WDW Radio # 713 – Top 5 New Items You Need to Try at the 2023 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Hello from Epcot Center. It is Wednesday morning, March 1st, 2023, and there's something in the air. It's not just Spring. It's not just this inspiring Epcot center of background music, but more importantly is the first day of the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival 2023. That runs, not one, not to, but 127 days through July 5th, 2023.

And I'm not normally a first day rope drop kind of guy, but this year I felt like I needed to be here to experience what's new. At this year's festival, because there's a lot from the scavenger hunts to new topiaries festival marketplaces, garden destinations, there's a little something for everyone, for the entire family, or whether you come alone.

And today I'm gonna be sharing a lot on social, on my Instagram stories, but I'm on a quest. I'm on a quest specifically to find the best of what's new in terms of food from this year's marketplaces. I'm coming in armed with my Disney gift card, my credit card, an empty stomach, and a sense of adventure because I'm coming in alone.

But I know that along the way I will find or make. To help find the best of the best. Our top five new items you need to try at this year's festival. This is the first, it shall not be my last visit to the festival this year, but I am excited. I am hungry. Let the adventure begin

and before I begin my hour culinary quest, I wanna highlight that in addition to all of the different food options that are available there. One of the reasons why I love this festival is because I think Epcot is in its glory. It is, it is absolutely beautiful during flower and garden season, but there's also so much more to.

Individually or with the, here's a quick top five things that you shouldn't miss at this year's Flower and Garden Festival. One, you by yourself, or you and your family should absolutely do the egg extravaganza as scavenger hunt, which is an Easter egg hunt inspired by Disney characters. If you have little ones, be sure to check out the Family Friendly Play Gardens, which is over in World Discovery.

It's a camp themed play garden where kids can go climb and jump and play and expend a little bit of that excess energy. Also, make sure you check out the new top areas this year. In the main entrance, you'll see spectacular topes with characters from Disney's Encanta with Mirabel, Antonio, Isabella, and Luisa.

There's also in the American Adventure, a new Tiana Topiary, which we saw pictures of on the Disney Parks blog. I can't wait to see in person. Also, there's new garden destinations, and this is what I'm really excited to. There's not one, not to. There's about seven or eight new garden destinations, including at Connections Cafe.

There's a community garden and a Connections Conservatory Garden. There's a topiary Heritage Garden in the United Kingdom. Also, by the way, be sure to check out the English tea garden. And if you can take one of the tea tours, uh, that is led by the folks from twining and cast members. Really, really a lot of fun.

I cannot wait to go to Japan. It is my favorite pavilion. They have a kma garden, a bonzai garden, and a new Shihi shi garden as well. There's a desert garden in Mexico and in world discovery. There's a new songbird meadow and the family friendly play garden as well. And if you are into merchandise, there are three different collections to celebrate your visits of the festival.

There is a spectacular seventies inspired, super groovy orange bird collection. There's a brand new Snow white collection featuring some of her favorite flowers and friends from the forest. And of course, the official unofficial mascot of Epcot Center is figment. You wanna sort of let your imagination go wild.

Uh, figment has a wonderful cat dye garden highlighted in its great new fresh assortment. Lot of different merchandise that you can find. I was called it in sanatorium or Masier, but it is over in connections as well as a number of other locations throughout the festival. I'll try and take some photos, share those on socials, but again, there is a lot to do.

And at night, don't forget about the Garden Rocks Concert Series 5 36, 45 and eight o'clock. There's a ton of musical acts from the past, as well as a lot of musical acts highlighting some of Oak Lo Orlando's local, and, pardon the pun, blossoming talent as well. If you go to fresh epcot.com/garden rocks, you can see the entire schedule of performers.

Uh, they, they play usually for about three or four days and then rotate through. So it's a reason to come, and more importantly, it's a reason to come back. But I've strayed long enough it's time to begin our quest for food.

Our journey around the world takes us now to the American Adventure, also known as Magnolia Terrace. And I am joined. We're joined once again by Lisa Dedo. Glassner.

Hi. So glad to be here and very hungry

and Laurie Olivieri

excited for all the bites. And is this the first time you've ever done any sort of a food related review thing?

It is. All I've

ever done with you is

China , where, and I mean this effectually Lori is, she's like, Mikey. She'll eat anything. She'll try anything long as it doesn't have, as long as it doesn't have shellfish in it. , quick story. What's the most exotic thing that you've ever.

Oh, the, um, smoked squid in Shanghai,

Disneyland.

Oh, I thought you were gonna say the thousand year old a No, the, the, because remember how thin that was? It was, and it smelled

from miles . And I tried it. It was like eating, uh, sh uh, fish leather. Oh

yeah. Well, for all the times, Lori's eaten fish leather. All right, well, don't worry, because today we're a Magnolia terrorist.

First things first, we're here to talk about the food. Can we talk about the Tiana Topiary, which is brand new this year? She is gorgeous. We were talking earlier about how the faces of the topiaries have continued to improve over years. I think Tiana is even a step. But it's that arch behind her. It was sort of that draped moss.

It really sort of frames that photo beautifully right in front of the magnolia terrace. It's

so pretty. We were talking, like you said, about how they keep bringing out the topiaries each year and each year it's like they've leveled them up in detail and the, like you said, that archway behind her with the soft sort of stuff hanging from it.

I bet at night it's really beautiful and like if there was a soft breeze going, I bet it's really, really pretty. It would look definitely very southern with a little breeze going and the moss moving. Oh yeah, I can see

that. That's pretty, and you can experience it in all five senses and 360 degrees because in addition to it looking good, it smells so good.

Here we stopped to try, not one, not to, but three of the items on the Magnolia Terrace menu. There's a muffett, a panini with ham sl Ella Prolo Swiss, and an olive salad, A spicy chicken gumbo with an dewy sausage. Ben's original long grain and wild rice. And a crawfish pie that has no description next to it, but it does have that sort of flaky filo dough top to it.

Lori, we know you cannot have cel shellfish. So let's dig into the muffett of pan for ladies first. Dig in, start trying it. It is a, it's about half of a round roll, and if you've ever been to New Orleans where the muffle atta, uh, originated, it looks you're, you're butchering it. You, yeah. Oh my God. Just take it.

Don't say, oh my God, and pull it away from me. You're supposed to say, oh my God, and give it to me. It's

so, it's my favorite kind of sandwich. It's that warm jelly meat with the olive bread. The olives are so good. The olives make it, the olive make it, it's a little spicy, but not too much. Just a little bit.

It's

perfect. Oh yeah. And the bread is toasted, so it has a nice crunch on the outside and it has a carrot and it, so

it has a carrot in it. So it's kind of like a salad.

And it's so weird cuz I'm like, I'm like a broken Italian cuz I don't like olives. But I like the olive salad on here. And the same with, I like when I was in New Orleans, cause I think it has the, the saltiness of the ham as well as the, the uh, the provolone cheese.

And the ella gives that, that little bit of spice too. That's really nice. , they're both chewing. They can .

It looks like a top and odd flavor. It's like a very mild olive. Mm-hmm. . And it the, like you said, the bread is toasted. Really? Well. This is like my ideal Italian like warm Italian sandwich. It's so good.

It's not soggy at all. It's perfect.

