gazebo was seen peeking out above the scrim.

Well now the walls have come down and the Sleeping Beauty is greeting guests in her new area in France.

Princess Aurora meeting her fans

The new area is certainly an improvement over just having Aurora out on the sidewalk as she had been before, but considering the amount of space that had been hidden during the construction (you can check out more during construction views in the September 20, 2012 Epcot Odds & Ends post), I was honestly expecting a little bit more than a bit of extra sidewalk and a gazebo…

Now let’s look at some beer news… mmmmm…. beer….

The sake bar tucked into the back of the Mitsukoshi store in Japan has been offering some unusual brews lately, and now is serving “The Plateau of the Galaxy”… no, haven’t tried it yet… have you?

Also on the shelf at the store is this:

Beertaste Beverage

the taste of canned Japanese beer without the buzz… thanks, but no thanks…

Outside the Kabuki Cafe is likewise now serving up an unusual form of brew…

Frozen Kirin Beer!

And no, I haven’t tried this one either as at first look a frozen beer didn’t seem too appealing… however after reading a bit more about this beverage I’m eager to give it a shot.

Turns out it not a totally iced-up drink, like a frozen margarita or daiquiri, but instead it has essentially a frozen head to keep the rest of the draft cold longer (too bad this wasn’t introduced in the heat of the summer as opposed to when the temps are finally moderating in central Florida!) – you can read more details in a post on the Disney Parks Blog. I’ll give my opinion soon…

Now let’s head over to Morocco for a bite at the Tangerine Cafe.

This is not just one of my favorite quick-service options in Epcot, but in all of WDW – the food is flavorful, (mostly) healthy  and filled with spices and tastes you won’t find anywhere else on Property. But the fun thing Miss Bonnie and I found here during lunch one day was the utensils… as you pickup your food you get your desired eating tools from three dispensers… you can get forks, knives, and spoons… but not just any spoons…

Utensil dispensers at Tangerine Cafe

but multi-purpose spoons! Wow!

The amazing, incredible Multi-Purpose Spoon (on the left, just in case you weren’t sure)!

Last month I had shared pics of construction walls around some of the entrance area of Epcot, and had been told that they were installing the RFID readers for park entry…

Epcot main turnstile area circa September 14, 2012

when the walls came down…

Epcot main turnstile area circa September 29, 2012

no new readers, just the same old turnstiles… turns out they were just working on some of the concrete behind some of the turnstiles… a castmember did say (and as we know, always take info from front-line castmembers with at least a couple of grains of salt…) that the readers would be installed, but no schedule was set.

Crown & Crest Store in the United Kingdom area of Epcot

Now let’s head to the UK to check out some merchandise…

Goofy, Donald, Minnie and, of course, Mickey are featured in some cute new shirts for sale in the Crest & Crown store.

And it’s also in this shop that we catch our first hint of a Time Lord making an appearance in Epcot….

appropriately inside of a phone box…

Just past the Crown & Crest is the Toy Soldier, which these days carries very little in the way of toys, most of the merchandise is currently devoted to The Beatles and a few of the other British-Invasion era bands.

The TARDIS (the Doctor’s vehicle for traveling through time and space) and the Doctor Who logo are featured on one shirt.

It’s here we find some shirts devoted to the long-running and hugely popular BBC science fiction program Doctor Who.

The Weeping Angels, horrifying new villains from the past few seasons of Doctor Who predominate on this shirt.

The TARDIS (which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space) is central to all three of the shirts for sale here.

Tom Baker was my first…

Being a long-time Whovian, I was excited when I heard that we were getting some Who merch in the UK, but was a bit disappointing to see that it only consisted of three shirts… I was hoping for something along the line of Dalek or TARDIS models, maybe Cyberman action figures, just something more… hopefully we’ll see more Doctor Who goods here in the future!

Okay, I’m sure more than a few Dedicated Readers are asking Doctor Who? Well, in the smallest of nutshells, the good Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who flits through time and space generally doing good and quite frequently saving the universe from a panoply of bad guys. The show debuted auspiciously the day after the assassination of JFK, but despite the series debut being overshadowed by the dramatic world news, the show became one of the longest-running TV shows in the world, and the characters are iconic in British popular culture. After a hiatus in production, the show was re-booted (and the new series have been excellent in my humble opinion) in 2005 and has gained new fans worldwide as well as being lauded by old lovers of the show. In the US the show can be seen on BBC America. If you may actually want to know more (and maybe one or two of you may…), the wikipedia entry on Doctor Who is actually pretty good.

