What Now

DISNEY VACATION: HERE IS WHERE I TALK ABOUT THE FOOD

Heh.

Anyways, so where was I?

OM NOM NOM

It doesn't take a very astute person to realize that I enjoy food. Anyone can look at me and know that! :) There are some really fantastic restaurants in the Disney World complex, and by the time we left there, I felt like I had eaten at all of them. We had the dining plan, which I recommend if you take a trip to Disney, that allowed us to get reservations at a lot of very nice places, Places certainly much nicer than we would go to at home. It's funny, but I don't think I've ever been as aware of how often we eat as I was on this trip. It was probably because we had reservations all over the darn place and we had to jump on the Monorail and travel to where we were eating. We don't eat out that much at home anymore, so I guess that's why it seems like we were constantly eating! Heck, I didn't mind, since I wasn't the one cooking! :)

We ate at a place called Yak & Yeti, which served neither yak nor yeti as far as I know. I wish I could be more specific about the kind of food it was, but all I know was that it was in the Asia part of Animal Kingdom. The food was great, and I even ate snow peas! Crunchy snow peas (the thought of them at this point makes me kind of gaggish because of the texture, but they tasted fine.) The waitress asked us if we had run the marathon (apparently, there is a Disney marathon...who knew?) and Steve and I just laughed. Honestly, do either of us look like we could run to the end of a driveway, much less a whole marathon? Heehee. That night, we got dressed up-ish because we had a reservation at The California Grill, which was on the 15th floor of our hotel. It's a great place to go during the evening when the Magic Kingdom has it's fireworks show, so we got to see them up close and personal (although, not as clearly as we would have liked.) I was really afraid that I was under dressed for this place, because it was a lovely, classy restaurant, so I was a little self conscious. However, I felt much better when I saw the lady in cut off sweat-pants come in. They even have a sign that says that you can't wear your swim-suit to dinner, so...yeah. I didn't need to worry I was under dressed! Also, and I say this as someone who doesn't have children and who probably doesn't understand the fine details of parenting, but if you take your children to a nice restaurant...teach them some damn manners and don't let them wallow in the floor. Seriously, I get that kids don't sit still and eat like adults do, and I get that when your on vacation a lot of your regular rules go out the window, but please...as a person who has to share a restaurant with you on occasion, I don't want your children crawling under my table or throwing stuff that could get on me, or shoving me out of the way so they can get to the window I'm sitting near. Your children need to be taken care of, even if you're on vacation, OK? Please do so. Chef Mickey's was just down-stairs. If your kid can't keep from acting like a feral cat, take them downstairs and let them climb on a giant mouse. And stay off my lawn.

The next night, we ate at The San Angel Inn, in Epcot. It's our traditional Epcot restaurant located in "Mexico." I love the interior of the building, which is made to look like an outdoor market place at twilight. The food is very good, if not something I'd eat very often. Also, it was the first time I'd ever eaten a churro. I'd go back to Disney World just for the churros, man. It's even fun to say: Churrrrrrrrro.

Wednesday night we ate at 'Ohana, which is located in the Polynesian Resort. It is Hawaiian, of course, if you couldn't tell by the name. I'd never eaten Hawaiian food before, and they do a fine job at preparing it! At least I think so. It could have been terrible as far as Hawaiian food goes, but since I'd never had any... I was impressed. :) It's kind of a family style place and I swear that they bring you more food than it is physically possible for two people to eat. They had the most delicious bread I'd ever eaten, and I was told they'd e-mail me the recipe if I requested it, which I did. I'M STILL WAITING, 'OHANA. They also had great salad dressing, for which I found the recipe online. Hey, anything that makes it easier for me to eat veggies is a-OK with me. You should give it a try. I made it when we got home and it tasted just as good! My only problem with this otherwise fine establishment was the entertainment, and I feel kind of bad about that. Honestly, the entertainment was strictly for the children, probably so the parents could eat in peace. It wasn't the fact that it was for children that bothered me. The kids were even kind of cute when they'd follow the lady around doing the "hang loose" thing with their hands, it was the lady singing. It wasn't even really her voice, because she had a lovely voice. It probably wouldn't have bothered me if they didn't pipe her singing, loudly, over your table. She was actually Hawaiian, and she played a ukulele, and dear Lord...it was loud. It was also very cheerful. Very, very, cheerful. Creepy cheerful. It is my firm belief that this lady goes home and kills puppies or something to counterbalance the cheerfulness of her job. I don't see how she can stay sane otherwise. There isn't a way I can explain how she sounded just by writing, so you'll just have to take my word for it, Cousin.

Later on in the week, we also ate at Kona Cafe, which is another Hawaiian restaurant in that resort. The steak...OMG, the steak. We also had some rather annoying people sitting next to us. Some very loud, very "New Yawk," kind of people who apparently had become so annoying that you could see it on their waiter's face. If you can make a Disney employee look like that, you must be awful! :)

The last full service place we went to was The Crystal Palace, which is inside Magic Kingdom. I don't even know if you can call it a full service place, since it was a buffet, but the food was great! Our waiter looked so much like my old Agribusiness teacher that I almost called him Mr. Harris! He was very cheerful, but not 'Ohana singer cheerful, so I was OK with that. The place was packed, PACKED, with people. It was one of those places where the people in Animal suits come in and interact with the kids while they eat. I hate those things. I mean, for the children, it's OK. What kid wouldn't love a real-life Tigger or Pooh to hug and whatever. Me? They heeb me out. I've worn a similar costume before. I know that there is a person inside of those things, and I know that THEY know I'm an adult and don't need their germy costumes that some kid has wiped their nose on, coming near my food. I swore I'd punch the first mascot that came near me right in the solar plexus. Luckily, Piglet was only able to get to Steve since I was on the far side of the table, so he/she didn't touch me. I can be gracious to the person trapped inside if all I have to do is wave to them. :) I found a recipe for the best thing in that place that I ate, and I sincerely think you need to make it. I'm not kidding, it was awesome. I even went back to get more for dessert, and I chose it over all of the chocolate stuff AND it wasn't even sweet, so you know it had to be good.

So, there you go! I kind of hate that such a long post was dedicated to just food, but it was such a big part of the experience I felt I needed to share. :)

TO BE CONTINUED...