It's just perfect. Yeah. That's really nice. And let me just quickly look at, this. Came in at $6. That's, um, that's a winner right there. Yeah. It's not that I would come back

for. That's, and it's not really heat, it's more like a pepper. It's like a peppery heat,

you know? I like the taste.

It sort of sits on your palate. Yes. Like as it's done. Laura, you can finish that. And I'm only doing that because you can't eat the other two. Uh, I think, let's try, let's go to the spicy chicken gumbo. I dig me a good gumbo. This is a, it's actually a pretty large, um, portion sausage over rice. I'm sort of stir this around and I'm sure if you're from New Orleans, your definition of spicy might be different than what this might be.

But let's see. Oh no, it's got, that's got some, that's got a little bit of heat to it. Oh, it's actually really

nice. That's really, really good. That's really, really nice. It's got a little heat. I was a little nervous after the sandwich, cuz that hadn't gone away completely yet. But it's not bad. Again, it's like a peppery.

Mm-hmm. heat. It doesn't like blow up in your mouth after.

To Lori's description of what a nice cool night out here would be. That would be the perfect sort of like comfort food. Cause that's really what this all is. This is like southern comfort. Not southern comfort, but southern comfort food. That's really good.

I really like that. And I think that's an improved, we've had this in the past and it did not, it wasn't awesome. This is really, really good. I was gonna

say, I was not that enthusiastic about starting here, cuz to be totally honest, in the past, I haven't loved this booth, but this is really, really good.

Yeah. I'm excited to try the, whatever the crawfish pie is.

Alright. You start, you start on the crawfish pie while I have another taste of the gumbo. Lori, this is awful. You're not missing anything at all. Don't you worry about it. So the crawfish fire is in a, is it a smaller, like it took, um, a large ramen, I'll put post photos in the show notes, but it's a, it's a smaller portion but filled.

With like, there's no rice in here. This is all like crawfish.

Yeah. And it's topped with like a little round of phlo dough again. It's temperature hot. Temperature hot. Yeah. Let me, I wanna actually have a bite that, oh, I'm gonna dunk this phlo dough in it a little bit cuz I think it probably needs that for texture.

Oh, look at that though. When you lift, when you take it out, you can see there's a ton of like Yeah, little shrimp and crawfish and stuff. Steer clear. Laurie .

Laurie's going into anaphylactic shock just looking at this .

This is really, really good. I'm so, I'm so excited. This makes me so optimistic about the whole festival because I have not loved this food in the past.

And this is fantastic

America. Spread your golden wings, sail on eagle's, wind acro what

you made the most of your minute and a half. Thank

you. . Um, wow. America. You have redeemed yourself. You have really redeemed yourself. I think all three of these are winners. That's really, really good. That crawfish pies is excellent.

And the one thing that we didn't get was the bananas, foster bread pudding, which I'm sure is really good too. It was just a little early for that, but I saw somebody with it right next to us and it looked

really good. There's also a bayou cocktail, Bayou Spice Rum, coconut rum, fruit punch, and orange juice.

I'm not a drinker, but that actually Lori's like, yeah, why didn't we get one of those?

That sounds like something that you'd have like in a punch ball at somebody's house. Yeah.

Um, this is a big winner I'm given, you know what, if we're doing a scale from one to five, that was really good. I'm giving Magnolia Terrace a five.

Yeah. Yes. And I've never given mm-hmm. America, the, the, the marketplace

a five before. Even like the aftertaste that's in my mouth right now is like, I don't, I'm not in a rush to eat anything else right now. That was so good. I still have the hold. Pepper, olive flavor on my tongue.

I like the fact that they weren't afraid to put a little bit of spice Again, not so much of it overpowers the flavor of the food.

It enhances it, which is what spices are supposed to do. Really, really nice.

They all go together really well

too. They, if you had to pick one from here, which would you pick?

That's tough. Maybe the sandwich, just cuz it's so different. But all three are really good.

Look at those big pieces of okra in the gumbo too.

How much

was the, um, gumbo, because that's a

big bowl. The gumbo was 6 25. That's it. Good deal. And the, the muffle letter was $6 a chicken gumbo was, and the crawfish pipe was 6

75. That's a really, really good buy. That's a lot of food. So that, that might be my go-to. That's a lunch. Lunch. That's like a whole bowl of lunch.

Yeah. Yeah. Plus, you know, maybe the

gumbo. And you're right. I'm try like, I want to finish it, but I don't want to finish it because I don't want to get too full. Because as we're recording this is, this is the first stop of the day. Just cuz we happen to be here at 11 o'clock when, when it opened. All right.

Magnolia Terrace. God bless America. You get a a, a five star rating there. That's good. I would come back, I would come

back for this. Oh yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. I could see being here and being in the mood for that combo. He love this. I

would bring, I'll get this and he'll get the, he'll

get those two again.

Yeah. Actually that may be the play. Come here with another person and get both and have half the sandwich and the gumbo. And that's a nice meal.

I'm sorry, you spelled all three wrong .

Yeah. Yeah. Well that, well the, they're all good. You can't get wrong. Yeah, it's a lot of food. I'm sure the bread pudding is good too.

You ever tried the beans from in the out? So I made my way over to Morocco and the Chan Tangerine Cafe flavors of the Medina. Now you may recall Tangerine Cafe used to be not just one of it, one of the best quick service locations in all of Walt Disney World. It now is more seasonal, sort of follows the festivals.

And so if you're walking through Morocco, don't forget to go into Tangerine Cafe because they do have a festival menu that includes a hummus trio chicken or lamb kebab, and an orange blossom saffron cake. I walked in, in the interest of being a completist and and researcher. I ordered all three. I turned around and who's standing next to me, but Lisa and Lori again.

So it's actually fortuitous because I don't think I could eat all of this on my own. Quick note, if you look in your paper, flower, and garden guide, it actually doesn't show the chicken gaba. It may show it on the digital menu, on your app. Um, ladies, we talked very briefly before we got here, how much we love Morocco's food, how much we miss the, the Tangerine Cafe as a whole, but we really like the selection, uh, and the presentation too of all three of these different items.

Yeah, so like we were saying, this was easily like a top three quick service for me before they sh you know, shut it down with all the changes they're making at this pavilion. But I love that they're using it for booze at each of the festivals and everything that they serve is always gorgeous and flower and garden, obviously just that much more so.

So I'm excited to taste it, but just looking at it is so pretty. .

And Lori, I know you're an adventurous eater, Lori also, she broke the rules. She dug into the cake already when I wasn't looking. .

Yeah, but it, why not have dessert first? Cuz you can, the cake is so good and creamy inside. It was not at all what I was expecting.

The, one of the best parts about this pavilion here is the colors of the food. Then they have beets and black garlic and the, it's so colorful and it's very

tasty. Let, let's start with the chicken kebab just because it's, it's warm before we get to the other stuff. Um, it's a single skewer over a little, uh, chickpea and carrot salad with sort of a white.

Creamy sauce on top. If you wouldn't mind doing the honors. It looks like there's, we might be lucky there's, it looks like there's three different pieces on there,

so if you've been to other festivals and eaten at this, um, this location, if you probably have had this before because they always have some variation of this, um, kebab on the menu and it's served on like a car, um, carrot slaw that has some chickpeas and is it raisins or current?

