WDW Radio # 741 – LIVE Review of What’s New at the 2023 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival

0:00:52 - Lou Mongello
Hello, my friend, and welcome to the WWE radio show, your Walt Disney World information station. I am your host, lou Mangello, and this is show number 741 and together, as we have been since 2005, we're going to celebrate the magic of the Disney parks, movies and more here on the podcast, my weekly live video every Wednesday on Facebook, events blog and much more. Please be sure to join the community, subscribe to the podcast and find everything at wwwradiocom. So this week I want to invite you to virtually graze through Epcot with me as we taste, rate and review the best of the best of what's new at the 2023 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. Then stay tuned for the Disney trivia question of the week and more updates at the end of the show. And if you like what you hear, please share the show and tell a friend. So sit back, relax and enjoy this week's episode of the WWE radio show.

What year did the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival first begin? You might be saying 2015, 2000. What if I told you that the first Epcot International Food and Wine Festival was held back in 1996? And over the years, it's grown from a 30-day event to one that now runs from July 27th through November 18th Happy Birthday, mickey Mouse and my daughter. And it is a festival that is more than just a way and an excuse to come and eat your way around the world, but really has sort of evolved into something that brings together families and friends and food and almost is, by necessity, that long, because there is so much to do, so much to see and, of course, so much to eat that you cannot do it all in one day.

I was reminiscing earlier today about how I used to do food and wine festival reviews and how it has just evolved to something that can't be done in one day, in a single sitting, and certainly not by myself. But this year I am back at the festival for the first time. We'll explain why we need to come back again to do a review a little bit different than we have done in years past. And I want to welcome back to the show gentlemen, ladies. First Lisa DiNoto-Glassner from the Castle Run.

0:03:38 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Thank you so much for having me. I can't wait to eat my way around the world.

0:03:42 - Lou Mongello
And Kenneth Johnson from. I Still Don't have a Websitecom.

0:03:47 - Kenneth Johnson
I am always happy to eat my way around any place, especially with these three people, so thank you.

0:03:53 - Lou Mongello
Lou, these three and the tens of thousands that are surrounding us on the promenade. And last certainly not least, is Jason Kanap, from here right here with themagiccom.

0:04:04 - Jason Canapp
Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this scrumptious opportunity.

0:04:09 - Lou Mongello
So I'm trying to remember because now there's basically an Epcot Food Festival practically all year long Was the last one we've done? Was it Festival of the Arts? Was it Food and Wine? They all start to blend into one another, but we've done a number of these over the years. Do you have a favorite of the festivals? Festival of the Holidays, food and Wine? Festival of the Arts?

0:04:32 - Jason Canapp
Well, I mean, festival of the Holidays has the black and white cookies which are really, really out of this world. But I think, for me, I think Festival of the Arts is probably my favorite, but this year looks promising for Food and Wine.

0:04:46 - Kenneth Johnson
I always like the Festival of the Holidays too, just because of the time of year, especially in Epcot.

0:04:52 - Lou Mongello
The weather and the music and the fact that it's not 112 degrees.

0:04:57 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I was maybe going to say Festival of the Holidays until you reminded me about the black and white cookie. Now, I mean, flower and Garden is just such a beautiful time to be here in the park. But this is the OG Festival and there's just something really special, even though it's no longer after like a long wait through the summer without anything. These days there's like two weeks between festivals, but there's just something about the OG Food and Wine Festival that will always hold a special place in our heart.

0:05:22 - Lou Mongello
Well, I think each of the festivals has something that has its own sense of appeal, whether it is Flower Power, garden, rocks concert series, or it's the holiday season. It's the different type of cuisine. I think Food and Wine is still sort of not just the OG, but the largest of all the festivals in terms of duration and in terms of number of kiosks and food exploration opportunities that it presents, which I think is some of the reasons why I like things like Flower and Garden, because it's a little bit smaller, a little bit sort of more manageable. And this festival, you know, what used to be a Fall Festival now sort of begins right in the middle of the summer, which I also understand, because maybe you can't get here because of school or because of work to enjoy some of the other festivals that happen in the other times of year. But with a bigger festival that lasts longer, there's also great opportunities.

And this year I thought of listen, I've been doing this almost 20 years. I'm finally starting to learn my lessons. Rather than trying to review every single item at every single booth, which is a bit of a very tall order, and there's only my pants would only stretch so much Like I'm already pushing maximum density. I thought this year we would take a little bit of a different approach and look at the best of the best of the festival of what's new, because there are a lot of new items this year and while the festival continues to bring back fan favorites and classics that I think you know, like nostalgic foods from our childhood, whether it's TV dinners or sloppy joes we look forward to and come back for every year. But I also love the idea of discovery and exploration and seeing what is new and for me, when I get sort of the menus and see the food booths and stuff like that, that's sort of where my mind and sort of heart and tummy go to first.

0:07:15 - Jason Canapp
I think I know I think it's a good challenge. I don't usually seek out all the new things, but I think it's a good way to do it because, you're right, there are some favorites that we go back to again and again and then we miss out on things that might become new favorites. So it's good to try some new stuff.

0:07:31 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I'm a habit oriented person anyway, and I hate it when my my eating gets in a rut. And the great thing about this festival is there's always enough new that you could spend several trips to the festival and only eat the new things that year, so I think this is a great time to do just that.

0:07:52 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, you want to make Disney fans lose their mind. Take something away, Even if they never went to it and melted them. Take something away and they lose their marbles, and that includes some of the favorite food items as well.

0:08:03 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I think one of the interesting things this year is that there's not there's a lot of brand new stuff, but there's also I was flipping through because there's always like the fan favorites that we go back to again and again and they're here. But I feel like most things have sort of gotten at least a little bit of a new twist. Like, I love the flavors from Fire Booth, but the dish that we had there today that was served on a taco was a little bit different from the one that's always been served on a corn cake. So there's sort of taking advantage of making. I guess they're kind of people pleasing the people who don't want things to change, while at the same time like tweaking things just enough to keep them interesting, even for the stuff that is staying the same. So I think that's a lot of fun to and might help people to maybe segue into something that's a little bit different.

0:08:43 - Lou Mongello
I love the idea of sort of having comfort foods that we come back to and look forward to, but I also am always excited to see what is new, especially for, you know, if you felt like a marketplace didn't sort of hit the year before, you want to see how maybe they've learned, they've listened, they've tweaked, and I think there's a few things as we looked through the book were very intriguing. I think certain things get a lot of sort of social media attention Pickle milkshake I'm looking directly at you, but sometimes I think there's some hidden gems in there that hopefully we're going to find along our journey. Today. Anything stick out for you or in terms of place you want to go thing you are most excited to try.

0:09:23 - Jason Canapp
Well, I think. I mean, I was excited to see that the Frybasket has added the fried pickle to it. So it's another like take a great thing and plus it, there's new wings to try. There's new the chili killies are no longer in Mexico, but now there's a chili killies in America apparently. So, yeah, it's going to be exciting.

0:09:42 - Kenneth Johnson
Well, I am going to put my Disney hat on for my Disney fan hat on and be disgruntled for just a minute that the piggy wings are no longer in the in the in my favorite pavilion. But that be that as it may, I think there is a lot there to try and I'm looking forward to today.

0:10:02 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I'm super. I mean, I think the brewing area now sort of owns the wings, and rightfully so. There's some cool stuff that I'm excited to try. I love cardamom, so I'm super excited to try the orange cardamom wings and the pickle fries too. I'm excited to see what they do with that.

0:10:17 - Lou Mongello
I think I'm just most excited to revisit India, which doesn't necessarily have new things, but, considering a number of years ago, we had sort of a very sort of hotly contested debate about the kiosk as a whole and the food that was served there. We'll see if, how of in any way, india has changed. So we're going to sort of seek out the best of the best of what's new and literally eat our way around the world, hopefully in a single day. So with that let's move on. So we are dodging the rain a little bit and ducked inside the brewing labs at the Odyssey, which is why the background music might sound a little muppety, because it is. We'll get to the actual brewing lab menu, but first we want to double team flavors from fry, flavors from fire and the fry basket.

And this year what's new is the chimichurri marinated skirt skirt. I can't, I really talk for a living, I swear. Chimichurri marinated skirt steak taco with crushed avocado, grilled corn, salsa, pickled red onions, queso fresco and cilantro lime cream. And also we think that it sounds new ish, the spice chocolate tart with barbecue potato chip crust, salted whiskey, caramel and smoked sea salt. It sounded familiar from an earlier item, but now that we see it. It looks like it's brand new.

0:11:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
So this is always my favorite brew, so I'm so hungry and super excited to start this. The chimichurri they've always done, but they usually do it on a corn cake, which is usually very good, and this year it's more like like a soft taco shell, like a corn shell, and they always do like a spicy chocolate of some sort, because with flavors from fire it's heat fire and also temperature, like spice fire and temperature fire that they play with. But I think this barbecue chip thing is very different.

0:12:03 - Lou Mongello
Flavors from fire. We were saying earlier, like it always seems to deliver, like consistency for the festival.

0:12:09 - Kenneth Johnson
It's always my favorite, for sure and so many things like the piggy wings from years past that still invade my dreams at night, so I'm really happy that we started here.

0:12:19 - Lou Mongello
All right, let's, let's dig in and see if it delivers. Once again, I like this background thinking music. So it is not what I call the first date food, because it was delicious, but you're going to wear a little bit of it on your hands, which is sometimes a sign of a really good pizza, a really good cheese steak In this case, a really good chimichurri marinated skirt steak taco.

0:12:48 - Jason Canapp
That was so good, I'm ready for another.

0:12:52 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's so delicious Like it's the messiest thing ever, because it's very like wet and full of stuff and then you have to pick up the taco and eat it, so the corn cake that it used to be on is probably a little easier to eat, but it's so good.

0:13:04 - Kenneth Johnson
Okay, I'm going to be a little contrarian on this one. I thought that the smoked meat lived up to the expectations I have of the booth. I love the pickled onions. I thought there was too much going on in there, though I think the sour cream and the guacamole were not needed. I think I would have been great with that little corn relish the pickled onions by itself, that would have been perfect.

0:13:30 - Lou Mongello
You're a steak guy, that's your thing. You're going to go in and have a tomahawk steak for a mid-morning snack, so you like your steak. I think you want to enjoy the meat for the flavor of the meat, without all the accoutrements.

0:13:42 - Kenneth Johnson
And to me that's the point of this booth. But this could have easily been an impossible dish, and I wouldn't have known the difference, because most of what you get here is sour cream, guacamole and all the fixings. So this one's complicated. But if you really like that kind of thing, then this is your dish.

