by Beth Keating
Review
DisneyBizJournal.com
February 18, 2023
The clock is running out if you haven’t yet made it to the 2023 EPCOT Festival of the Arts. The artistic extravaganza is in its final weekend, and you only have until February 20 to get to this all-too-short festival and maybe paint a few squares on the wall mural.
We had several pieces of art that we wanted to get signed by the visiting artists, so we made our way to World Showcase for these final festival days, and scooped up a few of the dishes we hadn’t been able to sample in our first go-around. And we found a few gems amidst the Food Studios this time.
At Pastoral Palate in the Germany pavilion, we discovered a dish that we are very sorry that we will not have the opportunity to enjoy again. If only we’d tried it earlier. Hopefully, it will return in future years because it was a winner in our book. The Wild Boar Cassoulet ($9.25) with duck confit, ham hock and wild boar sausage was delicious! The meat was uber-tender, perhaps the most meltingly tender of any of the dishes we’ve tried in the past few festivals. Hubby had forgotten the plastic knives, but it turned out that we didn’t even need them, because cutting it with the side of the fork sufficed. The small filet was nicely seared and seasoned on the outside, just enough to give some additional flavor to the meat. The bland bean cassoulet that the meat rested on, though, was nothing more than a blank canvas to show off the boar and duck. There was a bit of texture, but not much flavor. We chuckled to ourselves as we enjoyed the dish, because we’d passed by this booth several times without giving it a second thought. After all, who goes to a theme park to eat boar? And truthfully, we were a little skeptical about trying the offering. We picked it up, almost on a lark, for the novelty of saying we’d eaten boar. We were so glad we did, because without a doubt it was one of the “best of the fest” dishes for us!
Also at Pastoral Palate in the Germany pavilion, we tried the Red Wine-Braised Beef Short Ribs ($8.50). Served with a lovely parsnip puree, crisp broccolini, a smattering of various colors of baby tomatoes, and a drizzle of aged balsamic, the dish was also a big hit with our family. The flavor of the short rib was a satisfying, strong beef tone, and while it wasn’t quite as tender as the wild boar and duck, it was just as good as you’d expect from a long-simmering Sunday roast. The sweet parsnip puree provided a nice backdrop to the beef, and the crunchy broccolini added a bit of texture to the whole plate.
Apparently, it was a meat-centric expedition this time, because over at Craftsman’s Courtyard, near the Creations shop, we tried the Beef Wellington ($8.50), another very tender cut of beef that was small but delightful. Our family has served Beef Wellington for Christmas a number of times, and it is always a time-consuming chore to make, so we were excited to try someone else’s handiwork with this dish. It did not disappoint. The beef was tender and flavorful, and while the pastry coating the outside of the beef was a little soggier than the flaky pastry you’d normally expect from Wellington, it blended well with the meat. We would definitely order it again. It was served with a slightly salty gravy, and three small onions on top, along with a few of the most adorable, teeny tiny carrots we’d ever seen. The carrots were so small they were no longer than the nail on your pinky, with a miniscule bit of greenery still attached to their tops. (The carrots were perfectly cooked – how did they manage that for the size?). Once again, you hardly needed the plastic knife to cut the beef.
Hubby took the advice of so many Arts’ Festival guests and headed for Moderne, over near the Creations shop. There he ordered the Angry Crab ($7.25), a relative bargain in the food booth universe, particularly for the quality of the dish. The plate is a whole soft-shelled crab, fried crispy, with a green papaya salad, mango-Sriracha fluid gel, coconut lime foam with pomegranate, and mango crushed pearls. Wow, that’s a mouthful! The crab itself was pleasantly crunchy without being overcooked, and had a tiny bit of a kick. The crab was offset nicely by the various sauces and the slaw that was piled high beneath it. While my husband loved the crab itself, he wasn’t as big a fan of the accompaniments, which while creative, he thought detracted a bit from the traditional-ness of soft-shelled crab. (It is, though, an Arts festival, so the chefs do like to show off their creative side…) Regardless, the family enjoyed it so much, that both hubby and son went back to the Angry Crab again on a second occasion.
Also at Moderne, hubby added the Pan Seared Scallops ($7.50), two small scallops with vanilla-butternut squash puree, brown butter cauliflower puree, and lime foam. The scallops were perfectly cooked, with a great, fresh seafood taste. The dots of the various purees were an interesting side note to the scallops, with some dots providing a sweet accompaniment to the milder scallops, but the white polka dots being “just sort of there.”
The one disappointment to the day’s meals was the grilled cheese. I know, hard to mess with grilled cheese, right? But it’s probably my own fault. I think I’d built up too much anticipation for the sandwich (or, more correctly, half sandwich) based on other people’s recommendations. I was expecting angels to sing. But it was just a grilled cheese. I’d ordered the fancy version, the Tomato Soup with the Pimento cheese, bacon and fried green tomato grilled cheese at Pop Eats! (near Port of Entry, by the now defunct Starbucks’ booth). The $6.50 plate came with a small cup of tomato soup and a half sandwich. Admittedly, there wasn’t anything wrong with the grilled cheese (though the bread was a bit crunchy), and the tomato soup tasted fresh, not the tinny taste you get from canned soup, but with all the other opportunities floating around at the myriad of booths, I should have spent the money and calories elsewhere. The bacon disappeared into the sandwich without adding much to the flavor, and the fried green tomato added some texture to the dish, with the tiniest bit of a bite from the pimento cheese, but otherwise it just wasn’t a standout dish for us – and I so wanted it to be!
Bellies full, we headed for the America Gardens Theatre to catch one last spectacular performance of Disney on Broadway, before heading for the exit, grabbing a delicious “Panda” Bubble Milk Tea ($8.75) from The Painted Panda near China on our walk out. The black tea and milk concoction was made with a hint of chocolate and a sizeable swirl of whipped cream, with two Oreo cookies on top, forming an adorable silhouette of Mickey’s ears. And they certainly didn’t skimp on the Boba pearls in the cup.
We are just days away from the start of the 2023 Flower & Garden Festival (the topiaries have started to sneak their way into the park already), and there will be a whole new set of food booths arriving. But I still wish the Festival of the Arts was a bit longer to get a chance to sample more Food Studios, and meet a few more of our favorite artists. And maybe add some painted squares to the murals…. or find more hidden chalk drawings of our favorite Disney characters. By the time the Flower & Garden festival starts, those cute little chalk cartoons will be only a memory!
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
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