Some sort of little dried thing in it. Oh, it's great. It's always great.

It's so good. . I was tempted to get the lamb but I was out voted. I know lamb is not everybody's couple lamb, but, but I'm hearing nothing but ooze and, and some oz here. Hold this while I is waiting. The chicken,

actually the bobs is a two figure taste, tastes fresh off the grill.

Like I definitely don't regret getting the chicken. I'm sure the lamb is great too, but the chicken is awesome. Has a little, you need to get a little bit of the slaw in your mouth. With the chicken because that sort of adds the texture and there's a little bit of a sweetness.

Isn't that good? Chicken

is really good.

Yeah.

So, well, I really like that. Wow. It's really good.

It's not too much. And the sauce that's on it is, I, I dunno what you call, it's like any kind of like a yogurt sauce that you would get at this kind of a restaurant.

Yeah, you're right. The, the char of the chicken and there is a little bit of sweetness with the salad.

It's a really nice contrast in textures and flavors.

All right, let's move on because you get not one, not two, with three different types of hummus. There's a traditional chickpea hummus. There's also a beautiful red bean and black garlic hummus and an avocado herb hummus with Moroccan bread and the crispy papa dam, which I really, really like as well. So you get different sort of types of bread.

You can use as well, Laurie, go ahead. And the papa. This is the papa Don. Okay. So it's a, it's a very thin, lightly sort of toasted, crispy. Sometimes it can have a little bit of a, a little bit of, almost a spice to it. And then there is regular, um, like Moroccan Peter bread. Oh, it smells delicious.

I'm excited.

I'm, I'm a big beat. I love beets, so I'm excited for

this. And I learned from Gillian's Island that beets are good for you. So , they gotta be, it is like dirt. So they've gotta be good for you. No, they don't. I I'm, no, they're kidding. I like them. Wait, I'm, they actually had me not at be, but when I saw that it was beat and black garlic.

Mm-hmm. .

It's not overpowering. The bee flavor's not, not the bee flavor's not overpowering at all.

It's very good. It's very, it's sweet. Like there's a sweetness to

it.

Yeah. Well I think beets can have a sweetness, right? Yes. And these are, it's very good. I mean, you, you, you do taste the bee, but it's not overpowering at all.

They probably roast. They roast the

beach. That gets smooth. Mm-hmm. . It's actually the avocado hummus that I was looking forward to most. That was also the one I like. Hummus.

The avocado. Hummuses. Avocado. Yeah. That's really nice. Oh, she's making the yummies face for the beets. I'm gonna try a little bit of the papa. Very good. Yeah. Wow.

It's a little, it's a little tart too. It's not, it's not sweet like they, what's in it that makes it tart? Did it say like lemon? Maybe.

It just says avocado, herb.

It's very good. But this is actually a really nice, easy, simple, shareable plate. I think it's super accessible too. As long as you like hummus, there's nothing sweet. There's nothing, um, spicy as opposed to it's actually a little sweet on

some of them. Yeah, I could definitely see like coming here like with a couple friends getting all of these dishes, maybe like, you know, a couple flutes of something to drink, to go with it on a, like a, a sunset.

It would be really nice. I mentioned the presentation is is lovely, but we should mention more specifically like the hummus that we're eating is served on this round that looks almost like a piece of marble. It's not obviously, but it looks like it. And then there's like a fan out of the different breads and the hummuses are, there's like a traditional hummus that's more of a normal color and then the avocado is a very pretty green and the bee is obviously like a bright, bright pinkish bread and it's really pretty bread.

Try it without the bread tastes totally different. Lori's serving me like it's a, like, it's a spoonful of sheer. I

had to taste it without the bread to get the garlic.

Oh, get the garlic. You're right, you do taste the garlic way more if he doesn't eat it that way. Taste without the bread. Yeah. This, that's really nice.

Like it's just, it's a very nice, nice. It's a nice, simple light snacking plate. But now, but I'm really curious about the orange blossom saffron cake.

It's not like a, it's got like a, not a shell, but it's, it's got like a shell on the outside of it. And then there's sort of almost like a custard on the inside

and it looks like a ton of bed of like a pistachio cake.

And there's, oh my God,

it's

so good. It's so good. These just fell back in our chair. Oh my God, that's so good. This, now you might not know this about me, but you're not a guy, not this. Yeah. I'm not really sweet. There's a, um, is that like a, there's a wonderful sort of citrus, it's pistachio. There's, but there's like a wonderful sort of citrus flavor that, that sits on your pallet when you're done.

That's like a nice little, like layer of sweetness. You're right. That's really, really nice. And it's, it's really nice.

I love Soft Rock. I love Saffron. It's, it's all these different flavors, but they're all like, married together really well and subtle. There's like a berry on the bottom. There's the pistachio cake.

There's a really nice custard. And then I guess the saffron is, looks like it's sort of in the shell that's around the custard on top. It's like a sugar shell. It's like a sugar shell. Yeah. Not like a ice cream dip, but kind

of like, like you can sort of like crack the top. Yeah. And it's, when you hear cake, it's not, it's like a layer of like pudding on top of the, the thin cake underneath.

There's a lot of stuff going on in, there's a lot of different flavors going on. This is

delicious. This, um, if this isn't a top three dessert at the festival, even though it's the first one we've had, I'll be shocked. This is, I could start a trend. It's all right. It's a good problem to have. These are, this is really, really good.

Mind you, this is only the second pavilion we've been to so far. Wherever we, wherever we have our top 10. But yeah, this is actually really nice. And what is this sort of raspberry? Is it like a raspberry, like a berry? Like it's a berry cooley. Like on the bottom?

Yeah. Yeah. Almost like a gel. It's like a gel consistency.

Yeah. It's, and it's beautiful. It's not, um, too, it's not too sweet. Well, none of it is, I don't think, and it's so good's very soft all through. But then it's got these like roasted pistachio nuts Yeah. That are sort of whole and sliced, sprinkled throughout that kind of cut the softness to give it a little bit of interesting texture too.

Yeah.

There's a nice sort of, uh, layers as it hits the pallet as you sort of bite through everything. That's really nice. That, that's really, really nice. Um, that and the hummus, I mean the, the chicken kebab almost is getting, because it's, it's, it's like a normal chicken kebab. It's almost sort of letting, getting left behind because the flavor profile of, of that is so high and so rich.

The other one is a nice little snacking dish.

I do think the slaw, that's what the chicken like levels it up a lot. Like if you, that's a, it's got, got really nice char on the chicken and putting it that in your mouth with the slaw. I mean, I think it holds up against the other two. That's really good. I'm glad I started with dessert.

I'm glad I started with dessert

first. Woohoo. That's why you're everybody's favorite grandma because you start with dessert. What would you rate overall Tangerine Cafe flavors of the Medina?

I mean, I don't wanna feel like we're giving 'em out easily, but how is that not a five? I, I would say like a four and a half.

Yeah. Okay. I think the breads

could have been a little bit better. I, I, I say a four and a half because, because I want to give room for later on, you know, if we rate everything a five .

All right. No, I will, I will give it a very, very solid

four. I'm gonna give it a 4.375 because it's not quite a four and a quarter.