0:14:02 - Lou Mongello
Just for a future reference make sure that when we're cutting these in half, you cut it, because I think Lisa took all the meat and just left you all the stuff.

0:14:10 - Jason Canapp
It's like flavors from fire. Rated Pecos Bill's fixings bar you think well wonder what happened to the fixings bar. It's that flavors from fire.

0:14:18 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, that's definitely.

0:14:21 - Jason Canapp
I thought it was tasty. I enjoyed the guacamole, but it was a little much.

0:14:26 - Lou Mongello
Scale of zero to five. One to five.

0:14:29 - Kenneth Johnson
Three.

0:14:32 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Three point seven. Five to four. Everything was good. I think I've never complained about extra avocado but I mean it was a lot. I'm sure it varies serving to serving, because like that combination of flavors like avocado and pickled onions and like the queso fresco, is like a great combination of things and maybe it was a little heavy on the avocado for hours but it's still like a very good flavor combo.

0:14:54 - Jason Canapp
I give it an early three.

0:14:56 - Lou Mongello
I'm going to have 3.14527, like you, like, like she's doing pie, like she's creating, like it's pie. Yeah, I think it's like three and a half. I'm in the three and a half. So do we want to stay in the booth and go to dessert or do we want to sort of keep the savory as long as we have it through the pickle fries, so we don't sort of disrupt the palate?

0:15:18 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I can't imagine eating the chocolate after the pickle fries, so maybe we should just off the chocolate.

0:15:24 - Lou Mongello
That's what I'm saying. Like we go to pickle fries next, so you finish it with chocolate.

0:15:28 - Jason Canapp
In terms of yeah.

0:15:30 - Lou Mongello
Oh, you think you should fry using chocolate, then pickles. I'll shake over my palate.

0:15:33 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, chocolate first. All right, because they somehow it's like when you play dodgeball and you're picking players somehow this dessert got all the good ingredients, it got the chocolate, it got this. It's fascinating how your mind works. Caramel got barbecue chips somehow, and whiskey.

0:15:52 - Lou Mongello
It's all. I never got picked for dodgeball, so this is bringing up a lot of like uncomfortable memories for me. Let's chop it up and see how the spice chocolate caramel tart fares. It's a nice size bar. It's about the length of like a Hershey bar, but it's much, much thicker. So there's there's some substance to it.

0:16:13 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
What is that on the top?

0:16:15 - Lou Mongello
That's the barbecue. That's the barbecue.

0:16:17 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, because that says that's the crust.

0:16:18 - Lou Mongello
It says barbecue today and the spice chocolate tart comes in at 475 and the steak taco is 650.

0:16:27 - Jason Canapp
Mmm, some unexpected flavors are there, yeah, like nutmeg or cinnamon, and it's a little. There's a little hint of.

0:16:34 - Lou Mongello
Christmas. In it there's a little whiskey. You get a little sort of hint of that whiskey. You know I'm not a sweet guy, but I sort of like the little layers of flavors that are in. What is a is a seemingly simple on the outside chocolate bar.

0:16:48 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, and I was a little afraid of the barbecue potato chips, but it works.

0:16:52 - Jason Canapp
It really works. The heat on the finish is nice. A little heat on the finish is really nice.

0:16:56 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's a very dense chocolate. It's almost like a fudgy chocolate, but it's not too. It's not too sweet somehow, and like the barbecue chip crust is. This is really good. It is really good. I love those.

0:17:08 - Kenneth Johnson
I give this on a scale of one to five. I'd say, for dessert, this is a five.

0:17:14 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
For dessert, that's an absolute five.

0:17:16 - Jason Canapp
This is really good. This may beat the Lamington cake. This is so. This is that good. This is five for sure.

0:17:22 - Lou Mongello
I really I'm, I'm, I'm hesitant to give a five because I want to give some room, because we're early. We're early in the journey. So I want to give some room to move, but I'll give it a 4.51. This is sort of push it over the hand.

0:17:38 - Kenneth Johnson
That's. That seems fair. I'm just going by my memory of other desserts at the festival. This has got to be near the top.

0:17:46 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I mean, I know this booth well enough to rate it highly with confidence, so I'm going with a five on this. I would eat a bag of the barbecue chip sweet thing that's on top. I would eat a bag of that. It reminds me of when you get the sweet and salty popcorn.

0:18:01 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, you know what this would be good in If they took them in these sprinkles and put them in some mac and cheese. Be dumb man.

0:18:07 - Lou Mongello
Well, I'll keep licking my finger and sticking it into the bottom to get them in a leftover sprinkly stuff, while you guys are talking.

0:18:13 - Jason Canapp
I can't say, if you put my hands in there anymore.

0:18:15 - Lou Mongello
No, no, you definitely want to stay away. Yeah, let's sort of test your theory and dig into the pickle fries with the dill ranch from the fry basket, which I want to go on record as saying has the adobe yuca fries, and the fry flight with the sea salt and vinegar fries, which reminds me of the boardwalk in Jersey, the barbecue bacon fries and the sweet potato casserole fries, which are, which are really good. So we really, yeah, we really liked the the fry basket last year, but the pickle fries are new this year.

0:18:50 - Jason Canapp
I love these. I love these. The dill ranch from there. Oh, it's so good. You start tasting it before you put it in your mouth. The smell is so good. Gosh, this is good.

0:19:01 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
And the fry part like melds onto the pickle really well, which is hard to do and the sauce that's on top. Yeah, this is fantastic. I'm going to have to get the chocolate first though because I can't Told you.

0:19:11 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, the pickle inside this is really a good dill pickle. It's got a very thick batter, though, so be prepared for that I uh, you get four long spears of dill pickle.

0:19:27 - Lou Mongello
I think the fry is just enough, so it's not sort of like overpowering and it doesn't taste. It's not like heavy and oily and it's a really nice like, like dilly vinegary pickle too.

0:19:40 - Kenneth Johnson
I would not call it a headliner attraction, but for what it is, it's delicious.

0:19:45 - Jason Canapp
We have to. We have to speak of something else, that the fry basket. In general, that experience is great and it's super portable. To give you the little little carrying case that comes with it in the cones. It's wonderful, wonderful thing to get everything. Go to the fry basket and get everything.

0:20:04 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yucca fries. If they're on a menu somewhere that you're eating in Disney, get them because they are so good everywhere. So they're great here too. And, like you were saying, like that fry flight, we didn't get it today because we have a lot of eating to do and we already know it's fantastic, but it goes from good to better. It's like if you're, we're from, jason and I are from the Maryland area and it's like thrashers. It's thrashers.

0:20:23 - Jason Canapp
Thrashers boardwalk fries.

0:20:26 - Lou Mongello
Oh boy, it's so good, fry basket is an overall win. It is, it's an overall winner and I like that because it's fries, like it's super shareables too. Like you get everything and like we're doing here, you share it among, in my case, yourself or, in your case, friends.

0:20:40 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, this is absolutely fantastic. Rating one to five in the category, I'm going to give it a four.

0:20:50 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Like a strong four and only because it's not like the most unique food in the world, but it's. It's as what it is. It's perfect.

0:20:57 - Jason Canapp
No, but I count myself as a fried pickle connoisseur and, as fried pickles go, this is a significant, substantive fried pickle. This is a five in the fried pickle category.

0:21:09 - Lou Mongello
In the category of fried pickles. It's a five In a category of food and wine. Jason's coming back hanging out. Are you coming and are you making a beeline for the pickle?

0:21:18 - Jason Canapp
No, because I mean, if I'm getting the fry basket, then I'm getting the pickles, that's the thing. But if I'm, but I don't eat a ton of fried stuff. But if I'm going to eat fried stuff, this fried pickle is going to be. That's the top of the list. If you like pickles, you need to try this.

0:21:32 - Lou Mongello
There. I say it is the best pickle flavored food at the festival. As we stand here in the brewing lab where the pickle milkshake is getting all the attention from the tiki talkers, has anybody tried the pickle milkshake? I have not yet when you hear pickle milkshake, what do you think? What's the first thing you think? What I think? A pregnant woman. Wow, this is. I'm going to put all of your socials on.

0:22:00 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
So I like Duke, which is like the Middle Eastern drink, that's like yogurt with dill, and I guess I'm kind of thinking it's going to be like a sweet Duke, I don't know.

0:22:08 - Lou Mongello
So I've had it. I tried it when it's here. I think it's. I think it's brilliant because, from a pure marketing perspective, everybody's trying the pickle milkshake, right, whether they're finishing it or not. Everybody who's ever been on Instagram is here taking selfies with the pickle milkshake. Do you want to try one? Yeah, Okay. So there's not one, not two, not three, but like seven. There's peanut butter and jelly sticky wings, garlic Parmesan wings, traditional buffalo wings with celery and ranch. New this year are the orange cardamom wings, the impossible buffalo chicken tenders with plant-based blue cheese Kenneth is dancing or having a seizure the unnecessarily spicy and extremely tasty Scotch potted pepper curry wings with cool cucumber yogurt. And buffalo brussel sprouts with plant-based blue cheese. When you see that?

0:22:59 - Jason Canapp
menu. What do you think? Yum, and I wish they let me get one of each, like a basket of one of each. It would be a little like a wing buffet. I'm going to have a little poo poo platter of wings.

0:23:10 - Kenneth Johnson
I'm really curious about the orange cardamom.

0:23:12 - Lou Mongello
So I think we have to get orange cardamom. I'm going to get it because I love, love the impossible chicken tenders. And are you, do you want to try? I mean, the spicy wings, they're spicy Like they're no joke.

0:23:27 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
They sound really good. I'm not the best with crazy spicy food, so I'll leave it to you?

0:23:32 - Jason Canapp
I mean, I like spicy, but I don't want it to ruin the rest of my day. If it's that kind of spicy, is it ghost?

0:23:37 - Lou Mongello
pepper spicy. No, it's Scotch potted pepper. Scotch potted. Okay, okay, it's. No, it's spicy. Is it like? Did you not see my video? Did you not watch my live video?

0:23:47 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Is it Disney's? I do a podcast.

0:23:49 - Lou Mongello
No, it's spicy, spicy. Oh See, now I have to get it, because now you guys are questioning the spiciness. Yeah, we have to get it. Okay, and we're going to get a pickle milkshake because we have to. Just, you know, do as the tiki talkers do.

0:24:00 - Kenneth Johnson
I mean we'll take one for the community, for all of you out there who might be afraid to try this wing. Is it too spicy? We'll try it. Oh God for Kenneth.

0:24:09 - Lou Mongello
Like you know, he's so giving.

0:24:10 - Kenneth Johnson
He's huggable. I'm a giver, I'm a giver, I'm a giver.

