Seia
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2013
PS Trip Day 2, Part 2: Menu Tasting & Epcot
After leaving Franck's, we took the monorail over to Epcot. Here, we decided to activate our annual pass vouchers. This took longer than expected, but soon we were into Epcot and headed toward the International Gateway. We hadn't really eaten breakfast, and I was starving at this point plus our tasting wasn't scheduled to start for another 40 minutes. So I stopped at the Terra F&W booth featuring all vegan foods. I got the blackened chick'n breast with spicy gumbo sauce. It was delicious! I wish I had been able to stop at this booth again.
We headed over to the Boardwalk and waited in the lobby. As we entered, I saw the digital announcement board with the day's events, and of course I had to stop to take a picture of it.
I started to worry soon because it was 2:15, the time we were supposed to be meeting Courtney and the chef. I finally asked a CM about where Salon IV was, and it turns out we were in the wrong place! We were supposed to be in the conference center lobby, not the main one. Oops! As we raced inside the conference center, we found a CM who was waiting for us. He and the person taking Dianes place (she had a wedding that afternoon) also called me Amy twice not sure how that mistake was made. Nonetheless.
I'll do my best to relay everything about the tasting and our choices. I'm anxiously awaiting our BEO, because I think my stomach may have agreed to add things to the menu that I don't remember now! Haha. I didn't take too many pictures because I was too busy eating. Here are all the selections that Chef Redgie prepared for us:
Penne Pasta with Cognac Cream Sauce, Artichoke, and Green Peas
Grilled Chicken Breast with Citrus and Basil Butter Sauce, served with wild rice and vegetables
Pasta with Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Tomatoes Confit, Spinach, and Asiago Cream Sauce
Wild Berry and Grand Marnier Cream Cheese Crêpes and Brioche French Toast
Toppings for the crepes and French toast, including caramelized bananas foster, whipped cream, blueberry compote, and vanilla bean sauce
Maple Ginger-lacquered Roasted and Pressed Pork Loin with Fig Compote, served with fresh asparagus and oven-roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Braised Fennel and Parmesan Cheese
We all got plates of everything (well, everything but the meat items for me) to try. Honestly, I probably should have eaten more. So much went to waste. For the pasta, I liked the Asiago cream sauce better than the cognac cream sauce, but preferred the other pasta with the green peas. I asked if we could have the bow-tie pasta with spinach, green peas, and the Asiago cream sauce in a combination of the two dishes. Done!
Josh couldn't decide between the pork and the chicken, so we preemptively decided to go with both as our meat items and leave fish off the menu completely. I didn't try the wild rice, but I did have the potatoes, which were amazing. We picked those and assorted seasonal veggies as sides. I also knew I definitely want an egg station, making sure fresh spinach is included as an ingredient for omelets.
The crepes were delicious, so I definitely wanted to keep them. I did, however, request that some sort of chocolate topping be available for them and the French toast. We ended up picking French toast over Mickey waffles, but I am second-guessing that decision. Depending on what our BEO and the price point look like, I may switch it to a Mickey waffle bar but keep the bananas foster topping.
For our cocktail hour, I asked for the cheese and yogurt displays on the Briar Rose menu. I thought about adding assorted fruit, but we're going to have fruit salad at our dessert party. I'm still not 100% sure where I think it would be better.
Chef Redgie also asked if there were any menu items across property that we especially enjoy. I mentioned the paneer masala from Sanaa. He said he would get the recipe and have it prepared especially for me. We'll see how this reflects on our BEO I was under the impression he meant a small portion just for me in place of the meat items, but now I'm not so sure. Either way, I appreciated the gesture. He mentioned to me that he had actually been a vegetarian in the past and that he was also a big lover of Indian food. The tasting went by fairly quickly. I think I need more samples to reaffirm our decisions. (That's just being back on the wedding diet that's talking LOL)
Gifts from Chef Redgie.
After our tasting, we headed back to Coronado to rest for a bit and so I could change into shorts. It was especially warm that day. Later that evening, we headed to Epcot. We rode Spaceship Earth and Nemo and Friends before it was time for our dinner reservation at Coral Reef. Thankfully, I had been smart and booked it for 8:35 well after our tasting!
Picture at Epcot.
Neither of us had been to Coral Reef before, but I quite liked it. The atmosphere was great. We didn't have the best table in terms of seeing the aquarium, but it wasn't bad by any means. Josh ordered the steak and I got the vegetarian chick'n breast. (Once again, I forgot pictures sorry! I promise to do better next TR.) Josh enjoyed his steak, but said it wasn't quite as good as the one from BOG. My chick'n breast was good, but I didn't like the black rice pilaf that came with it.
Coral Reef aquarium.
We had a great time watching the fish in the aquarium. I have a fondness for stingrays (I don't really know why, I just think they're kind of cute), and there were a bunch of them that swam by. We saw a sea turtle too, but it never came back around again. For dessert, I had the turtle cheesecake and Josh had the Baileys mousse. Both were quite good! After dinner, we had FP for Soarin', and by then it was actually almost time for park close. We didn't even make it over to the World Showcase, but I knew we'd be coming back here tomorrow so I didn't mind.
As we headed back to Coronado, it felt a little strange to think that we had done the bulk of planning our wedding. It went by in a blur. It was bittersweet in a way, simply because I had been anticipating it for so long and it all happened so quickly. But I still had a major wedding milestone to look forward to in the next couple of days: hair and makeup trial and our engagement photos!