It's not quite four and a half. How would you rate the dessert by itself? the desserts of five. A five. Yeah. The desserts of five. I was speaking dessert. I like this, but I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna finish some of the crispy papa. Cause I really like that the bread, I'm really not a sweet guy. I'm not kidding.

Wandering the promenade during the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival is like going to Toys Rru in 1976 and walking up and down the aisles cuz there's so much good stuff. Like you want just like take it all home and try everything and you can't. Although I, I do have to say one of the reasons why I like this festival so much is unlike food and wine, which can be overwhelming because of the number of marketplaces on the promenade, there are fewer options.

And some might say even the selections of food is better than in, in the larger festival, um, like food and wine. So as we've been walking through, It's tough to not want to stop every single place and try everything. But when I see that there's something that is new and interesting on a menu like at TRS and Trellis, hosted by Impossible, we have to stop and get, not one, not two, but three items on the menu.

And Walt Disney World has always been for those with special dietary requirements or allergies or vegetarian or vegan, a place to go because you could always ask a chef to make something special for you. But now those items are just on the menu. And here there's a full impossible booth. Impossible is not just for vegans and vegetarians anymore because so many of the impossible items over the last few years have been really, really good.

My interest was very much peaked when I saw the impossible lumpia with Thai sweet chili sauce. Lumpia is like a small thin, like fried egg and boneless impossible Korean short rib with cilantro, lime rice, the muji slaw, and kimchi mayonnaises. There's a lot of words in there that I really, really like.

Korean short rib cilantro, kimchi. And then we also got the twining iced tea with cranberry and lime. There's a non-alcoholic version and there's also an alcoholic version with, um, lime vodka that's served in a mason jar. So first thing that we noticed, and again I'll put photos in the show notes@wwradio.com, is the presentation of the Korean short rib was beautiful.

Two large, thick pieces of what would look like normally like. A, a fatty short rib over a, uh, a scoop of rice and Bach choi, like very, very appetizing. It smelled really good. And then you get five of the little Olympian. Lori is just sitting with one like delicately pressed against her lips going, can I eat this now?

Am I allowed to eat this now? God, Lori, you're you're taking it to the . I think she, there was probably six and Lori ate one already. How delicious.

It smells barbecue eating. You wouldn't that in your mouth and you're still telling me it smells good. . It's very good. The outside is crunchy. The inside is still meaty, even though it's not meaty, but it's meaty.

Wow, that's so good. I'm sorry. What? The sweet chili sauce is perfect. It's not too much. It's just enough.

And I like the size of em. It's like the size of a, like a little, like almost like half a tucky though, like Yeah, it's like a two or three bite size. , but you're right, it has of that thin, crispy, like flaky egg roll outside.

Mm-hmm. , you would never know that there's not some sort of meat inside. It's really, really good. I love the, uh, did you smell it? The sauce smells delicious.

This is delicious. I always love tr and trellis and they always do really cool things with the impossible throw meat. It's funny, there was a woman in front of us in the line and she asked the person at the register, are the short ribs, real meat?

And she said, no. And she said, well, then count me out. And I was like, no, they're really good because you really would never know this. It's like these are the texture of like a tech, like a taquito, but shorter, like you said. Yeah.

These are excellent. That's a great little snack. And that came in. That's delicious.

Those were, that's five 50. Ooh, if my math is correct, that's a dollar 10 cent for each one. And a five. Yeah,

five, five pieces. That's really, really good. And a really good, really,

really good. So

if you had to share them with your family, you

could. That's a nice, yeah, that's a, um, that's a nice shareable little, and they're not, you don't have

to cut it up.

It's, it's already five pieces. So if you're with a group of people, it's not like a mess. Sitting there trying to use a knife to cut pe portions for everybody. And it's not like

a heavy fry on it, like it's lightly fried. That's really good. And then you sort of wash it down with the iced tea. That's nice.

The

ice tea is, uh, tart from the cranberry and the lime. It's very good.

And the iced teas. The iced teas are four 50 each. Um, the impossible, the bonus impossible short ribs come in at 6 75. That's a deal. Again, it's a, yeah, it's a, it's a big

portion. We haven't had it yet, but assuming it tastes good, it's a big portion for 6 75 and it's got some nice like Bach choy with it.

For

the box choy, I really like the flavor and texture of impossible over some of the other. Do you use your expression faux meat? Because it has, it, it, it has the, the right texture and chew that, um, you know, real meat does obviously not the same type of texture as in a short rib, but it almost has like a thick, dense meat meatloaf fee Texture.

Yeah. It's got a meat loy texture.

Texture. Yeah. It has the texture of a meatloaf. It's not stringer stringing or anything like a. You can just chew

it, which can sometimes be fatty, right? Sometimes the fattiness, some people, the fattiness turn some people off on, on the

ribs. That's what I like a lot about sometimes using impossible and regular recipes is that you get that meat taste without any of the grease.

And I know certain of our friends are probably listening to this and canceling me completely, but it's, it's good. I, I think I preferred the Olympia taste-wise, which is surprising me, but, um, no, this is, they're both, they're both excellent. They're both excellent. I think if I was gonna go grab something again, it would probably be the Olympia, just because it's such a, like, group friendly, tasty thing.

But this is really good

too. Like I would come back and order both of these. Like I could absolutely eat that. My daughter would love this, right? My daughter, she's not vegetarian per se, but she doesn't love a lot of meat, just flavor, texture. She would really, really like this. What do you give this, if you had to rate the booth as a whole and or each one on a one to five scale?

Probably a four for me, like a 4.25.

I like the, the Olympia. Olympia. These are my favorite. The Olympia are really good. I think the, the Olympia are like a 4, 4, 7, 5 9, 2 3.

That is the first time I've ever tried impossible meats. Is it really? It is. So I wasn't quite sure what to, you know, me,

but I'll try it anyways.

So what are, so talk to me about sort of that first experience then for you. It like a meatloaf, like a texture

of a dry meatloaf . But it was good.

Well, it, I like the sauce too. It

works really well as a burger for that reason. It's, it's, I mean, you kind of have to suspend disbelief a little bit for a short rib cuz like you said, you don't have that stringiness, which is not the worst thing.

You're not getting it cut in your teeth at the festival with your friends. Not the worst thing in the world. It's good. The Olympia is my favorite. I, I love that. And I think it's an awesome, like, shareable for if you were to walk around the festival with a group of people.

Right. As I, as I'm on my fourth piece of the short rib you take.

It almost, it, putting the word short rib in there almost doesn't a disservice cause you're expecting it to feel a certain way. But if you just talk about an impossible fla, you know, they're talking about the, the flavor of the sauce on that's on it. I think it's really good. Like there's a, there's a nice spice to the impossible.

I, I like the texture. I like liked where the, the mouth feel of it too. This is, this is another winning booth. Yeah. I, I wouldn't,

yeah, I think if I walked in and they just told me it was like a poke bowl or like some kind of a rice bowl, I would've liked it more than expecting it to be short rib. I think you're right about

that.

And I like the iced tea too. Um, I like the 20 iced tea with the, the cranberry lime. And it's a nice compliment to this too, because it's, I think this works. Yeah, I think this works well. There's two lumpia left. One for each of you. Go ahead. I'm good. Come on. You know you want it? It's fine. I just wanna smell 'em.