0:24:15 - Lou Mongello
So we had one job but we came back with extras because, in addition to the pickle milkshake, I really like the frozen fusion which is twining pomegranate and raspberry herbal tea fused with orange ice cream molecules, like almost a little bulb of pearls on top. These are both non-alcoholic options. I highly suggest we save the spicy for last because it is going to impact your palate. So these are the orange cardamom. These are the impossible. I think we should do it in that order this way. Sort of increase in levels of spiciness. So ladies first or orange cardamom. By ladies first I meant all of you just dig in. To borrow from the Colonel that it's finger-licking good while Kenneth is indulging in his second wing. It literally is finger-licking good. I wish I was recording as you were tasting, because you all made the yummy sound.

0:25:14 - Jason Canapp
The lip smack is amazing. It's so good.

0:25:17 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's delicious. I love I was so excited to eat this. I love cardamom, but it's better than I expected it to be.

0:25:23 - Lou Mongello
It's even better than I expected it to be and it's like the wonderful little sweetness we were just saying. It's like an orange marmalade, almost with the cardamom nice, well-cooked, super juicy wing. Kenneth is still licking his fingers. Yes.

0:25:37 - Kenneth Johnson
They're amazing, they're delicious.

0:25:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I can't imagine anything's better than that.

0:25:41 - Jason Canapp
Five. Across the board it's a five. Yeah, it's a. I mean for wings it's a five. I mean I think even among the festival foods it's a five.

0:25:49 - Lou Mongello
Have you guys had the peanut butter wings here before the peanut butter? It almost sounds like it's a goo for something for kids. They're actually really tasty too. Like we didn't get them again because we're trying to eat some of the new things. But I think, like you know, we'll get to the other ones. But the wings here they work Like they're good wings, just in general.

0:26:04 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I think the orange cardamom does what the peanut butter and jelly wing was trying to do even better. I mean, there are different flavors but like this, like I was saying, I was trying to figure out what the orange was and you said it's just orange marmalade, it's that rich orange, but then it also has the cardamom. The peanut butter and jelly was good, but this is like spot on.

0:26:21 - Lou Mongello
It's funny because as you're talking, I'm watching Kenneth's eyes look to yours and then down at the wing again, Like there's one wing left, and Kenneth's wondering yes, you are more than I mean, unless you want to fight Jason for it.

0:26:30 - Kenneth Johnson
Well, there's so much here to try. I think we should.

0:26:33 - Lou Mongello
I should pace myself, all right let's, we'll have that wing while we're cutting into the impossible. Buffalo, chicken tenders, plant-based blue cheese, plant-based ranch and celery. First things first. For in, you get one, two things like about six wings here and for, for the buffalo, you get one, two, three, four sort of large tender size, obviously boneless pieces, and two big pieces of celery. So there's one for each of us. So dig in, so I it's, it's it's, I'm getting a little flimpt.

It's obviously like there's legitimate spice on it. I'm not normally somebody who defaults to impossible, but I really like the flavor and I really like the texture of it too, and I like the fact that there's a level of heat, so you get. You know, it's not sort of we're struggling with like Disney heat, like there's legit heat.

0:27:34 - Jason Canapp
No, it's good heat it's. And if you are familiar with the Morningstar Buffalo wings, it's they're. These are better than those and a little spicier than those, but it's. There's a really good Delicious.

0:27:44 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I mean, it's just a very solid buffalo chicken tender that happens to be meatless.

0:27:50 - Lou Mongello
It's delicious, like I wouldn't know that it was impossible unless you told me. Like I think it's because sometimes the non meat meat there's a texture issue which I don't find here.

0:28:02 - Kenneth Johnson
Have you ever had a Burger King chicken sandwich? Oh, I love those what I was a kid is with this is the Burger King chicken sandwich with bobby Buffalo sauce. That's it. That's why I loved it.

0:28:12 - Lou Mongello
When I was a kid I was like, oh, we got to go to Burger King. I haven't had one of those in years. You're 100% right, that's where it is. I do. I dig it. I really like that one, like I would come back and get it again, which is why I ordered it, even after having tried it before. Quick rating.

0:28:27 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Um three. I'll give it a three. I mean it's good, but it's not like a, it's not your favorite.

0:28:33 - Lou Mongello
If I really want to say two, two and a half, I yeah.

0:28:36 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
No, I mean, it's good If I was here on a plant-based diet and I was looking for something good. It's delicious, it's just. It just tastes like a Buffalo wing to me, which is usually more than I'm usually looking for something a little bit more different if I'm here, but if you're plant-based and you want something good, it tastes delicious.

0:28:51 - Jason Canapp
But this is nice because it's not just plant-based. For plant-based sake, it's a legitimate contender with the other items on the menu and for people who are, you know, plant-based it's, this is a really, really not like. Don't miss this. Don't miss this.

0:29:07 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I'd say two and a half.

0:29:08 - Jason Canapp
In the celery. We didn't. No one ate the celery.

0:29:12 - Lou Mongello
No one ate the celery because that's yeah, that's silly. Um, yeah, I mean I'd like it. Like I said, I, I, I, I rate it a little bit higher. I think I'm more like a in the three and a half kind of range. But if you thought the Buffalo impossible tender was spicy, you need to try the unnecessarily spicy yet extremely tasty Scotch bonnet pepper curry wing with cool cucumber yogurt. You can almost see, as you look at it, like you know, you know there's going to be some some heat on here.

0:29:40 - Jason Canapp
It's like missions. It's like mission space orange, that kid just had a taste he just had.

0:29:46 - Lou Mongello
Do not feed this to your kids.

0:29:48 - Kenneth Johnson
Mission space, for sure. And what you're saying? This is the intense training option.

0:29:54 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's a pretty angry looking curry. I thought that the yogurt was going to be on the side, so you could like dip it to cut the heat, but it's just sort of drizzle on top, so you don't really have enough control over where the yogurt is.

0:30:06 - Jason Canapp
One lifeboat on the Titanic. This is not. This is not recommended. So we did get a little extra side of ranch sauce, just in case. All right, bon appetit.

0:30:19 - Lou Mongello
Are you more of a? Are you a wing guy or a drumstick guy?

0:30:24 - Kenneth Johnson
I'm a wing guy. I like wings, I like the flats, I like.

0:30:27 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I like a drum.

0:30:28 - Lou Mongello
I like a drum. I'm going to hold off and cause. I want to sort of capture the initial reaction as it's happening. Lisa just walked away.

0:30:38 - Kenneth Johnson
Is it outrageous? I'm afraid of it, honestly.

0:30:44 - Lou Mongello
I'm not afraid of anything, you're my hero.

0:30:45 - Kenneth Johnson
I am afraid of this. Let's see Sweet mother.

0:30:56 - Jason Canapp
Oh, really good. Oh Wow, this is legit spicy curry. Good. You definitely need more yogurt, though.

0:31:05 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I can see why you would like this because you like bad Indian food.

0:31:11 - Kenneth Johnson
If you are, if you are from India and you're used to eating real spicy Indian food like if you go into an Indian place and you tell them to make it hot and you like it then you're going to love this.

0:31:23 - Lou Mongello
So I think I can feel it in my face.

0:31:25 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I can feel my.

0:31:26 - Lou Mongello
I can see it in your face. I think that this serves two purposes. I think that one it's like the pickle milkshake, it's the oh, let's taste it and see how spicy it really is and record our risk. But I think for people that want that extreme ish level of heat, you have that option here and there's a lot of people, I mean he went in for a second one.

0:31:47 - Jason Canapp
It's good, but it is. It's a rolling intensity. So there's, the heat is on the finish and it'll light you up after you're finished eating it, like it is telling me right now you can't get enough yogurt sauce for these.

0:32:00 - Lou Mongello
You know what you can do to wash that down with. How about a little pickle milkshake? It's by design. So here you go, there you go. I'm going to let you know we're sharing one straw. Oh, it's just.

0:32:15 - Jason Canapp
Oh my God, that's amazing, that's delicious, that is Wow. It's like McDonald's vanilla milkshake and the fried pickles had a baby, it's so good, it's like it shouldn't work, but it kind of does.

0:32:32 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's delicious. I love it, do you? I do? I really like it. I'm not getting a lot of pickle.

0:32:39 - Lou Mongello
I'm getting more milkshake. It's not the worst thing in the world. Not having more pickle in your milkshake is not.

0:32:45 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I would brace for a lot more dill. It's delicious. Also, it doesn't hurt that my mouth is on fire right now.

0:32:50 - Kenneth Johnson
You're eating it at the right time. Okay, that is not a pickle milkshake, it's just called pickle. It has a little salt. That is just a really good sweet milkshake with a salty after, which is great. It is fantastic milkshake. It does not taste like pickles.

0:33:11 - Lou Mongello
I sort of get a little pickle on the. This tastes different than the first one I had. This tastes less pickly, like on the tongue, as it does on the finish, like I get that little like dilly flavor at the end, but less pickly than it was the first time I had it.

0:33:26 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I was sipping it again to see if the wing was making me taste it less. Maybe a little bit, it's not much. It tastes a lot like a green vanilla milkshake. It's delicious. It is really good.

0:33:37 - Kenneth Johnson
It is really good. There's no pickle in it at all, it's green.

0:33:40 - Jason Canapp
It makes you think about pickles, but A little rum oh it's so good, oh, it'd be so good.

0:33:47 - Lou Mongello
We do not recommend bringing your own rum into the parks, by the way, but I wonder if they would ever do like a sort of an alcoholic version for people that want to.

0:33:55 - Jason Canapp
They need to. Next year they need to.

0:33:57 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, like the green milk. Like you can get tequila in the green milk, you can get that.

0:34:02 - Lou Mongello
Take a sip of the frozen fusion as the final.

0:34:05 - Kenneth Johnson
I'm going to recommend the pickle milkshake. Wow, yeah, it's good.

0:34:10 - Lou Mongello
Throw some numbers on the brewing lab, maybe just as a whole For the individual wing, like a one to five rating.

0:34:20 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I'm going to say a solid four.

0:34:24 - Jason Canapp
Overall yeah, overall a solid four. Yes, and the air condition takes a dual five. And yeah, absolutely, and the bathrooms here are better than anyone else.

0:34:32 - Kenneth Johnson
And the muppet overlay was unexpected.

0:34:35 - Jason Canapp
You are, if you belong to a fraternity or a sorority. Are you looking for a hazing event? You can bring them here.

0:34:40 - Lou Mongello
Luman, jello and WDRA does not endorse the concept of hazing at any at all. There's a disclaimer on the site.

0:34:47 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
A four, for sure, it's got a lot of really good food, but then also, like there's like theming in here, it's like a whole experience, a brewing experience, if you will.