And if the Doctor Who merchandise sells well maybe I can hope for some stuff based on my favorite British Supermarionation series like Fireball XL5 or The Thunderbirds… okay, a nerd can dream, can’t he???

Okay, so there you have a few things (hopefully) of interest from Epcot… and yes, there is more Food & Wine goodness to cover… we’ll share more from the Festival soon!

Back to the kitchen…

She’s so quotable…

“I have huge breasts here!”

Now that just sounds like bragging Chef Anne!

From a recent episode of “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef” on duck breasts…

Happy Third Anniversary to…

Eating (and Drinking) Around the World!

Yes, Dear Dedicated Readers (all three of you), it’s been three years since that first, brief introductory post in 2009. I doubted my sanity (as many others have done over the years) at the prospect of starting yet another Disney/food/whatever blog out there in the morass of the blogosphere… but I have surprised myself a little in actually keeping up with it, and I’ve been even more surprised that there are actually a few of you out there that seem to enjoy (or at least tolerate) my ramblings… and I’m even more amazed that there have been readers from something like 120 countries! I’m sure a few have stumbled upon the blog by simple accident, and yeah, there have only been one or two readers from places like Azerbaijan, Iraq and the Åland Islands, but hell, I’m counting them! And shouldn’t Bosnia and Herzegovina count as two countries anyway??? Anyway…

So, I have to thank those that have supported and encouraged me over the first three years (you know who you are), but mostly I have to thank you, Dear Dedicated Readers, for being there out in the (mostly) anonymous vastness of the Interwebs… when I look at the stats and see that someone has actually read my babblings here I kinda get the old “warm-and-fuzzies”… and when one of you takes the time out of your day to actually comment or “like” a post, well, I sometimes need a bit of alone time…

As long as you keep reading, I’ll do my best to keep giving you something worth checking in for. As I said when I started this, I can’t promise regular posts (as most of you know, “Real Life” sometimes interferes, and Miss Bonnie and I have committed to something in January that will take up quite a bit of my time between now and then…), but I’ll try and get you something (hopefully) fun/interesting/elucidating/or at least not-too-sucky as often as I can…

Thanks for coming along for the ride… you don’t know how much it means to me that you’re there.

Now as always, it’s back to the kitchen! See you again soon!

Happy Birthday Julia!

This Wednesday, August 15, 2012, would have been the 100th birthday of Julia Child.

Julia was more than just a “TV Chef”, more than a personality… long before there was Giada, Alton, Rachael and even Emeril there was Julia – “The French Chef”.

Julia was a force of nature, a big person in more than stature… she very much taught America how to cook, and by extension exposed us to much of the rest of the world.

If you cook, if you eat, Julia has has an influence on your life.

I’m not eloquent enough to pay proper homage to this great woman, this great American… I’ll just say thank you Julia. Like so many I wish I could have shared a table with you, and even more so wish I could have shared a kitchen with you…

Happy Birthday Julia! We love you… Bon Appetit!

It’s National Tequila Day!

Yes boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages…

July 24th is National Tequila Day!

Salud!

Need I say anything more???

Publix Pubs

If you happen to reside (or have spent any significant amount of time) in Florida or Georgia, or a few other Southeastern states, you’re probably familiar with the Publix grocery chain.

Publix is a home-grown and very popular business in Florida – they have incredibly loyal fans – including yours truly – much of my weekly income gladly goes into their coffers (and as a local/regional business much of that money stays in the community).

One of the great things they do is to produce several quarterly publications that have lots of recipes and food tips.

FamilyStyle Magazine covers kid-friendly foods and family issues, while Greenwise Market emphasizes healthy and natural foods and products.

The Publix Grape Magazine (as you might surmise) covers the world of wine and food, and normally has quite a few really good recipes and info on wine varieties and brands.