God,

you have the last one. Okay. Thank you. Smell the ends. Okay. Are you gonna record me while I eat the last

one? I can't believe they, I can't believe these two took the laugh. They took the last two. Nobody offered me a bite. I'll, it's all right. I'll ditch them and come back later on my own. I'll just get, just an order for myself, , as we continue on our journey around the promenade, and as the day goes on, the crowds are starting to pick up as this is the first day of the Flower and Garden Festival.

And along the way, we have a fallen soldier, Lori. Uh, Lori did not, was not able to make the trip around. She tapped out only because Judy called. But when one goes down, we were able to pick up somebody else along the way to fill her place. She is Carolina Grava. .

Hey

Lou. My, my God. . Yes, I'm here. . She did not know she was recruited, but we're like, come on down.

We're just about to go and hit, uh, a booth that we were looking forward to. We got here early and we're sort of walking by the booths before they opened this one. Very quickly hit our list of must dos, really because of the blackened fish slider. With roasted tomatoes, water crests, and citrus ramada on brioche, which is new this year.

We also got the watermelon salad with blueberries, pickled red onions, balsamic, and feta. I love every word in that sentence. That is a recurring fan favorite. We did not get either of the two street corns with the garlic spread and spicy corn chips or with the plant-based cotilla cheese. Uh, but we did get a cucumber, watermelon, non-alcoholic slushy.

And I dig this booth because what it is is embedded in its name. Like everything here seems so light, so fresh and super

flavorful. And I think it's probably worth mentioning that please don't not get the street corn because we didn't get the street corn. It's so, so good. It's just that we already knew it was really good and it's like the least shareable thing in the world, so get it anyway.

But we can tell you that's good without trying it.

So you also, so Carolina got her. She's like enough with you. Amateurs. I'm not sharing my salad. I'm getting one of my own. I'm assuming you've had this before. Well, I got one for myself because I felt embarrassed to share with you. This is one of my favorite dish and I would just kill your salad.

Oh. So I just thought it was fair that I would get my own salad. So you did it really more for our benefit than, than anything else. So I appreciate that. Exactly right. Friends, helping friends, . All right. But I think we need to, first, I think we need to first dive into the back blackened flesh. I speak for a living blackened fish slider with rose, tomatoes, water crests and citrus.

So it's a maybe little bit smaller than a baseball size. Brio spun. Um, ladies first. You sure don't wanna try one? Okay. Try a little, try it here, Kathleen. You take that one and then you and I just take a bite of that and I'll take the other bite. No, no, no. Just put small little piece. That is a small little piece.

That's fine. It's teeny tv. You can do it. I believe in you. I just ate so much. It doesn't matter. ,

that's gonna be right.

I was eating, I ate every single dish. And you are professional. Just

professional. Eat. Take a bite of the food.

It's really good. It's a black and fish sandwich. It's, it's very good. I'm, it's good. The fish is very, very well done. The roll, I think could be maybe a little more interesting. That's good.

It's, you know what, I felt that the role almost overpowers it a little bit because it's, it's thin. The fish is very good.

It's flaky, but it's, it's blackened fish. Blackened fish. Um, but I think the role, which doesn't have really any sort of flavor to it, or even like an onion roll or something like that would've been better. But I think the roll almost overpowers it a little bit. Yeah. The row's a little bit dry as well, but the fish is really good.

Everything inside is really good. It's just the roll.

Yeah, it's, it's well done. Blackened fish and everything else is just on the plate too. Yeah.

It was , right? It was, it, it's an okay dish. I'm actually. You know, again, I'm not a sweet sky. I'm also not really a salad guy, but I love a really nice watermelon salad.

And what's nice about this is it's not just the watermelon, but I love the, the contrast of having the pickled onions with the blueberries and the feta cheese on top. Like I am a sucker for good fet cheese. This salad is so good. The balsamic just does it for me. It's delicious. And on a hot day like today, this is really, really,

really nice.

You have to really get everything in your mouth at once because you, if you don't get the balsamic and the cheese with your bite, you mi you're missing out .

And it almost, you wouldn't think that these flavors go together. You would never think to put balsamic vinegar and feta cheese on top of your watermelon, but they compliment each other so nicely.

And a little bit of that like bite and snap from the pickled onions. Is really, really nice. This is the one dish that I would love to recreate at home. And the collars as well. I think it's perfect for far, for far, for July. That would be really nice dish. Yeah. Like if I just had this in my refrigerator all the time, I would eat this every day.

You could toss this together pretty easily. But there's some, like even the

blueberries, which I, I don't, I am not you don't wanna see me in the kitchen doing anything else other than washing my plate.

Even the blueberries that are in it seem like they're just in it for like a little pop of something different, but they, they taste really good in the dish.

Like when you hit a blueberry, it's, it's, it's good. It's, the whole thing works together really well. It's the

pickle, sorry, the pickled onions as well. My gosh, it's delicious. I could cut some watermelons and try to put some on onions, but it's not gonna taste like this and I know. Yeah, it's a really nice sized portion too.

Obviously it's one that we are sharing with everybody other than Carolina. The slider is 6 75. It, it's not, it has not been the star of the show compared, especially comparatively to what we've had. The watermelons out is four 50 all day, all day.

It's such a no-brainer. Such a no-brainer. I, I doubt I'll have the fish sandwich again this, this season and that's fine.

It was, it was fine. The, the salad is, is killer. And like we said, the street corn at this booth is like a, is is a definite do not miss item. We just didn't get it today because it didn't make sense

to get it today. You say to do not miss item after I did not order one. So now I feel like I should have now I am missing it.

Well

then you've got corn in your teeth for the rest of the day. .

That's why I do podcasts and not video. Like I know my place in the circle of life. What do you think about the, um, what do you think about the water Me. Slushy.

It's like a spa and a cup . It is, it's really good. You're, I have, I have had some, you had some.

I love this one.

It's not sweet. I was, um, worried that it's gonna taste a little bit, um, you know, artificial usually watermelon, Disney, sometimes it taste of artificial, but this is delicious. I was afraid it was gonna be like Hawaiian punch, like a super sweet like drink for kids. But it's not, there's almost a little bit of like tartness to it.

Yeah. It's not overly sweet at all. I mean, it tastes, I'd be, I'd be shocked if it's not fresh watermelon and cucumber cuz that's exactly what it tastes like. It doesn't taste like there's anything chemical at all going. I would compare this

to a perfect watermelon, Gatorade. It has a little saltiness to.

Looks very, you know, fresh and hydrating. It's really good. I will

get

this again. So I almost feel like I'm eating health food. Like this is like what people who

eat healthy eat this is light. Yeah. The, um, the watermelon salad especially is, is really, really nice. And, and if you, if you wanted an alcoholic beverage, I would imagine that whatever is the spiked version of this is delicious as well.

Mm-hmm. . Cause that's very light.

Oh, I just got one of the blueberries. Right, right. The blueberry light. It took a little firework in your mouth when

Yeah. It like levels it up. It's like, Ooh, I got a blueberry .

Yeah, because you ate most of them. So I'd like dig down below together. Oh, that is like, that's a nice little sort of, it's like , it's like getting like a little toy at the bottom of your cereal.