0:34:57 - Lou Mongello
So I love the muppet overlay. I love that it's fun and festive and there's cool little Easter eggs happening all the time. Yes, the fact that you're in air conditioning, but I like the fact that I think there's something for everybody on the menu, even if you're not a chicken wing person or if you are vegetarian, you have the plant based option. But the levels of intensity, from sweetness to super spicy it does it sort of runs a really wide gamut. So I think that I think I would give this, this experience, overall, a four and a half for the brewing lab as a whole.

0:35:34 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I don't think that's unfair at all. Plus, you add in the AC Perfect, and actually we just sift the frozen fusion for the first time. We had a little trouble getting it up the straw. This is delightful.

0:35:46 - Lou Mongello
And on a hot summer or October day that's really nice. Fuse here it's a twining pomegranate and raspberry herbal tea. Fuse with orange ice cream molecules the molecules are really good.

0:36:04 - Jason Canapp
But these are dots that are healthy because they're made from fruit I like this better than the cucumber milkshake in the summer.

0:36:12 - Lou Mongello
And I like the pickle milkshake yeah whatever it is.

0:36:16 - Kenneth Johnson
It's not pickles, but whatever this was, I like this better.

0:36:21 - Lou Mongello
It's light and it's refreshing and it's a nice sort of walk around summery drink.

0:36:24 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I mean I'm not going to pick up a milkshake in the middle of the day usually, no matter. I mean, if I was here on vacation, I just wanted to treat the pickle milkshake as delicious. But you can't go wrong with either one with these wings, because if you're eating a hot wing, these drinks are so perfect.

0:36:38 - Lou Mongello
Both of which come by the way in souvenir cups plastic souvenir cups that are easier to transport back home too.

0:36:43 - Kenneth Johnson
We haven't used the R word yet on this review, but it's refreshing.

0:36:50 - Lou Mongello
And while dodging the rain inside of Starbucks, we just ran into my new dear friend, joanna from Long Island. Good to see you. Very good to see you too. You have been doing Epcot, right. You came here for food and wine. Tell me what is the best thing that you ate on your journey around the world.

0:37:08 - Speaker 1
Oh, you can't go wrong with Ireland. We love the Fisherman's Seafood Pie. That was amazing.

0:37:14 - Lou Mongello
Which is wonderful on a really hot day in August in Florida Exactly.

0:37:17 - Speaker 1
So why not go for it? It was delicious. We love chicken. Chicken masala was delicious. We love the baobuns, I mean.

0:37:26 - Lou Mongello
I think our new this year. I think we're going to hit the. We're about to make our way out. We're going to hit the baobuns. We're going to have to hit India. My husband's favorite is the lamb chops from Australia. That's always like a returning favorite for a lot of people. Again, I could cool down a little bit more. Maybe let me run you for the lamb. And I mean you can't go wrong with almost anything. What did you wash it down with?

0:37:51 - Speaker 1
Cooper's beer in Australia is good, the flights in Germany very good. We love, oh my gosh. Oh. We went to a regular rose and crown and we had a snake bite. That was delicious.

0:38:08 - Lou Mongello
We're bonding because you love everything, so you're doing it's hard.

0:38:11 - Speaker 1
It's hard to pick something. We just we love food, so we love everything. We're big foodies, like yourself.

0:38:17 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, I can't wait to take it out and do it. It's so nice to meet you.

0:38:20 - Speaker 1
So nice to meet you. This is a pleasure, a real pleasure.

0:38:27 - Lou Mongello
Our journey around the world takes us to China, where there are three things on the menu the pan fried chicken dumplings are back once again. The Don Don noodles, which is a spicy pork with Sichuan sauce and peanut butter, and sesame, which I've loved in the past. And new this year is the crispy duck bao bun with hoisin sauce. It comes in at 825. It is a single bao bun with a piece of duck in it, and I know duck is not everybody's sort of cup of duck. I actually really enjoy it.

0:38:56 - Kenneth Johnson
It's my favorite meat other than beef? Yeah, I love duck.

0:39:00 - Lou Mongello
Have you been to China? I've actually been, not to China, the pavilion of China, the country. No, I haven't. I love to go. We need to. We need to go from here to China and actually having like real, like Peking duck in Beijing. I love Peking duck. Look, I dig me a good bao bun. So when I'm intrigued with the idea of duck, I dig duck as well. So as they say in China, dig in. All right.

0:39:25 - Jason Canapp
I'm pretty sure the same as the crispy duck bao bun appetizer in Nine Dragons, but you get more. There should get a lot more with that, but it's more expensive. I think it's like $18 appetizer and you get the four different bao. This is tasty, really good, and there's no gaminess to the duck at all, like if you didn't sort of know it was duck.

0:39:44 - Lou Mongello
you almost wouldn't be able to tell that it's duck. Yeah, I can be a little funny about the duck and this is it's not greasy at all.

0:39:51 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It actually had a little bit of the skin on it which I thought it might make it a little greasy, but it's not at all. It's delicious and the bao is really fluffy and, like we were saying, like the hoisin on it is really good. If you're a fan of like Mushu from like a Chinese spot, like you would love this. It's that same kind of like sweet and salty vibe. Skin is the best part.

0:40:10 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, so this is duck breast, which is probably why you're finding it a little more mild. This is the duck breast. There's not much to eat on a duck, it's really just the legs and thighs and then a tiny bit of meat on the breast, and that's what this is. It's very, very, very good. Yeah, I like the sweet hoisin sauce on it too.

0:40:30 - Lou Mongello
I think there's nothing. It's a super accessible, easy dish. Like everything on here other than the dandun noodles. Can be a little bit spicy, is it spicy?

0:40:41 - Jason Canapp
or am I reactivating the curry from the wing? You still have some wing on your hand.

0:40:46 - Lou Mongello
I haven't eaten any of it. No, I didn't find it spicy at all. I actually find it a little sweet, which is why it was nice. And sometimes too, with bowel, the bowel can sometimes overpower because it's just so much sort of like heavy doughiness and not like this at all. I like this, I would go. My first inclination was to give it like a four, but I want to sort of give room for others. I'd give it a three, eight, five. Yeah, it's good. It's good.

0:41:11 - Jason Canapp
I'm not going to be a fan of it. Yeah, it's good. I'm not going to run to this booth specifically, but it's tasty.

0:41:19 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's the same thing. I would give it a three and a half. It's delicious, but it's not like something I would specifically come here for only because you can get it. It's not that unique, but it's delicious.

0:41:29 - Lou Mongello
It's a nice new addition to the booth.

0:41:32 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I could go three and a half on this. It's better to me than the Jimmy Chura thing that we had earlier from the. You've got to let it go, man, you got it. It's better than that, but yeah, it's good.

0:41:48 - Lou Mongello
Still, Kenneth is very bitter about all the accessories on his Jimmy Chura.

0:41:52 - Jason Canapp
The accruetamons are really annoying him tonight.

0:41:56 - Kenneth Johnson
It was too much. That's all I'm saying.

0:42:01 - Lou Mongello
As we continue to circle the promenade, we've made our way from China to India, where I don't believe any of this is new this year, but it's sort of new to us. We didn't actually hit India last time and it may be due to what I like to refer to as the incident a number of years ago. We're literally at the same table where, many festivals ago, there was a bit of a disagreement Refresh our recollection a bit of a disagreement in terms of India and its offerings.

0:42:31 - Kenneth Johnson
Well, you know, I have to say, lou, I'm already off to a little bit of a shaky start, because the music here in India is exactly the same as it was in China. So I'm wondering just how realistic this experience is bound to be. That's all I'm saying.

0:42:47 - Jason Canapp
Well, as our listeners may remember, one of us enjoyed the India offerings and another one the other person didn't really have much nice things to say. So who was it that enjoyed India? I enjoyed it thoroughly, with the caveat being that it wasn't like the most authentic version of it, but I felt I found it very accessible from an Indian food perspective.

0:43:09 - Lou Mongello
And in terms of who may have not enjoyed it as much. I mean without sort of naming names, but by name it rhymes with Mesa.

0:43:19 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I love good Indian food. I do, but I try to be honest and I have not in the past loved the offerings at this particular booth because I don't think they've tasted very good.

0:43:32 - Lou Mongello
Well. I think this is good and look, this is why I love to do the reviews live Like unedited, unscripted. Let's see if India in your mind, eyes, heart and little tummy has redeemed itself. Jason's already dancing. He's dancing like Tikko Mi Elmo, if you remember that far back, because you like you, um, you like India a lot. This was like you were like very high on customer back to India.

0:43:59 - Jason Canapp
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is all good. The Samosas are good. They don't say it's been here, but it is. The Curry Spice Crispy Cheese is a fried pin here. And then there's the Chicken Tikko Masala, which is probably my least favorite of the favorites.

0:44:15 - Lou Mongello
But Tikko Masala again is in terms of accessible Indian food. I think for a lot of people Tikko Masala is the entry point into dipping your toe into the water.

0:44:23 - Jason Canapp
It's the gateway. Indian food, yes.

0:44:25 - Lou Mongello
It's anything with samosas Like.

I like a really nice patanum-pea, samosa, which can be a little spicy. I think sometimes that's where Indian food potentially frightens people, because it sort of has a reputation of being spicy. Or, if you don't like curry, there's a lot of sort of curry-based flavors. I'm really intrigued to try the Curry Spice Crispy Cheese with Mango Curry ketchup. They look like little. They look like little mozzarella sticks I mean there's no other way to describe them. So why don't we start there? Dip ladies first, please. Plus, we want to capture the reaction just as a. I'm going to try it first without any of the ketchup.

0:45:06 - Jason Canapp
They need to be warmer. They're not as warm as they usually are, because when you get them sort of fresh out of the fryer they're still like soft inside too. The paneer's softer inside, and you get a little more crunch with it. These maybe have been sitting under, not under, a bit. For me, the star here is actually the curry ketchup. I love that curry ketchup.

0:45:32 - Kenneth Johnson
Is that Havarti cheese? No, what is it OK?

0:45:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's fine. It looks like a French toast stick that's what it looks like, and it's sort of like a mozzarella stick made with paneer, I guess, I mean it's like a dense.

0:45:53 - Lou Mongello
It's like a very dense mozzarella stick. Again, in terms of it's a very easy dish, right, there's nothing spicy to it. There's nothing. If you want to say I ate Indian food, this is the one.

0:46:06 - Jason Canapp
This is the item to get and kids would like this, but it's not as good as last year. But I have a feeling it's because of the temperature.

0:46:13 - Lou Mongello
We're also outside in the immediate post rain as we're walking around. So, yeah, I think it's a great thing. It's going to sort of walk around and share something snackable, that's it. I probably wouldn't come back specifically for this, so given the choice between this and the fried pickles.

