WDW Weekend Eats…

We haven’t done a wrap-up  of a weekends dining at Walt Disney World lately, so since we had some good and different items this past weekend, let’s dig in!

Our first on-property food foray wasn’t until Saturday lunch…

Miss Bonnie and I were at the Magic Kingdom early in the AM, and after randomly running into a few friends (you know who you are…) we met up with Scientist Len (aka Leonard), an old friend of mine from grad school, and his offspring, Dizzy Lizzy… it had been many years since either had been in the Kingdom, so we played Tour Guide and knocked out plenty of attractions in the morning.

As we wanted a break from the park, we hopped the monorail over to the Polynesian and went to Captain Cook’s for a quick bit of lunch. As we had a fairly early reservation for dinner, Miss Bonnie & I decided to share a meal.. we thought about one of the flatbreads, then what seems to be a new item on the menu caught ours respective eyes: pork nachos…

Okay, here I’ll admit I don’t recall the exact name and listed details of the item, and yes I could have taken a pic of the menu items, but I was more concerned with heading to the pool bar for a better beer selection while I had Miss Bonnie wait in line for the food… yes, I suck…

So to digress a bit… they have cool touch screen ordering here which worked well, once I figured out you had to use it instead of talking to a real-live person… for pics of this and a full review, go over to our friends at the Disney Food Blog here.

Anyway… we sat outside with our pork nachos… and Miss Bonnie deemed them good enough to come back specifically for them!

Instead of tortilla chips, crispy fried wontons (with a random potato chip…) served as the base… tender Hawaiian-style pulled pork (not sure but I’m thinking maybe a Kahlua pork?) is the protein, a mild cheese (likely mozzarella?) glues things together and the whole thing is topped with tomatoes, onions and, of course to complete the island theme, pineapple…

It was tasty, different, and a nice sized portion for the price – easily enough for two… thinking I may have to work up a version in the Eating (and Drinking) around the World kitchens some day…

So we headed back to the park for a while, and then took a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge (where Bonnie & I were laying our heads for the weekend) for dinner at Artist Point.

I’ve had a few really good meals there over the past couple of years, so I was looking forward to our meal that night (in fact, at Miss Bonnie’s suggestion, I took a photo of the menu on my phone that morning so I’d have plenty of time to peruse same during the day… still I didn’t make up my mind until we were there…)… to cut to the chase, we weren’t disappointed…

Leonard and Lizzy shared a cheese plate, as did Bonnie & I… well, Miss Bonnie allowed me to taste a bit of the cheeses, threatening me with her silverware if I tried to take too much… Bonnie has become quite the aficionado of all things fromage since her cheese epiphany earlier this year at Jiko’s.

Clockwise from bottom left: "Drunken" Goat cheese with figs, aged Reypenaer VSOP Gouda with raisins, Walnut Toast, and Smokey Blue Cheese with honeycomb.

The cheese plate here has a bit less variety than some others around property (Jiko’s and Flying Fish usually have five choices), but the portions were generous and the selections were good… none was left on the plate. The real find here was the aged Gouda – very much like a good aged cheddar with the little crunch of crystallization here and there – I’ll search this one out to have again.

I (being the pig I am) also tried an additional appetizer, the Rainbow Asparagus Salad with Slow Poached Farm Fresh Egg, Truffle Chips, Frisee Lettuce, Black Truffles, and Champagne Vinaigrette… phew, that was a keyboard-full…

Asparagus Salad

The truffle aroma was wonderful, in fact I passed the dish around the table just for everyone to sniff, and the egg was perfectly cooked – the yolk making a rich addition to the dressing when cut into…

Good, but to my tastes, not great… perhaps the full day of desiring this item had me expecting too much…

For the rest of our meal, the ladies chose to go the “Appetizer as Dinner” route (which I’m becoming a big fan of…) while the manly men chose the full entree route…

Pan-seared Alaskan Halibut

Leonard chose the halibut with asparagus, morels and peas… tender and flavorful.