Like, it's this cool little surprise and you're like, oh my God. I mean, normally I would just dig into the bottom of the cereal first, but, mm. Really good. I really like this.

We're gonna go

get this. Yeah. This is one of my favorite boots so far. Mm-hmm. . This is a winner, especially in summer. All right. So.

Scale of one to five watermelon salad.

I mean, watermelon salad is a 4.9. It's a five. I like this one rating a lot of foods today. So . Oh really? Everything.

Is everything a five?

I've been giving out too many. Five.

Everything is a five. . There's a, we've been trying to, well, look, fortunately we have the, the slider to sort of balance it out.

Well, yeah. The slider's not a five.

Yeah. Well, . Slider's not a slider. Like a two. Yeah. Have a slider. Two and a half.

Yeah. The most, and I'm sure for some folks like, who just want like a nice plain fish sandwich. Yes. It's gonna take a perfect box for them. But I think especially with some of the other flavors that we've had, and it's really been sort of a wide spectrum of what Disney has done in, in terms of types of flavors, types of spices and things like that too.

I, I do think it, it probably does sit around a two, two and a half for me. You know, you might say, oh, it's just a silly watermelon salad. But it really is that good. Like, it's so nice with that. It's that feta. It's delicious. And it matches

the weather. Yeah. It's perfect

for this weather. Yeah. This is a really nice, for a hot summer day today, we're gonna go back to America when it's a little bit cooler outside and have, oh, if you haven't been to American Adventure yet, it's spoiler alert.

It's really, really good. So yeah, I'll, I'm, I'm a lo I'm, I'm in alignment with both of you. Um, big, big thumbs up for the watermelon salad.

Yeah. It's almost not fair to rate the booth as a whole because it was so

Well, especially cuz you told me not to get the corn and now I'm having like all this guilt that I didn't get corn.

We'll get corn, we'll get corn later. You know what can always go back.

She said it to me like I whisper something. Listen, uh, you do, you do your homework and we'll come back and get corn later. It's good that this festival is 127 days so there's plenty of days to get corn. Ah, that's a long festival. It is a very long, that's uh, that's why I think we're gonna sort of do like the festival review in like stages cuz you just can't, after 18 years of doing this, I'm finally realizing you can't do it all in one fell swoop.

Um, cause it's not fair to the later food. So cool. Yeah, this is good. I, I dig this. Excuse me. I'm gonna go get some corn today has been a quest, not a quest for fun, like in vacation, but a quest for the best. More specifically, trying to find the best of the new items at this year's Epcot Flower and Garden Festival.

I guess it really is a quest for fun and we've hit a few locations around the promenade, and as the day starts to wind down, I tried to figure out if I'm gonna do a top five things you have to try in terms of the new items, where do I go next? And it was sort of a fortu as it's been happening throughout the day.

It was really a fortuitous, um, meeting, not just with the little orange bird in the Odyssey, but Sarah and Ryan who just happened to come up and say hello. And sh we sh shared a picture when, when we met. A year ago. Grand Floridian. Hello. Welcome. Hi car. Hey, where are you guys from? Fort Worth, Texas, but currently, currently in Tampa, Florida.

Nice. And yeah, we started chatting while we were in the Odyssey, which is the citrus blossom. Looking at all the Orangeburg merchant. I was standing at the menu trying to decide, is this where I wanna plant my flag and try some of the orange and citrus st inspired menu items. You said you were about to try the pie, you were curious.

I'm like, well, I'm not a sweet guy and I wanna try the other two. And so here we are standing outside. I mean, we're standing outside the restrooms, but we act if you, if you face the other way, you have a beautiful view of, um, the world Showcase lagoon. And we tried everything that was on the menu. The orange sesame tempura shrimp with the orange chili sauce, citrus baked brie with preserved lemon marmalade, lemon cello, macerated, blueberries, and spiced marcona almonds.

And Sarah's lemon meringue pie with lemon curd, lemon moose and toasted meringue. Now we are standing out here in the blazing sun. It's a very, very warm day. So we'll go quick so the pie does not turn into soup. Um, I think we should go just top down. I think we just hit tempura and work our way down.

There are appear, there appears to be four or five, probably five or so, six inch pieces of fried tempura with sesame on top that you are my guest ladies first. I mean, she took the biggest one, but that's fine. No, I'm only kidding.

Hmm.

I love it. I think it's great. I think it's good. Got a nice little bit of spice to it.

It's really, really good. I like these like five finger food type dishes that they've got around. They're very shareable. This is really good.

I like it too because it's also a very light fry. We were talking today about a lot of very accessible dishes as you walk around.

If you're not an adventurous eater, this is an easy one, right? Shrimp emporium, little bit of that. Um, citrus orange glaze. You don't really taste a lot of heat from the chili, so don't let that. I mean, I think on a spicy scale of one to 10, it's, it's like a one. Like there's really, there's nothing

really in there.

Yeah. I'm not great with spice and I barely am getting any spice at all off of it. It's almost like you like an orange chicken kind of a sauce. Yeah, that's what, and a and a very light temper about her on a shrimp. It's good.

It does taste like something almost that you would get, like at, at a Chinese restaurant, this comes in at $7 and there's five.

So it's a nice, easy shareable item. And as the curl used to say, because I'm doing it, it's Stringer licking Good two. Um, rate it on a scale of one to five. I thought you were gonna say 10. Um,

3.75,

maybe a four. I like, I like the rounding of the numbers I'd give with a four.

This is gonna sound harsh. I'm gonna say three and a half, but it, because it's good, but it's not like something I couldn't eat elsewhere necessarily.

Like it's good, it's good if it's what you're in the mood for. It's good. But I'll

give it three. She's har You were right Sarah. You're right. She's so harsh. I'm giving it a three. So I'm only giving a three. Not because it's not, she's serious in shock. You're like, you like everything. Um, it's not because it's not good.

Not cause it's not shareable, but I think it is sort of a middle of the pack. Right? If, if there really is going to be a spectrum and there are things that, that possibly maybe are ones and twos, we've had better things. I, I think, yeah, I think it's, it's fine and it's good. I wouldn't necessarily come here for this, but it is a nice, easily snackable, like you said, share all, maybe it's a 3.5 for the snackability and the shareability.

It's nice. And wait, I'm gonna bring up to a 3.75 cause it's also served in the air conditioning. Mm-hmm. . Yes. So you can't eat inside at the Odyssey, which the seating area is now partial seating and partial merchandise location. If you love orange bird or orange flavored food, this is where you need to go.

All right. Next is the citrus breaked brie. This, um, it's about a, you know, four inch or so, sort of looks like puff pastry. Are those little blueberries off to blueberries? Lemon. Oh, they're lemon. Cello mare of

blueberries. And also I nibbled one of these spiced marcona almonds while you were talking.

There's three more simmer down. But they, they have a kick. They're spicy. Oh. So,

all right. Dig in please. I'm gonna do it all in one. I want everything to sort of happen in one bite. That's, I would Oh. It's delicious. I had that little like tingle on the tip of my tongue from the almond, from the almond. I would never think to put marmalade Andre cheese together, but there's all kinds of, there's a little like symphony going on in my mouth of all the different flavors and textures that almonds are spicy.