0:46:33 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
If you just wanted a little something fried to Nash on, I think the fried pickles are like a no brainer.

0:46:38 - Lou Mongello
This is like a one and a half.

0:46:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
These are fine, they're fine. There's nothing wrong with them. I think the fried pickles were much better, but these are good yeah.

0:46:46 - Lou Mongello
I agree, there's nothing wrong with them, but you're right, I wouldn't come back for it. So we're going to go into the potato and pea samosas. These are covered in a coriander lime cream. They're in sort of like 3D triangles about the size of a little bit smaller than baseball size, and these, I believe, came in at 550.

0:47:12 - Jason Canapp
This is for me, this is a really good deal, because the samosas they're large samosas, they're not like little cocktail samosas, and so you could one person could get this, and you would be full off of these two samosas. That's how much is going on inside of here. What do you guys?

0:47:27 - Kenneth Johnson
think Okay, I have to admit, this is good and it doesn't even have any meat in it. It's not vegan. I don't think it's vegan, but it would be vegetarian. Yeah.

0:47:38 - Jason Canapp
It would be vegetarian. Actually, it has a little leaf next to it, so that means it's.

0:47:44 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
The cream must be something that's plant-based or friendly, but this is lovely. It has the tiniest bit of heat. Like the tiniest bit of heat, I mean, don't avoid it for that reason at all, but it does have like a pepper, almost like a little bit of pepper.

0:47:58 - Lou Mongello
Which is why I like it, Like I was afraid because not in samosas, will have a bit of heat to it and I was afraid it might have been toned down. It's not. There's just enough sort of sitting on your tongue that leaves this like residual flavor that I really that's really good. I like that a lot.

0:48:14 - Jason Canapp
Thank goodness, something's good here.

0:48:16 - Lou Mongello
Oh look, we've come together over India. Finally Hug it out. You really need to hug it out with Jason and India.

0:48:22 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
No love lost, but it's. No, that's really good. It has a nice amount of heat on it. The sauce is delicious, that's great.

0:48:28 - Lou Mongello
You heard it. Yeah, I would come back for that. I would come back and get one of those as I'm wandering around. How much was that?

0:48:34 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
550. Much a good deal.

0:48:35 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, yeah, I would definitely I would eat it again and this I think it was. It's close to, if not the same prices last year. So don't tell anybody about it the value, but it's. I'll delete this part.

0:48:46 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, no, I really dig that. I'd give that a.

0:48:51 - Speaker 3
I might give that a 4.5. Yeah, I really like that it was better than cats.

0:48:58 - Kenneth Johnson
The movie or the original play.

0:49:01 - Jason Canapp
It's like the utility infielder of the festival food. Right, if you just need a quick stop, there's not usually a long line. You just need something quick. You know it's gonna be good, you know it's gonna be consistent. The samosas are a good pick.

0:49:15 - Lou Mongello
And the samosa, where you get two of them, was less than the single. I mean again, it included duck, but it was less than the Balban which came in at 8 plus Good deal. Moving on to the tikka masala with the fennel spice, yogurt and non bread, this comes in a bowl with a bed of rice and I remember there being two or three pieces of warm pita in there which are not there anymore because I turned my head away for a second.

0:49:39 - Jason Canapp
This little pizza, no, non.

0:49:42 - Lou Mongello
Sorry, non bread.

0:49:44 - Jason Canapp
It's. It takes a bit of the rice. It's not the Ben's original rice. This year, at least that's not how their marketing is. So I'm interested in tasting the rice.

0:49:56 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's better than in years past. I mean, I wouldn't come here for this tikka masala.

0:50:03 - Jason Canapp
Oh, it's got some nice heat though.

0:50:04 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, it does. It's much better. It's significantly better than it was in years past.

0:50:09 - Jason Canapp
The heat on this. This is how the wings should have been in the brewing for the curry wings, this is just the right amount of heat.

0:50:17 - Lou Mongello
But remember their marketing as being you know. I'm sorry, they are unnecessarily spicy.

0:50:24 - Jason Canapp
I would say I agree with Disney. They are unnecessarily spicy and I think you'll sell more if it wasn't as spicy. But this is tasty, this is good. I don't love this rice. I didn't spit it out.

0:50:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
And the rice is really the sort of problem with a lot of these kinds of dishes, because you know it is what it is, but it's not the best rice and a lot of times the rice is what makes them, you know, like this.

0:50:52 - Lou Mongello
The samosa was the hit, though the samosa is the star.

0:50:55 - Kenneth Johnson
I wish I had not tried this after the samosa. I think that's part of the problem.

0:51:01 - Lou Mongello
I like the flavor of the tikka masala in my mouth, but it doesn't seem that the dish doesn't come together and the flavors sort of blend into each other the way I would have liked.

0:51:11 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's not a lot of chicken, I mean, and I'm sure every portion is different, but the one that we got in particular, like protein wise, there wasn't a lot of chicken in it. So the sauce tastes like a better recipe than what we've had in the past, but there's just not much to the dish this is 625.

0:51:25 - Lou Mongello
I mean, you get, you know it's a nice portion for what you get. I think if you want to be I look at this as I want to try tikka masala for the first time you can sort of see how the rest of it sits with you. It's not the best tikka masala that I've ever had, certainly by far, but it's fine. I give the tikka 2, 2.5. I give the samosas 4.5 and I give the. I would give the cheese.

0:51:53 - Jason Canapp
It's almost like it did not finish. It doesn't even count. It was almost like we have to come back and try it again at some point. I'll buy, because this is just not a good show.

0:52:02 - Lou Mongello
But the samosa, come back for the samosa. Without a doubt I would come back again and eat the samosa. The other stuff I could skip.

0:52:09 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, for sure, the samosas I would give like a 4. The chicken I may give like a 2-ish. And then the cheese fries, the same, but you know, maybe they're usually better.

0:52:18 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, I think, as we sort of circle back around, at the end we have to remember the samosas as being one of the best of the best of the new items Moving on. So as we continue down the promenade and pass the oh so very long line for one, joey Fatone he packs a crowd every single time he is here we come to Flavors of America, which is new in the past. Work, because I think it's not just a new name for this marketplace, but all of the food this year is new. There's an Italian hot beef sandwich with shaved beef, spicy gardener au jus on a french roll. Chapina, which is a seafood stew with saffron infused, tomato, fennel broth and cheliquiles, which are corn tortilla chips tossed in salsa verde with ranchero cream, queso fresco, cilantro, lime crema and a soft poached egg. And the freshly baked carrot cake with walnut and cream cheese icing.

I believe they've had carrot cake in the past, but it didn't look like that. It didn't look like an actual. It looks like the size of a Drake's coffee cake, but just mothered in cream cheese icing. Don't touch it, it's not. You can't have your dessert until you eat your meat. You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat. I think we should just go right down the line. But first things first. We eat with our eyes. Kenneth wants to eat with his stomach, but what do you think of the presentation and how everything?

0:53:47 - Kenneth Johnson
looks? I think it looks great, especially this what is this? The chapino? That looks fantastic the way it's presented.

0:53:55 - Lou Mongello
Like America itself. There's a little bit of a I like that. Flavors of America is not soup foods from the northeast, like it's a little bit of there's a southwest, there's a northeast sort of sprinkling of items on the menu.

0:54:13 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, we've had not the best experiences here in the past, but, like Lou said, this is a totally new booth in name and the food is all brand new. The chilaquiles look so good. There's a poached egg on the top that looks like it's so ready to be cut into and put all over the rest of the food. The sandwich looks great. And, yeah, this, what is it called? The chapino Chapino? It looks like a bowl of seafood, like a seafood pot.

0:54:41 - Lou Mongello
It's a tomato broth as opposed to like the white cream based stew which a few years ago, was not. We did not love the offerings in the American adventure.

0:54:50 - Jason Canapp
This looks really good. I was really surprised when the chilaquiles was not on the menu in Mexico and then to see it here. It's like an old friend. But this is presented completely different.

0:55:00 - Lou Mongello
It's a very different style and it looks delicious, and a bowl with a really big portion too.

0:55:06 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, and that's what I was going to say. All of the portions are significant. These aren't like little snack size portions here. These are a lot. If you were just coming along, one dish would be enough.

0:55:21 - Lou Mongello
Alright, let's make our way. Let's go right through Falcons May and start at the top with the Italian beef sandwich. Kenneth, you and I in that. So.

0:55:30 - Kenneth Johnson
It's winking at me. Let's see what we got.

0:55:31 - Lou Mongello
So, and it comes with the side of Augeau and it's sort of on a very small French roll, maybe a five inch or so French style roll. So I can tell it's good already, because the Augeau is dripping down Kenneth's chin, which you know is a sign of a really good sandwich from the East Spicy.

0:55:53 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, okay, so there are. A little caveat there are diced jalapenos in here and they are not cooked, so they are hot. If you get one little square of jalapeno, it can change your day. I'm un-fazed after the curries. Yeah, all in all, what do you think?

0:56:16 - Jason Canapp
It's fine, I think. A lot of bread and the meat was tasty. I think the frutemants are too much. I think yes, I don't know.

0:56:27 - Kenneth Johnson
I didn't love it. Yeah, there is a lot of bread and the bread's a little dry. Honestly, that's what the dip is for. But if it weren't for that, I think you'd say this was dry, so make sure you dip it.

0:56:39 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I would agree it's fine. The bread to meat ratio is like a little bit off and once by dipping it you kind of condense the bread, but it's not the best. I admittedly got one of those pieces of jalapeno in my bite and it kind of just knocked the wind out of me and I didn't really taste much else. I'm excited to try everything else. This was the thing I was least excited about.

0:57:01 - Jason Canapp
The all jus is nice. I just had a little sip of it on its own and that's actually really nice. So it's the sauce is really delicious. I think it's the bread. I think the bread is just not standing up with all of it.

0:57:13 - Lou Mongello
I don't think you got to dip it in there. You got to let it in and you got to let it soak to the point it's like a Nathan's hot dog eating contest. The bread is almost sort of a vehicle. This is sort of get the other stuff in your mouth. I think there's a lot of it, but once you dip it in there it takes a little away. Coming from the northeast, I've had these type of sandwiches before. I think it's a three, I think I'd probably give it a three, and if you just try and eat it without dipping in the all jus, it's going to taste like a very dry. You know. It's not like if you go to, like you know, and get it like an Italian hot beef sandwich where they literally oftentimes they take the whole thing and they dip it in the jus. Have you been to? It's like a Portillo's, like an Italian beef sandwich, where they'll actually take it and they'll, like, dip the whole thing in the jus. Again, not a first date food, but it's the way it goes to be.