The publications are available in the stores, as well as free by mail. The Publix website doesn’t mention any limitations as to who they will send the mags to, and I can’t guarantee they will provide them to anyone outside their normal store area, but it’s certainly worth a try, and I think the publications are well worth checking out, especially the Grape (subtitled “Everyday Pleasures of Food and Wine”)… to sign up for mail delivery of the Publix magazines, go to the Publix Clubs & Programs web page.

Now, for the Disney-philes in the audience, let’s take a closer look at the cover of the current (Summer 2012) issue of the Publix Grape Magazine pictured above…

So would a Florida-based company put a Hidden Mickey on the cover of one of it’s magazines??? Wonder what the good Dr. Barrett would say about this one???

Back to the kitchen… we’ll see you again soon!

WDW Odds & Ends…

Last Odds & Ends we looked at some items from the Studios & the Magic Kingdom, so this time let’s check out some bits from Animal Kingdom and Epcot.

Gotta love the Joe Rhode reference!

Let’s start at Miss Bonnie’s favorite park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom…

As you may already know, the Kilimanjaro Safari ride is undergoing a bit of a change – a section with zebras will be added to the ride, and the poacher storyline has all but been eliminated…

All that’s left of the poacher’s camp…

Currently the only mention of poachers on the savannah is at the tail end of the ride (the threat of dangerous poachers in the area giving the driver an excuse to drop you off at a ranger station instead of continuing on your “two-week” safari…) – Little Red no longer makes an appearance, and the short-wave messages from Warden Wilson are also gone… happily you still get to briefly hear that radio station that seems to constantly play the same song.

Right now there is very little in the way of “story” on the ride, we’ll see how that may or may not change as the ride evolves into it’s next incarnation…

Only the best Dinsey-nerds note new posters…

Along the walls of most of the buildings in the village of Harambe are many signs and posters pasted up… we saw a couple of new ones shown above… perhaps the warning to poachers will play a part in a new storyline for the safari ride… and we can all hope for Disco!!!

The street musicians in Harambe now have a dedicated stage area.

You never know what you might see when you take a walk along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail – there might be a female gorilla who has climbed up a tree…

then a male may climb up after her…

and then the female may then drop to the ground…

So take a walk, keep your eyes open, you never know what you’ll see!

Before we leave Animal Kingdom and the village of Harambe, we need to fortify ourselves, so let’s visit one of the outside carts for a nice imported adult beverage (or a no-so-nice domestic one)…

and to be sure our sugar and carb levels are up to snuff, let’s stop by the Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery for a tasty sweet…

Cotton Top Tamarin Cupcake

Now fully ready to move on, let’s see what’s up at Epcot…

The construction walls are down in Italy…

and the much anticipated Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar is now open.

Miss Bonnie and I did get a chance to sample some of the goodies here, but we’ll save that report for another day (soon… I promise).

Elsewhere in Epcot other construction walls have gone up…

With Agent P coming to Epcot later this summer, teen superhero Kim Possible has been ousted…

and the former Kim Possible kiosks are now all shuttered.

I greatly enjoyed the interactive KP experience, and am looking forward to seeing what the 2.0 version of Epcot interaction with Agent P will be like. I do expect that most of the physical gimmicks and gags will stay pretty much the same (especially since the turnaround time for the opening of Agent P is pretty short, late June has been mentioned as the debut), but with a new storyline laid atop. In any case, with the massive numbers of fans (young and old) that Phineas & Ferb seem to have (just judging from the numbers of park guests with Perry or Agent P shirts you see), I’m sure the Agent P World Showcase Adventure will be a big hit.

In Innoventions East, the House of Innoventions has re-opened with a Green theme as the Vision House.

Like earlier incarnations of this exhibit, the Vision House is nothing more than a not-so-thinly veiled 20 minute ad for the sponsors products, yet it can be a reasonably interesting way to spend some time in the air conditioning.

How many Hidden Mickeys can you find in the Vision House front door mat?

Vision House Kitchen

Sign in Vision House living room

Look who’s moved from the World Showcase to appearing in the daughter’s room of Vision House!

On our visit, our guide did a really great job with the script.

Let’s now move from the environmentally-friendly confines of the Vision House to check out the constantly changing world of merchandise (much of which fortunately turns out to be food & drink related).