I think it pairs really nicely together. It's not too sweet, but it's not too spicy. It really just meshes really well. Yeah, I think there's a lot of flavor. I'm not really a big citrus guy myself, but I think it's got a nice little complimentary flavor in that. Ryan's like, of all the places you bring me to the citrus thing, and I'm not a citrus, it's all right.

I'm not a sweets guy, so I, I. Yeah,

that's wonderful. I wasn't expecting much, but it was wonderful. It's a wrapped brie. If you've ever had a brie that's like wrapped in, not like a flaky filo, but like something like that. And then there's almond on top, if you like, like a fig spread with brie, you would like this.

And the almonds give it just the, that kick from the almond is like the perfect balance against the sweetness

and the almonds are whole and, and, and slice. So you don't have to have, if you don't want any sort of heat, you don't have to have any of it on there. But I think there's this wonderful sort of, like I said, it's, it's this wonderful mixture of the, the creamy richness of the bri, the light flakiness of the, the, the patient on the outside.

And I, I actually, I like orange marmalade. So this is like a really nice mixture. And if you want that little bit of like that punctuated kick at the. Have one or two of the almonds. This comes in at 5 25. It's, I think it's a nice portion size for the price too, in terms of value. I think that

was lovely. I would get that again in a heartbeat.

And I, that was a good point that the almonds, like the spice is completely separated because it's like four or five marcona almonds on the side. So if you don't want any spice at all, just don't eat them. It's good.

Ryan's al I and the almonds, he's like, I'm past the citrus, but now I'm sort of buying almonds.

Alright. What said no that you're not a spicy person? I'm not a spice girl. Yeah, I

skipped, I'll try one. Douse it in them. Hobi .

No,

there's spice there. There's definitely spice. It is. You get that sort of little tingle, but it's not bad. It's not bad at all though. So on a one to five scale, where do we give this?

Is it bad to give it a 3.75? Again, I liked it a lot. I was kind of thinking the same thing.

4.25.

4.175 , just for those of you doing the math at home and keeping the spreadsheet, but Oh, the candy

arine in there.

Yeah. Listen, if you think that's sweet, that kid behind us just had an almond, by the way. Um, all right, so we're, I wasn't gonna get the, um, lemon meringue pie. This is all Sarah all the time. It is a nice, um, probably again about four inch, five inch inch diameter pie with a nicer sort of meringue on top and a couple of candied orange peels.

Ladies first, please dig in. I'm excited. Sarah just went for the whole piece. She didn't even like papa, like cutting it out. There's no reason to be dainty and or delicate here. I absolutely love it. I think the marshmallow whip topping. With the lemon and the graham cracker crust, like it all pairs really nicely together.

But I'm a big fan of like lemon and lime desserts, so it worked really nicely for me. Yeah, I'd say it was definitely, um, a nice light dessert. Definitely helpful after, uh, a little bit of spiciness from the almonds.

That was delicious. It's like a personal, if you're, it's like a tart, like a personal fruit tart sized, and then it has that like lemony custard at the bottom and like a marshmallowy meringue.

That's delicious.

I think the star of that show is that little piece of like caned orange ride. You mean the one you ate? All of all it. She had some too. That's your own fault. You cut it, so Right. But wasn't that really nice because it, it added a different sort of texture and you got sort of like burst of citrus at the

end.

It was sweet,

but also like you're right with the burst. It was something extra and added and I think it was really, really nice with the. Lemony flavor, and it's a really nice sort of way to round out if, if you decide to pull an US and get all the things here. Like I, like, I like walking away from a, a, a marketplace kiosk or a restaurant with that flavor that sits on my pallet in my mouth.

This is really nice because it is light. Um, it's actually a very, we're sort of refreshing type of dessert without it being too heavy. And this comes in at 4 70, 4 75. Yeah. That's not bad at all. Not for that size. All right. Rate the booth, I'm sorry. Rate the, uh, the Odyssey Citrus Blossom Marketplace as a whole.

You know, this is my first time actually walking in here. I've come to Epcot a lot and I really, really liked it. I like that it had this seating. I like that it had, we sat on the floor earlier today in there, and that was really nice. The shops were really nice and there was a lot of space, I think as a whole, like I'd give it a four, maybe 4.5.

Yeah, I'd give it a three and a half, I'd say. Nice little place off to the side. You get a little ac it always feels like it's a bit kind of away from everything, so can be a nice place to cool off and grab a nice citrusy snack. Yeah.

3.753 and a qu three and a half Doesn't feel generous enough. It's good.

It's good. It's a solid booth. It has ac I mean, what Mark could you ask

for? Yeah, I think we're sort of all in the right area at three and a half, 3 75. Um, and for some people it might be a four, but I think because we're taking the festival in totality and, and comparing it with other things, it's why it might sit so close to that, that middle range, but really, really nice.

Um, I think great value for the price too. And, and I think to your point, it's also about the experience of being able to be inside and have all the orange bird stuff. There's some great orange bird merch this year and you cannot overlook the importance of air conditioning. And it's only March 1st, so, um, Dress and plan according me.

Accordingly. Uh, Sarah Ryan, this was a nice surprise. This was a lot of fun. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely. This is, this is the way it happens. We just sort of, we literally have sort of been picking up people along the way and some people drop off. Um, but this was really great, so thank you.

That's been good. Thanks. Uh, you too. Thank you,

visiting the opening day of the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. My intention walking in the gate was to just do a little bit of reconnaissance mission, which turned into my quest, my quest for the best, which eventually evolved into my top five items slash marketplace booths that you needed to try.

And I think we've actually accomplished that because we have the citrus blossom in the Odyssey with the highlights being the Orange sesame Temporary Shrimp, citrus Break, Bri and the lemon meringue pie. At Florida fresh near Disney traders, we had the watermelon salad with blueberries as well as the black and fish slider in Magnolia Terrace.

Well, I'm gonna come back to that because that's the winner. Uh, Tangerine Cafe. We had the hummus trio, the orange blossom saffron cake, and the chicken kebab. In tr and Trellis, we have the impossible lumpia and the boneless Impossible Korean short rib. And the surprise coming in hands down at number one was Magnolia Terrace at the American Adventure with the Muffett panini, the spicy chicken gumbo and the crawfish pie.

There's a little part of me that regrets not trying the banana foster bread pudding, but I will be back. Oh yes, I will be back. And as I started to make my way out and wrap up today's top five, I felt a calling, dare I say, I was drawn to and compelled to go. Backtrack a little bit over to the Honey Bistro, which is located near where the old, um, restrooms and Starbucks used to be because as we were talking about some of the highlights of the festival, uh, the Honey Bistro has always been one that has impressed and I kept on sort of turning back the pages to the menu and items like the chicken and waffles, the flat Bread and the Honey Mars Capone cheesecake, I felt needed to at least be taste tested to see if they make the list.

So this is like a bonus. It's like a top 10, that's really not a top 10. Here's a top five with a little bonus because I think especially the chicken and waffles, first of all, when you walk over to the Honey Bistro, you are. Hit with this wonderful sweet and savory scent as you walk by. But it's the chicken and waffles.

It's this crispy honey brine chicken and honey sweet corn bread waffle with whipped honey butter and spicy honey, you get this nice well toasted waffle, and as you cut it, you see instantly how tender and juicy the chicken is. But there's this wonderful denseness to the waffle made from that honey sweet cornbread.