0:58:11 - Kenneth Johnson
It's the way to go with this, I think.

0:58:13 - Jason Canapp
Yeah.

0:58:15 - Kenneth Johnson
Because it's hard to dip this because there's a lot of stuff on top of the sandwich, so when you dip it it all falls off.

0:58:21 - Lou Mongello
It's okay, jason just started drinking the jus. It did. It did. Alright, move on to the seafood stew, the terpino with the tomato fennel broth. You see that there's a couple of large shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels and a couple of pieces of like a crostini bread. So, jason, you took the first bite and you made the yummy sound.

0:58:45 - Jason Canapp
Oh, it's delicious and the tomato broth is almost like a tomato soup not taste, but consistency. The flavors are great. It's perfectly salted, everything's balanced. The bread is just soaking up the sauce perfectly. The mussels are good. I don't know what the fish was. There was a fish in there, some white fish. I don't know what that was, but it was great. Everything's good.

0:59:08 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
This is delicious. I don't know how they're mass producing something this good. That's seafood but yeah, like Jason said, it's like not quite a marinara sauce consistently, but like a really thick tomato soup kind of consistency. And then you've got the crostini and all of the seafood. I had a shrimp and some of the others and it's cooked beautifully.

0:59:27 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, and again the portion size here and what's in it, the shrimp and scallops. This is not inexpensive ingredients and there's a lot of it here.

0:59:38 - Lou Mongello
So this comes in at $7.50. This is the one that I was most sort of concerned about, just based on the seafood stews that we've had in the past. It's a warm day in the end of August. You're right, it's not quite. It's not a tomato sauce and it's not like a tomato liquid, like it's like a tomato stew almost. Really, really impressed with the flavor. The fish is cooked really well because, again, sometimes if it sits in the stew it can get oily, it can sort of be falling apart. Even the scallops, which there's like a small make or break window that the scallop gets either too hard or too chewy. The textures were great. The chapino is a huge surprise and like even the size of the shrimp that the two vultures went in and got first. By the way, just whatever I think Lisa ate, both of them were really nice size shrimp as well. This one ranks really high for me and I wasn't expecting it. This comes in at $7.50 and the chilaquiles are $6.75.

1:00:43 - Jason Canapp
We haven't had the chilaquiles yet, but the $7.50 to me is a good deal.

1:00:48 - Kenneth Johnson
And both of these are bountiful portions for sure.

1:00:52 - Lou Mongello
And the beef. I'm sorry, the beef was $6.25.

1:00:56 - Jason Canapp
Get a spoon also in addition to a fork when you're having the chabino you want to keep that sauce.

1:01:03 - Lou Mongello
Just keep dipping that bread in. That's the way to do it.

1:01:07 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
So we got every food item at this booth, all three savory dishes and then the carrot cake dessert, and the total was $25. The four of us could probably sit here and have a healthy appetizer or a level meal. This is a great value.

1:01:27 - Lou Mongello
I'm really impressed, especially in past years. We were just talking with one of the chefs who we've known from the past and I wish he was still here to tell them just how well this meal rates. Alright, while it's still warm, let's go to the American South and Southwest and the big bowl of chilaquiles and break up that egg. Break up that egg and let it do its thing. So I haven't even tried it yet and I'm hearing all kinds of noises and sounds and stuff.

1:01:55 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
This is out of nowhere Like. This is delicious. The poached egg is so good. The chicken has such good flavor, I mean. So it's definitely like reminiscent of something that you would get at the Mexico booth, but it's more Southwest. This is delicious. And the what is that? Like a chip, the dare? I don't care.

1:02:19 - Kenneth Johnson
It's a tortilla chip and there's a salsa verde in it, and the one thing I would say is I wish the poached egg had been more runny, but still, the flavor profile in here is amazing. It's really good. I also wish we had tried this first, while it was still really hot.

1:02:39 - Jason Canapp
I'm actually glad that we waited, because I feel like letting the tortilla chips get a little soggy actually made it better. It's a little easier to eat without having to, like I don't know, make a mess with the chips. This is amazing. If it was just me eating alone, I would be whipping this up all together, stirring it all up and getting all the flavors all mixed up.

1:03:00 - Kenneth Johnson
I think the move here would be to ask for the chips on the side and dip those chips in there while they're crispy. I don't know, I'd rather have a crispy chip, I think, and for the way it's supposed to. Yeah, this is delicious.

1:03:13 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
To me, it's the soggy chip that makes it. It's like you know, when a thick tortilla chip sits in its sauce like for a certain amount of time and it becomes like this like crunchy but soft, that's what the it's like a pile of that with this really good chicken on top, and I mean it's not an extremely runny yolk, but it's. I can't even poach one egg, well, at home.

1:03:33 - Jason Canapp
So the fact that they're frying it now. It's like a soft boiled egg.

1:03:36 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, it's a soft boiled egg which is exactly what I'm supposed to do.

1:03:38 - Kenneth Johnson
Poaching eggs is a little delicate of an operation for a venue like this, so I don't I'm not going to give them really low marks with that, but it is delicious.

1:03:47 - Lou Mongello
So there's a ton of chicken on there. First and foremost, right. You talked about your feelings earlier about the taco that had too much, too many accessories inside. This is filled with chicken. I absolutely love that queso fresco and that chili lime cream. Sorry, the cilantro lime creamer. It's not spicy at all, so there's no issues in terms of levels of spice. Really like. That is a dish that again, you, like I said you would imagine being served in the Mexico booth. I love the fact that America's embracing sort of all these different flavors. That's killer. That's really killer.

1:04:30 - Kenneth Johnson
Before you eat it, stir it up, because there's the salsa verde on one side and then there's cilantro all in one spot and then you've got that poached egg sitting up on top. I think you kind of have to eat around it to get all the flavors. So I'd suggest kind of mixing it up a little bit before you start.

1:04:49 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, so there's a salsa verde, a queso fresco and a cilantro lime creamer and the soft poached egg like all in here. It blends together seamlessly but like kind of said, I guess it's in different parts of the dish, so kind of mix up your bites. But this is a major, major standout for me and it's definitely more southwestern than Mexican, like it tastes like a southwestern dish. This is one of the best things I've eaten.

1:05:14 - Lou Mongello
It's a five. That's my first five Like it's a five, no matter what comes after.

1:05:19 - Jason Canapp
This is a surprise, a really pleasant surprise. It was really good. I do say, though, I think you do, let it sit for a little bit and let it get a little soft, and then you eat it. Don't go in while it's.

1:05:30 - Kenneth Johnson
So two pavilions that we had low expectations for.

1:05:33 - Lou Mongello
today it's okay, it's beer, that's alright, it's America. I should have beer running down my leg.

1:05:41 - Jason Canapp
I see one, this as much as you did so it's alright.

1:05:46 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I think two pavilions that we had low expectations for today got on the board with India, with that samosa and this.

1:05:57 - Lou Mongello
This is yeah, America, you outdid yourself this year. They really are the best of what they've had in festivals in recent year memory I don't remember being this impressed with an item at a festival in the America pavilion, as I have been with that.

1:06:17 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
They've tried a lot recently. Last year we were talking I think it was last year that they did a booth outside and then they also did something indoors, like where Voices of Liberty normally sings in the rotunda. Yeah, I mean, there's been stuff that's fine, but this is fantastic. Not only is it really good, but it's like a lot of times you eat something here and you're like, well, it tastes good, but I could get it anywhere.

1:06:37 - Lou Mongello
And it's $6.75?. I would come back specifically to eat that Under $7,. That's a great, great value, Like anywhere. That's a great value, especially in Disney. But let's wash it down with a little bit of carrot cake.

1:06:51 - Kenneth Johnson
I'll just lick the beer off your leg $1.75,.

1:06:56 - Lou Mongello
By the way, while you go, you know what I take that back. I'm going to have one more. I don't want to let any of this chila que. It's a really big portion too. By the way, the carrot cake Hashtag not a sweet guy. I really like the density of the carrot cake that you said. It's filled with stuff, right, you can taste the nuts in every bite. The cream cheese frosting is sweet, but not overly so that it always powders and there's that little hint of like spice, there's like a fall spice. That's sort of sitting in my mouth that I really, really like the flavor of.

1:07:36 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, it definitely has an autumn vibe. It's about the size of like a healthy hockey puck.

1:07:41 - Lou Mongello
As opposed to a sickly hockey puck.

1:07:44 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, and it's in like a pool of the icing. The icing to me is a little sweet, but you can, kind of, you know, take more or less as you see fit.

1:07:52 - Lou Mongello
By the way, Jason just literally licked a giant wad of it off of his fingers.

1:07:56 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It's like the stuff you get, like you know, in the tube with the grams, like the cinnamon rolls that you put.

1:08:03 - Kenneth Johnson
It's better than that.

1:08:05 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
The cream cheese one, not the regular one. No, it's really good and like it's almost like it's better than a fruit cake, but it's like that full of stuff. You know, it's like what I really like is the pecans in it.

1:08:17 - Kenneth Johnson
And you know I eat a lot. I'm from the South, so I eat a lot of Southern cakes and this one I would put with the best of them. Honestly, I could just keep eating them. This is great.

1:08:30 - Lou Mongello
My eyes are bugging Because here you are. You're the Southern Pie guy. Like we have this on record. You love your Southern Pies. Talking about a cake in Disney from the festival that's holding its own it's really really good.

1:08:45 - Jason Canapp
And in the previous years this was. I didn't have this at all because it was almost like a store-bought type of cake. This is totally the opposite it tastes like somebody cared about what they were doing.

1:09:00 - Lou Mongello
Wasn't last year that it was a pre-packaged. There was some sort of item that was pre-packaged.

1:09:05 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
That like cookie.

1:09:06 - Lou Mongello
It was like that it was a cake, I don't remember what it was, but it was, Doesn't it say baked fresh in the name?

1:09:13 - Jason Canapp
of it. It says, but that doesn't always.

1:09:16 - Kenneth Johnson
I know, but it is. You can tell the difference and the ingredients are fresh in it. It's really good.

1:09:24 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
It holds up to the icing. Like, I think, in past years it's almost melted in and been wet with the icing, but this is like a dense cake that has the icing poured over it. So, yeah, this is really, really, really good.

1:09:36 - Lou Mongello
I want you to close your eyes and just take this little journey with me. I want you to imagine it's like mid-November. You're sitting on your couch, got your little blankie on, you, have a warm piece of this carrot cake and like a nice cup of coffee. Tell me that's not an American adventure right there.

1:09:56 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
I think we need to arrange a service that could provide that. So if only there was a. Luber Eats. Can I do?