Kettle-steamed Mussels with Sourdough Panzanella

Dizzy Lizzy’s selection of mussels with basically a bread salad atop was a good portion and met with much delight.

I chose to go with some of Donald’s relatives…

"Duo of Duck" Seared Crispy Breast of Duck with Brown Butter Chard, Huckleberry Chili Glaze and Smoked Duck Soufflé

The perfectly cooked duck breast was a delight… the soufflé was more of a side… almost like a corn pudding with some duck pieces at the bottom.

But the winner of the night was Miss Bonnie…

Spring Pea Risotto with Crispy Snake River Farms Pork Belly, Radish Salad & Goat Cheese Crisp

The rich and fatty pork belly was combined with a flavorful spring pea risotto – the radish provided a bit of contrast in texture – wow, this was really something… only complaint is that I’d like a little more of the radish salad, but that’s just a little bit of whining…

If this is on the menu when you are there, order it… even if you’re Kosher or vegetarian, order it…

Being fully sated after some great food, good wine, and even better company, we sadly passed on dessert (and Lizzy really had her heart set on some simple ice cream in the Kingdom), so we made our way back to the park for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday ours friends made their way back up I-75 early, so Miss Bonnie and I were on our own for lunch…

We took the nice walk from Wilderness Lodge over to Fort Wilderness (encountering Bambi on the way…) and did a bit of exploring… maybe we’ll soon look at a few things we found at the Outpost…

but back to the food…

We chose to dine at Trail’s End, which promises “Frontier Fixin’s & Friendly Folk”…

Until fairly recently, Trail’s End was all-buffet, all-the-time, but now lunch is served a la carte (while the buffet is still in effect for breakfast and dinner).

Despite the “down home” feel of the place, the lunch menu has some really interesting choices.

Now (as we’ll see soon), this part could easily be titled “Three potato, four…”… (if you haven’t read “One potato, two potato”, you may go back and do so now…).

House-made Potato Chips

We started with a new appetizer: House-made Potato Chips served with onion dip. The chips come plain (“Natural”), Barbecue or Peppercorn & Vinegar – we chose the latter – the flavoring wasn’t over-powering, but was there.

Freshly-made chips are showing up a lot over property now (again, see “One potato, two potato”), and it’s a good thing… these were delicious…

For our mains, Bonnie went with the Pulled Pork Sandwich while I (after consultation with our pleasant server) opted for the Fried Green Tomatoes.

The pork sandwich was topped with Corn-Bacon Coleslaw (a bit skimpy portion of this in my opinion…) and pickled Green Tomatoes.

This item is normally served with the Potato Chips, but since we had those to start, Miss Bonnie asked for the Sweet Potato Fries as a sub and she was easily accommodated in her request.

Mmmm... pig....

When I asked our server about her opinion on the Fried green Tomatoes, she admitted she hadn’t tried them, but noted that they were the favorite item of the chef, so I took that as a good omen…

Fried Green Tomatoes with Marinated Portobello Mushrooms, Roasted Red Peppers, Smoked Gouda Cheese, and Fried Green Beans served with Sweet Potato Fries

The Fried Green Tomatoes are served atop marinated Portobello Mushrooms, which provides a nice counterpoint.

The Fried Green Beans are good, and loved the Fried Sweet Potatoes, but overall this plate is Too Much Fried… yes you heard me, Too Much Fried food…

I’d certainly order this again, but I’d ask to sub either the beans or sweet potato fires with another (non-fried) side next time…

The food here was really good, and the portions more than generous (two could easily spilt a meal, especially if you were having an appetizer or adding one of the sides that sound appealing) – we’ll be back soon to try Spicy Grilled Shrimp, or maybe the (seemingly now soon-to-be ubiquitous) Fried Chicken and Waffles, or just for the sides of Cheese Grits or Hopp’n John…

If you’ve been to any of the places we visited this weekend, we’d love to hear your comments!

Now back to the kitchen…