And then you also have this sweet and spicy butter on the side. I'm so happy I don't have to share. This is so, so good. This chicken and waffles comes in at 6 25. It's actually a very, very sharable portion. There's this wonderful sweetness and density in my density, sweetness, and density to the waffle.

And this. Wonderfully fried, but not heavily breaded chicken with a little bit of that honey butter and spicy honey. Again, don't let the word spicy throw you off because it just has layers and almost sort of waves of flavor that come through. That's really, really good and I think is actually a really good value as well.

I may have almost made a critical mistake by not having people to help me because I'm now torn between finishing the chicken and waffles because it's like if you took a piece of cornbread and put it into a waffle iron, that's what you would get out this nice, small, very, very dense and thick. But I'm gonna move on because I wanna try the pollinator pollinator flatbread, which is with honey whipped marscapone.

Honey caramelized onions. That's what really had me. Blueberry gastric prou honey whipped goat cheese, which I love. Arugula, a honey vinegarette and bee pollen. Oh, that's good. That's really good. We had our top, we had, we had our discussion of the best pizza in Walt Disney World, the differentiated flatbread that is actually delicious.

Actually, I wanna go back and have another bite this time with the blueberry on it. There's been blueberry and like everything that we've tried today, there must have been a sale of blueberries on at Publix, the onions and the prosciut and the blueberry and the goat cheese. It's that creaminess, the sweetness, the saltiness that all sort of blends wonderfully on top of this, perfectly cooked flatbread.

Very, very shareable. There's probably about five or six you can easily share between five or six, um, individual slices here. The flapper comes in. Again, super great value at 6 25. I really like this a lot. Like I would come back to this booth and just these two alone. I might have to rethink that. This might end up not being a bonus.

It might sort of move it up. The list of the top five and being the non sweet guy that I am, I got the honey marsh capone cheesecake and the honey peach cobbler freeze with Strel, the non-alcoholic version, just because I'm also, I'm not a sweet guy, but I am a completist. The cheesecake has honey whipped cream whipped honey crystallized honey, honey comb dehydrated honey and fen fennel pollen meringue kisses, which look exactly as they sound like, look like a little Hershey's kisses made out of meringue.

I love the different ways that honey is derived and prepared onto a single dish and the way I'm trying to do it onto a single spoonful. So I actually, I love honey. Um, I put honey in my tea. I put made this, first of all, the cheesecake. Standing on its own is really, really good. It's very light. It's airy, it's fluffy.

It's creamy, but again, you get salt. All of these different sort of derivations of honey flavors and honey textures on it. That is fantastic. Coming from the non sweets guy, that is an excellent dessert. I really like that a lot. And actually I wanna make sure there's actually a little honeycomb disc honey really is the, it's the perfect food.

And never expires. By the way, honey Never expire cuz I'm just full of useless information. And then finally, to wash it all down, there's a honey peach cobbler freeze with strel, which is like, um, the only way I can describe it looks like grape nuts. It looks like grape nuts on top. It's a honey peach cobbler freeze.

It's really more of a very, very thick sh actually, I think it's almost better eaten with a spoon than it is as a drink. That's nice too. , that's nice too, but, but the stars, the chicken waffle, the flat bread on the honey Mars Capone cheesecake. I know this is a solo review, but this might be, this might be an overall five.

The booth as, as a whole, might be an overall five. I'm going to ask, encourage, and challenge you to come to the Honey Bistro during the Flower and Garden Festival, which runs for 127 days. You have until July 5th to come and try it while you're trying it. Call the voicemail and let me know what you tried and let me know.

What do you think? Again, the cheesecake comes in at $5. Like these are all great values as well too. Uh, hi. How are you?

gonna give you a hug. Of course. I love you yesterday.

So nice. I love you. Wait, I'm recording. Review. Say hi. Hi.

How are you? I'm

so nice to be here. What's your name? Eleni. Where are you from?

Uh, new Brunswick. Um, oh, right down the street from now. Right down the 12th. X from, from me. Yeah. Yes. Well now yes, absolutely. Yeah. It's so nice to fucking meet. It's nice to meet you too. Your podcast so much. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it's, this is Annie. Hi, how are you? Oh, you doing a little scavenger hunt?

Yes, we are. You having fun?

Yeah. moving. Lots of fun. Only

four more to go. Oh, you're doing it. I'm not gonna tell you where Spike might be, but you are in the general vicinity. , can I get a picture with you? I would love to. Oh my God.

Can you get a picture with Lou, please? I dunno how steady it's gonna be. She had a.

Oh, thank you. Wait, I have something for you. Hold on. Wait. Oh, wow. I knew you were coming, so I had to, I mean, I didn't know you coming .

You had a feeling, right? I'm not gonna lie. I heard your voice. I'm like, that sounds familiar. Why do I know that Voice ,

not from America's Most Wanted, but wait, I have one for you too.

What's your name? Jade. Hi, how are you? Nice to meet

you. Nice to meet you. Meet you. Good. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. It's ok. I'll get it off. We'll get it off. We'll get it off. Oh my gosh. Thank you. Thank you so much. I have

reservations. Absolutely. It was so lovely. It was nice to meet you too. Thank you so much.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much for No, thank you. You've offered me so much comfort over the years. So much. I wouldn't be. Thank you. Absolutely. I love that.

I love that so much. I have

a great day. You. What do you think of that? What do you think of the shake? Oh my god,

it's delicious. So nice. Oh, so good.

This was my favorite booth last year,

so I had to make a beeline. No pun intended. Did you try ? I like that. Did you try anything else? Not yet. Not yet. I'm balling on a budget today, so I,

I like that. I'm like , so I'm like three things. A drink, dinner, and dessert. So this is my drink. .

Awesome. Yes, it was so nice to meet.

Meet you. Nice meet you too. Sorry.

Hands . Enjoy. Thank you. You too.

Well, that was a nice, unexpected, wonderful treat at the end of a wonderful day. Filled with lots of treats and lots of friends. Thanks again to Lisa, Lori Carolina, Sarah Ryan, I'm sure I'm missing a couple of other folks along the way. That partook in our, uh, quest, walking around the world and sampling for the very first time, some of the items from this year's Flower and Garden Festival.

I would love to know from you what your favorite item, what your favorite booth, what your favorite piece of merchandise. We didn't even get to the merchandise today. It's been a long day. We'll get to it. It's a long festival as well. We will definitely be back, um, do a couple other shows from here on Wednesday nights and maybe another podcast as well.

But I wanna know what your favorite thing is. What your can't Ms. Booth is. You can come be part of the community and conversation over in the clubhouse on Facebook. At ww radio.com/clubhouse. You can call the voicemail at four oh seven nine hundred nine. That's where we were. 4 0 7 909 3 9 1 4 0 7 900 WDW one from the festival.

While give me your own little mini review of an item or a marketplace, um, booth while you are here. And, uh, thank you again for virtually touring this year's day. One of this year's Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival. I'm gonna go back to the chicken and waffles cause I am been sitting here picking on that cornbread, waffle, whoever the mad scientist is that put those two things together and made this little Franken waffle.

Bravo. Bravo my friend that this is good stuff.