1:10:04 - Lou Mongello
that as an event, Like we just get couches and blankets and coffee, that would be e-ticket my friend, that would be e-ticket. My brain is going like how can I work this in tune? Yeah, wow, Flavors of America, Like knocked it out of the park.

1:10:20 - Kenneth Johnson
So so far, if I was to plan the perfect day at the festival, it would be the two dishes we just had. Yeah, the last two we just had.

1:10:30 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Also, we're in this beautiful like covered area behind where the booth is, with people buzzing about. It's a nice space to be in if it's raining or a little bit hot. Yeah, this booth came out of nowhere and hit it out of the park.

1:10:42 - Lou Mongello
And, mind you, it's 97 degrees. It's incredibly humid. In a month or two, when it's cooler, this is going to taste even better.

1:10:50 - Jason Canapp
Well, not these particular dishes, but you mean getting it done.

1:10:53 - Lou Mongello
Getting this dish.

1:10:55 - Jason Canapp
It's. I can't say enough good things about it, and we've already said a lot I would get. I would get another one of these, Like I know we have more to do. That's that good. I thought I was full. I'd win another chili. Chile. That's how good. This is so good.

1:11:11 - Lou Mongello
The chili chile and the carrot cake, and then the chapino is next. The sandwich is probably. You know, we had to sort of rank it, yeah, but you can get those other three and just I mean, that's it, that's your meal, right there.

1:11:23 - Kenneth Johnson
So so far our reviews have been a tribute to all nations, but mostly. America Well done.

1:11:31 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, very, very, very impressed with Flavors of America. We're going to leave here and head to my favorite pavilion, so let's see if Japan. That's what's hard about doing these reviews right, because as time goes on and it's sort of this roller coaster of flavors and emotions and then as you start to get more full, it's hard for certain things to really that's what I mean. I think that's why it's even more impressive, because we've eaten a lot and this is such a standout.

1:11:58 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, that's true. I mean, I came in so hungry, so the first few dishes had a little bit of an advantage. Well, just because it tastes good.

1:12:09 - Lou Mongello
Making our way to Japan.

You may or may not be able to hear the ambient sounds of Joey Fatone in concert in Tokyo in the background, but we decided to try two of the new items this year and wash it down with a sake passion cocktail which is served in a tall champagne flute.

The fire taiko roll is a sushi roll with spicy tuna, cucumber, pickled daikon radish, served with a spicy sauce. Three pieces of roll with that, and then we also had the beef wagyu don, which is traditional Japanese rice bowl with American wagyu beef, which it seems like it's a bit of a contradiction, because wagyu, I guess, by definition, is Japanese but there's also served with a spicy sauce, also some pickled radish and some onions and it looks like a teeny, tiny little. It looks like a soy-soaked, maybe like a quail egg. Why don't we start with the sushi first and then make our way to the wagyu don? So the sushi came with three pieces because you were my friends and my guests. I did not make you like share it with me or cut them in half, but Kenneth, I'm giving this high marks.

1:13:18 - Kenneth Johnson
It is spicy tuna, but I think it's sort of light on the spicy tuna, wouldn't you say, jason? I think it's unremarkable, I like it. One of the reasons I like it is because I really like daikon radish and it had that in there.

1:13:32 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, I think I mean it's a typical good tuna roll. It's not very spicy, but it tastes good. But yeah, the thing that makes it a little bit unique is that the pickled daikon that's in there gives it a nice little bit of crunch and a little bit of extra flavor. Again, it's not the kind of thing I would come to the festival specifically for, but it's a nice plate of sushi.

1:13:52 - Lou Mongello
And I think what we've seen traditionally with the festival sushi is it is entry level, right, it's frushi or it is something that is a relatively safe-ish bet. I think spicy tuna is probably sort of the most sort of.

1:14:10 - Kenneth Johnson
Adventurous.

1:14:11 - Lou Mongello
Adventurous, yeah type of sushi that there has been here. I'm very curious to see what the beef is like.

1:14:17 - Jason Canapp
With regard to the sushi roll, you can add more heat to it, which I like with the sauce, with the mayo, the spicy mayo. This is actually a little more spicy than normal spicy mayo, and so if you need to dial that up a little bit, you can do that with the sauce, so that's nice.

1:14:33 - Lou Mongello
Mind you, we're also standing in the shadow of Shiki Sai, which I am just literally counting down the minutes until we finally get to experience, which is the Japanese, as a kaya opening in the Japan Pavilion very soon. All right, dig in to the relatively small bowl of beef and I guess it's served over layers of rice. All right, thoughts on Japan, on everything that you've tasted as a whole.

1:15:00 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
The sushi was fine. This wagyu don is it didn't look very appealing when we first got it. It kind of looked like it had been sitting for a while and it yeah, this is my least favorite thing by a long shot that we've eaten.

1:15:16 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, I would agree.

1:15:18 - Jason Canapp
Actually, I think the highlight was probably the drink Wouldn't you say, yeah, this wasn't that good, and there seems to be like a quail egg or some kind of small bird's egg in there. That's not on the menu and none of us want to try it apparently, but it's there, it's not. It's yeah, this isn't. I would actually this is sad to say, but I actually would skip the booth here for this festival and then make a reservation at Takumi-Tae right around the corner.

1:15:48 - Lou Mongello
So I'm disappointed that we didn't get the chicken teriyaki bun, because I have a feeling it would have been the best thing right, it would have been the best thing at the Japan booth for this festival. I didn't try the sushi, but I probably would go. I probably would go up to even Ketsura Grill if I wanted sushi. I thought the bowl, I thought the bowl was okay, but I think the chicken teriyaki bun, which is not new this year, is the one thing that I would come to Japan for, especially when it's colder out. It's a nice little warm comfort food type item You're really craving autumn I am?

I am, look at me. I'm sweating like a, like a sinner in church.

1:16:25 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, you know I wouldn't throw this whole booth off. I think Lou's right. We didn't try probably the best thing only because we'd had it before. If I were to come to the booth I'd probably order that and I might get the sushi too, just because I love the daikon in it.

1:16:41 - Lou Mongello
The sake is nice. I'm not a big drinker, but I like sake and I like the sake. Passion cocktail.

1:16:46 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, the sake passion cocktail. I mean it's very light on the alcohol, there can't be much in there, but to me it tastes like a mango flavored drink, but I guess it's passion fruit. Yeah, the teriyaki chicken bun, which is pretty much here every year. We always joke that it tastes like sloppy joe, like in a bun, and it's good and we get it all the time. My kids like to get it, so we didn't review it today because we know what it tastes like, but we highly recommend it. Yeah, the wagyu it also looks like it kind of had been sitting waiting for us for a while and that probably didn't do it any favors either. And yeah, the egg is like a quail-sized egg that if you've ever had like a ramen egg that's soaked in that soy sauce mixture, it looks like that's what's been done to it, but again, it also looks like it's maybe been waiting to be eaten for a while.

1:17:34 - Lou Mongello
Are you judging me that I like and miss the sentimental nostalgia of a nice sloppy joe that your mom would make like I'd put on like a hamburger bun, like after school? No.

1:17:45 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
No, that's our favorite thing.

1:17:46 - Jason Canapp
It's like a potato roll.

1:17:48 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, a nice potato a soft potato. Oh, I miss that. If I knew how to cook, I'd invite you all over. You too, listener. No like for nostalgic food from the 70s and 80s, like just a whole night. Oh, you guys should do that. You all cook and I'll come over. No, wait a minute. Why don't we all do that?

1:18:07 - Jason Canapp
That had the foods of, you know, the 1970s.

1:18:13 - Kenneth Johnson
Okay, when I was a kid.

1:18:13 - Lou Mongello
What? Is it Think of 71. Oh yeah, but not that kind of stuff. I mean like we'll do like a potluck thing and everybody like makes a dinner from like.

1:18:20 - Kenneth Johnson
So when I was a kid in the 70s, the thing that a lot of grown-ups did at the time was progressive dinners. Did your parents ever organize a progressive dinner when you go from house to house and everybody's house was a different country and you dress up and they'd have? Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I got to go with my parents on a couple of progressive dinners. It was great.

1:18:44 - Lou Mongello
I sort of like that idea. I mean not having to get dressed and go to other people's houses, but it was all at my house, it would be wonderful. But yeah, now I want sloppy jokes.

1:18:51 - Jason Canapp
Yeah, let's do a 70s night.

1:18:53 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, question of the week this week, as I'm thinking out loud as a record, favorite, sentimental, nostalgic food from your childhood that you miss Right now. For me it's sloppy joes. Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, we came to Epcot, we braved and outlasted the very long, beautiful storm and we made our way around the entire World Showcase promenade as well as a few of the other kiosks in a keep on calling it future world. I know it's not future world. World Celebration, showplace World.

We made it through Epcot. We've made it through really pretty much most of all of the new items that are currently available. One of the things that Disney has started to do over past years, which I think increases the repeatability factor of the festival, is that not all of the marketplace kiosks are open on the first day, so there's a number that won't open until September, including wine and wedge char and chop the Swirl Showcase Bubbles and brine, and I believe there may be one more and a couple other new items that aren't even on the passport as well, which, especially as locals like I, love that, because we could sort of come back and do this all again and see what else is new. We ate a lot. You guys were troopers. You gave of yourself selflessly and I sincerely appreciate Kenneth is shedding a tear.

1:20:33 - Kenneth Johnson
Yes, it was so difficult, lou, and you know, I think, as we endure this ordeal together, we'll always look back on this as and I'll link to Kenneth's GoFundMe in the show notes.

1:20:47 - Lou Mongello
But this is the best of the best of what's new, and I think there were some clear wins. I think there were a couple of things that may not have hit the mark in terms of the expectations we set out earlier. What was your best of the best, whether it's individual items, individual marketplace or even, because it's us, you can have more than one. What sort of really stood out for you from what's new at this year's festival?

1:21:10 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
So I have created a meal for us. So, and the flavors don't gel perfectly, but it's okay. So we're going to come first, we're going to stop at brewing and we're going to get the orange cardamom wings because I love those those were my probably one of my favorite things of the festival and then the for the main course, we'll have the chilaquiles in America because I loved those, and then we're going to head back to flavors from fire and get the spice chocolate tart for dessert. Those are my three favorites. It's good.

1:21:37 - Jason Canapp
I mean I can't. It's hard to improve on that. It's hard to improve on that. She did pass over the fried pickles, which I know. It's really sad to have that on a favorites list. But my goodness, that booth, the fries wonderful For again. For the Baltimore, maryland and Ocean City Maryland fans out there. The fries are like thrashers and the fried pickles amazing. And then pickled shake. I'm not just doing a pickle thing, it's really. I actually thought it was, it was tasty. Um, and I'm going to say, look, the chilaquiles, they're probably the best, probably the best thing at this festival. I mean, the Chippino was good, really solid also, but the chilaquiles, that's it for me, okay.