In Germany you can find a Goofy-adorned beer glass.

And in case you need some help holding onto your steins….

It must be good – it’s “Official”!

And now you can purchase the ultimate in adult-beverage related headwear….

Mistress Sandra proudly models the Beer Mug Hat

And if you need to combine candy and booze, Germany is your place…

In Italy you can now purchase “Italy’s Favorite Coffee”, Lavazza.

Gotta be better than Nescafe…

And nestled among the bottles of water, is grab-and-go beer… right at kid level…

Peroni on ice

And speaking of beer… the Sake bar that’s tucked away in the back corner of the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan is now offering an interesting-looking brew…

haven’t tried it yet, but it’s on the list…

And on the subject of must-have-food-related-headgear (okay, you really don’t have to have it…), we come to the gift shop in France…

Miss Bonnie models the Remy-inspired chef’s hat in France

where Remy from Ratatouille adorns a chef’s hat – a rat in the kitchen is always appetizing…

There’s plenty more going on around the World, but we’ll stop here for now, but before we go let’s give you a tease of the food we sampled at Tutto Gusto.

Don’t tell my cardiologist about this…

Okay, so there’s a few more odds & ends from WDW… hope you enjoyed!

Back to the kitchen – see you soon!

WDW Odds & Ends…

Once again, a few random things from some recent visits to Walt Disney World… let’s dive in!

Recently Disney began enforcing the prescribed return times on Fastpass tickets…

as noted on the signs posted on the Fastpass machines (shown here in Hollywood Studios).

The tickets now note “Not able to accommodate late arrivals.”

Most assume this change in the enforcement of return times is due to the expected up-coming “X-Pass” system of Fastpasses (check out this blog post at touringplans.com for some more info)… we’ll see in time…

At the Studios there was a cute addition to the Stage 1 Company Store (aka the “Sorta-Muppet-Stuff-in-Part-of-the-Store-Store”)…

Dr Teeth & the Electric Mayhem are now playing above one of the tee-shirts displays inside the store.

And speaking of shirts, a few new Muppet shirts have been hitting the shelves (or the hangers) in the past months – here’s one of the coolest:

Gotta love Beaker!

And speaking of the new Fastpass system, it looks like there was some testing at Magic Kingdom, with the ticket swiping posts (like what was tested at Epcot for the entry tickets earlier this year) showing up – here is one at the Winnie the Pooh ride (along with a sour look on the castmembers face…)…

Smells like Pooh???

Let’s check out some other things while we’re at the Magic Kingdom…

On Main Street we found Mickey hanging out in a stroller…

and doing some pin trading – a fun and creative alternative to the usual pin board!

A new poster at the fire station touts the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game:

The popular Rapunzel meet-and-greet has been moved to the front of the park (where Snow White had previously held court)…

to make room for Merida from the upcoming Pixar film “Brave”.

At the time of this photo, construction walls hid the new Merida meet-and-greet, but by the time you read this it should be open with the raven-tressed Pixar-Princess in full view.

And of course, there are some food-related items…

As you likely know by now, the Florida Orange Bird has made his nostalgic return to the Magic Kingdom, and more specifically, the Sunshine Tree Terrace.

Orange Bird juice containers are back…

and the iconic Citrus Swirl is poised to challenge the Dole Whip as the #1 icy fruit-flavored snack in the Magic Kingdom.

Citrus Swirl

And the Orange Bird himself surveys the scene.

Sunshine Tree Terrace Menu

And of course, the little Orange Bird is now adorning a variety of merchandise.

And on another food-related note…

over at the Liberty Square Market, in addition to the healthier options of fresh fruit and regular baked potatoes,  you can now order up a baked sweet spud.

Back in Fantasyland the construction continues at a rapid pace.

Just who the heck is that darn monkey???

Far in the distance (Can you say “forced perspective”? I knew you could…) looms the Beast’s Castle…

which looks fantastic…

The Beast’s Castle

I’m really looking forward to seeing the complete landscape of the new Fantasyland!

Two parks down, two to go… we’ll hit some odds & ends from Animal Kingdom and Epcot next time…

See you soon!