After leaving Franck's, we took the monorail over to Epcot. Here, we decided to activate our annual pass vouchers. This took longer than expected, but soon we were into Epcot and headed toward the International Gateway. We hadn't really eaten breakfast, and I was starving at this point plus our tasting wasn't scheduled to start for another 40 minutes. So I stopped at the Terra F&W booth featuring all vegan foods. I got the blackened chick'n breast with spicy gumbo sauce. It was delicious! I wish I had been able to stop at this booth again.
We headed over to the Boardwalk and waited in the lobby. As we entered, I saw the digital announcement board with the day's events, and of course I had to stop to take a picture of it.
I started to worry soon because it was 2:15, the time we were supposed to be meeting Courtney and the chef. I finally asked a CM about where Salon IV was, and it turns out we were in the wrong place! We were supposed to be in the conference center lobby, not the main one. Oops! As we raced inside the conference center, we found a CM who was waiting for us. He and the person taking Dianes place (she had a wedding that afternoon) also called me Amy twice not sure how that mistake was made. Nonetheless.
I'll do my best to relay everything about the tasting and our choices. I'm anxiously awaiting our BEO, because I think my stomach may have agreed to add things to the menu that I don't remember now! Haha. I didn't take too many pictures because I was too busy eating. Here are all the selections that Chef Redgie prepared for us:
Penne Pasta with Cognac Cream Sauce, Artichoke, and Green Peas
Grilled Chicken Breast with Citrus and Basil Butter Sauce, served with wild rice and vegetables
Pasta with Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Tomatoes Confit, Spinach, and Asiago Cream Sauce
Wild Berry and Grand Marnier Cream Cheese Crêpes and Brioche French Toast
Toppings for the crepes and French toast, including caramelized bananas foster, whipped cream, blueberry compote, and vanilla bean sauce
Maple Ginger-lacquered Roasted and Pressed Pork Loin with Fig Compote, served with fresh asparagus and oven-roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes with Braised Fennel and Parmesan Cheese
We all got plates of everything (well, everything but the meat items for me) to try. Honestly, I probably should have eaten more. So much went to waste. For the pasta, I liked the Asiago cream sauce better than the cognac cream sauce, but preferred the other pasta with the green peas. I asked if we could have the bow-tie pasta with spinach, green peas, and the Asiago cream sauce in a combination of the two dishes. Done!
Josh couldn't decide between the pork and the chicken, so we preemptively decided to go with both as our meat items and leave fish off the menu completely. I didn't try the wild rice, but I did have the potatoes, which were amazing. We picked those and assorted seasonal veggies as sides. I also knew I definitely want an egg station, making sure fresh spinach is included as an ingredient for omelets.
The crepes were delicious, so I definitely wanted to keep them. I did, however, request that some sort of chocolate topping be available for them and the French toast. We ended up picking French toast over Mickey waffles, but I am second-guessing that decision. Depending on what our BEO and the price point look like, I may switch it to a Mickey waffle bar but keep the bananas foster topping.
For our cocktail hour, I asked for the cheese and yogurt displays on the Briar Rose menu. I thought about adding assorted fruit, but we're going to have fruit salad at our dessert party. I'm still not 100% sure where I think it would be better.
Chef Redgie also asked if there were any menu items across property that we especially enjoy. I mentioned the paneer masala from Sanaa. He said he would get the recipe and have it prepared especially for me. We'll see how this reflects on our BEO I was under the impression he meant a small portion just for me in place of the meat items, but now I'm not so sure. Either way, I appreciated the gesture. He mentioned to me that he had actually been a vegetarian in the past and that he was also a big lover of Indian food. The tasting went by fairly quickly. I think I need more samples to reaffirm our decisions. (That's just being back on the wedding diet that's talking LOL)
Gifts from Chef Redgie.
After our tasting, we headed back to Coronado to rest for a bit and so I could change into shorts. It was especially warm that day. Later that evening, we headed to Epcot. We rode Spaceship Earth and Nemo and Friends before it was time for our dinner reservation at Coral Reef. Thankfully, I had been smart and booked it for 8:35 well after our tasting!
Picture at Epcot.
Neither of us had been to Coral Reef before, but I quite liked it. The atmosphere was great. We didn't have the best table in terms of seeing the aquarium, but it wasn't bad by any means. Josh ordered the steak and I got the vegetarian chick'n breast. (Once again, I forgot pictures sorry! I promise to do better next TR.) Josh enjoyed his steak, but said it wasn't quite as good as the one from BOG. My chick'n breast was good, but I didn't like the black rice pilaf that came with it.
Coral Reef aquarium.
We had a great time watching the fish in the aquarium. I have a fondness for stingrays (I don't really know why, I just think they're kind of cute), and there were a bunch of them that swam by. We saw a sea turtle too, but it never came back around again. For dessert, I had the turtle cheesecake and Josh had the Baileys mousse. Both were quite good! After dinner, we had FP for Soarin', and by then it was actually almost time for park close. We didn't even make it over to the World Showcase, but I knew we'd be coming back here tomorrow so I didn't mind.
As we headed back to Coronado, it felt a little strange to think that we had done the bulk of planning our wedding. It went by in a blur. It was bittersweet in a way, simply because I had been anticipating it for so long and it all happened so quickly. But I still had a major wedding milestone to look forward to in the next couple of days: hair and makeup trial and our engagement photos!