1:22:27 - Kenneth Johnson
I'm going to shock everyone, because anybody who's listened to the podcast before when I've been on it, you know that I have a bias, let's just say for. Well, we'll just say I have a bias for meat, but my favorite flavor of the day had no meat in it and it was the samosa at the at the India Pavilion. So big, big surprise on both counts, both the pavilion and the flavor. But I would also say and this is really contrarian but the chocolate tart was not my favorite dessert, Either it was the carrot cake. I think the carrot cake just blew my mind. It was great.

1:23:12 - Lou Mongello
I'm sort of like I've been back and forth in my mind on this, because all the things you mentioned I agree with. I think. I think far and away, and and listen, I give credit where it's due. Um, I think the the 180 degree turnaround that the America Pavilion has had is remarkable. I really enjoyed everything at Flavors of America. You know, I think I said I would go back and order everything there, I mean maybe the, the beef sandwich, if I had to rank it as the chila chiles, the chapino, the carrot cake and then the beef sandwich. But, as we said, we could sort of I would come back and be happy just going there. I love the fried pickles. Um, I think you're right. I think the carrot cake may have been the best dessert. Um, yeah, I mean there was a lot that I. When you eat all day it's sometimes hard to think back in in some of the stuff that we have eaten and enjoyed. And I did like the samosa. I really like the samosas, you're right.

1:24:10 - Jason Canapp
What stands out, I mean, what's amazing is that the America Flavors of America. We hit that at the end, towards, towards the end. It it was still so.

It's like still the standout, still the best, which is a lot when you think of all the food that we ate leading up to that point. Um, for that, if we had had that first, I think we would have just called it today and I think we would have just stopped. You can't, you can't improve upon it. I will say this I still think the best dessert and maybe I'm I might be jumping ahead, but I'm going to say it doesn't matter, it's me. Uh, the the best dessert I think still of the festival is the Lamington cake in Australia and Australia we're going to walk by. Can I just get excited? It is, it's just, you know, it's a yellow cake with a raspberry filling in the middle, chocolate icing and coconut around the side. Oh, it's, it's delicious. So I would put that up against the tart and maybe eat both.

1:25:03 - Lou Mongello
So what about? You know again, there's literally hundreds of items on the menus here. A lot of the things that we said are returning favorites and classics. Is there anything that just either you saw as you went through the book, as we walked through the promenade, or just as a local, you say yourself I'm going to go back one day because I just love having X, what is what is maybe a returning favorite that has been on, that's on here, that you'd look forward to coming back to, that we didn't touch on today.

1:25:31 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Um, so, like you said, jason already mentioned the fry flight, which is awesome, so I'll go ahead and say the noodle exchange booth, which just opened up on the 15th. I know they've tweaked some of their stuff so I'm excited to see what they've done with it. But it's such a people pleaser booth because all the different soups and romans I know they've switched out some of the pho that they had last year for a ramen dish. Um, that Thai shrimp was phenomenal there last year. There's a ramen with shaved beef now. So I'm excited to try everything, everything there, as soon as we can get over there.

1:26:00 - Jason Canapp
I think for me it's the walk around food the most the fries, the samosas I mentioned earlier the, the, the, the charcuterie and a cup. I know it's simple, yeah, it just it's. It's tasty and you can eat it on the go. Um, and I again, I think, going back to, I think going back to, I know it's not new, but the America, I think this is going to be a new. I hope they keep it because that's going to be a new go to. A new favorite is Pretty much everything at the Americas, except for the same.

1:26:28 - Kenneth Johnson
Yeah, for me it would be the Mexico booth and I I can't wait to, uh, come back again and have the carnitas and other. To me that's, that's a booth, that, and the flavors of fire, that just never disappoints.

1:26:40 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, Like I agree about the noodles. Brazilian cheese bread is another great one. It's especially like. I think it also depends on why I'm here and when I'm here. Certain foods, I think, taste better at different times a year. Right, some of the warmer foods and soups. Now in its August and it's very hot and humid, they don't necessarily you know work as well as when you come back and fall on sort of jeans and hoodie weather and it's a cool night and you're going to watch some fireworks and get maybe like a warm soup or like a cheese bread. So that's one of the things I enjoy too. Is is when I come is going to depend on. We didn't even like get to Greece. Like we missed, like the griddle cheese and Greece.

1:27:15 - Jason Canapp
And they had the impossible Missaka. That's there. I did get my mint, my Moroccan mint tea slushie in Morocco, which is great. It wasn't very slushy, but it was still very delicious.

1:27:29 - Lou Mongello
And another thing to note too is and I think we mentioned earlier, like I really enjoyed the impossible chicken at brewing. I think that the plant based options and the impossible options have really sort of stepped up their game. Like impossible food is not just for vegetarians anymore. Like I think there's items that are good simply because they're good, not good simply because they're impossible, and vegetarian, and kudos to the chefs for making a, an option that was very accommodating into something that's, you know, sort of more mainstream and just delicious on its face.

1:28:07 - Jason Canapp
And so, while we're there, I will. I will say that the the unnecessarily hot curry wings. In all seriousness, disney, you know, disney has gotten a bad rap for a long time about not having sufficiently spicy food, and when they say something spicy, it's not really spicy. These are spicy, these, these are spicy. So if you're somebody who says like, yeah, I can eat some spicy food, you may, you may want to think twice. If you, if you really like the hottest Indian food out there, then this, this will be good for you. But just be careful. Yeah, I would test, I would test into those wings.

1:28:41 - Kenneth Johnson
take a bite, wait about 20 seconds and see how you feel, and then take another bite. Don't give it to your kid, it's not going to be funny.

1:28:49 - Lou Mongello
It is like they're seriously hot. Yeah, they're seriously hot.

1:28:52 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
But that being said, there's I just kind of, there's five different wings that are offered just at that booth. So there's plenty there for everybody. And I think it is nice that you, if you want something a little bit spicy at the festival, there's that option for you and that's like the best way to do it, that option for you, and that's like the plant based stuff, like is a general rule across property Like, always try the plant based stuff, because whoever is creating the dishes at the various restaurants is doing such a phenomenal job and whether you eat a plant based diet or not, I think it's always worth trying those dishes because they're always they tend to be some of the best things on the menu, no matter where you're eating.

1:29:27 - Lou Mongello
And I think the thing for me that I really sort of picked up on the festivals is there's such an element of fun, like however you festival, like whether it's us and a group of friends getting together to eat around the world, whether you're here to shop to do the Eat to the Beat concert series, if you're here for the merch, the meals, fromage montage, just scavenger hunt, like there's things now that you can do individually, you can do a group, you can do his family, you can do with kids. And then the festival, especially coming from some of those early years where it really was geared towards adults coming for a food and wine experience, it really has evolved into something that is more experiential than simply culinary based. So even if you're not a big foodie, there's a lot of reasons to come to the festival and, I think, come back to the festival and then, when you're done doing that, you're like I need more Disney, you need to go to herewiththemagiccom, because there you're going to find all sorts of things videos and podcasts.

1:30:23 - Jason Canapp
I would say it has been very hot in this summer and wherever you are, if you need a little taste of the Magic Kingdom, head over to youtubecom. Forward slash here with the magic and check out the Choose your Own Adventure videos. You can also go to herewiththemagiccom forward slash adventure to do it. And for those of you listening to the podcast, which is all of you, you can find the soundscapes by here with the magic podcast, right there where you're listening to this.

1:30:49 - Lou Mongello
I like to put the videos on, but I put a little fan on in front of me, so I feel like I'm experiencing Magic Kingdom, but getting a little air conditioning along the way, I have to say I'm local and I can go to the Magic Kingdom anytime I want, but I love to choose your own adventure things.

1:31:04 - Kenneth Johnson
I watch those all the time. I think they're great.

1:31:07 - Lou Mongello
Put them up on the big projection TV and you can turn.

1:31:12 - Jason Canapp
You know you can open the doors if you want the humidity experience. You can just open the doors and feel it, but it's like it's yeah, it's a nice, it's a nice treat what you have. Kenneth has to tell us about the cat, the Instagram cat account. That's the way he's not plugging and he should be.

1:31:25 - Kenneth Johnson
Marbley cat. You know I'm not sure how many posts my wife has done on Marbley cat, but I think it's still up and they're funny.

1:31:33 - Jason Canapp
It's a really good.

1:31:35 - Kenneth Johnson
Marbley cat.

1:31:36 - Lou Mongello
I think it's at Marbley cat, I'll find it, I'll link it in the show notes. Make sure you stop what you're doing and go to the show.

1:31:45 - Kenneth Johnson
That's the cat over the summer took a vacation to Long Island, new York, so you'll probably see some sailing posts on there. Where the cat is sailing, it should be fun.

1:31:56 - Lou Mongello
Yeah, I'm just waiting for the Marbley tiktok. Really, that's really what I want to indulge in. And, of course, Lisa the notoglassner is still over at the castle runcom.

1:32:07 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Yeah, so I'm over at the castle runcom and the castle runner on Instagram. Years ago we kind of lifted up our life and moved it from Wall Street to Walt Disney World and we chronicle our adventures over there. I'm also very active in the running community and run Disney and you can find a lot of information there. I'm also almost formerly which is so crazy to say the owner of Poor Memory Candles, which is a candle shop that has Disney inspired sense that I've been running for the last five years. For various you know personal reasons and beyond, I've decided to sort of quiet that down after this month, so we're quietly sadly closing the doors on that, but that's very much a part of my month right now.

1:32:44 - Lou Mongello
Well, I will link to all of that and also post some photos from our adventure and journey today. Lisa, kenneth, jason, thank you again so very much for joining me, and obviously we need to come back in just a few weeks and see what's even newer among what's new at the festival Deal. It's a deal. Thank you, lou.

1:33:04 - Lisa DiNoto-Glassner
Thank you so much.

1:33:06 - Lou Mongello
Such a long walk back to the car. I just need a little like nap. We say this every year. We need like a little sort of air conditioned nap location.

1:33:16 - Kenneth Johnson
Is it the Australia booth where that dessert is? Yeah, I'm hungry, I'm still eating.

1:33:22 - Lou Mongello
Can I un-zoom my belt a little bit without security? Coming by Kenneth's like let's just keep eating.

1:33:30 - Kenneth Johnson
Training, training, my friend, that's the secret.

1:33:34 - Lou Mongello
And Kenneth, just so you know, is not 712 pounds, like you who are like an Adonis and they don't know how you do it.

1:33:40 - Kenneth Johnson
You know the difference between an amateur and a professional.