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Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida has some amazing festivals throughout the year. There is the Flower & Garden festival in the spring, the Food & Wine Festival in the fall, and the Festival of the Holidays at the beginning of winter.
But right now Epcot is celebrating the Festival of the Arts. And when you hear the title, you might think the festival is just about art.
But remember, cooking can be a form of art, too. After all, have you ever seen the food they create in the cooking competitions on Food Network?
So even though it is not the Food & Wine Festival, there is some great food you can have here. Just like with the Food & Wine Festival, there are Festival Markets throughout the park.
And it’s not just snacks, too. There are foods available you can have for a meal. In fact, I had multiple meals from the food I had at the Festival of the Arts when I was there last week. It was not only delicious but filling as a meal, too.
And I would actually go so far to say I enjoyed the food more at this festival than I did at the Food and Wine Festival! I suspect you’ll love the food here, too.
Especially if you eat some of these menu items. See, my family tried a lot of food last week and we came up with our list of the best eight menu items. Not everything we tried made the list; only the best items did. So today we’ll be counting down from eight to the best menu item.
8. Gnocchi Poutine
The Gnocchi Poutine, as you might imagine, is a menu item you can find in the Canadian Pavilion of the World Showcase. We’ve written before about Poutine Festivals in London, Ontario and Ottawa, Ontario. Poutine is one of those foods we’ve been wanting to check out, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity.
And it just so happened that the Gnocchi Poutine was available at the Refreshment Outpost at Canada! The Gnocchi Poutine consists of Red Wine-braised beef, cheese curds, basil, and burrata.
I thought the poutine would be the best part, but the best part of this was actually the Red Wine-braised beef, which was unexpected. The beef was delicious and tender.
As for the poutine itself? It was pretty good but kind of disappointing, though I may have had too high of expectations for it. Perhaps I should try poutine when I’m in Canada again – or at the Daily Poutine kiosk over at Disney Springs!
But the poutine here was certainly not bad at all. It was best though in bites where there was also the delicious beef.
7. Black Winter Truffle Croissant
The black winter truffle croissant is also known as the Croissant A La Truffle Noir D’Hiver. As you might infer from that French title, you can find this at the France Pavilion of the World Showcase at a market called L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise.
From the look of it, it might seem like a chocolate croissant with a lot of chocolate in it. But an interesting thing about it is that chocolate does not dominate the taste at all. In fact, you can’t taste that much chocolate in it. Disappointing if you love chocolate and ordered it for the chocolate. But a pleasant surprise if you are like my mother and are not a big fan of chocolate!
At any rate, the best part of the croissant was the truffle-filled filling. It was so delicious and the best bites were the ones with the filling. I would recommend this solely on the truffle filling if nothing else!
6. Deconstructed Key Lime Pie
There’s a Festival Market near Port of Entry in the World Showcase called The Deconstructed Dish. It’s a neat concept where they take popular dishes and “deconstruct” them so to speak. We really liked this market; this is not the only menu item from this market to make the list.
And a neat thing about this market is that you are close to the performers. We were able to enjoy our food from this market and enjoy a great musical act as well as a great acrobat act.
But right now I want to talk about the Deconstructed Key Lime Pie. It consists of Flexible Key Lime Curd, “Key Lime” Mousse, Graham Cracker Cake, and Meringues.
And it was delicious! I liked eating the different parts separately and together. I did not care as much however for the “key lime” mousse. My favorite parts were the key lime curd and the graham cracker cake just because they were so delicious!
5. Wild Mushroom Risotto
Now, we have reached the top five of the food and in my opinion, these are the five best. There really is not much negative to say about them at all.
This dish is the Wild Mushroom Risotto, which you can find at the Gourmet Landscapes festival market in the Canadian Pavilion. It consists of aged Parmesan, Truffle Shavings, and Zinfandel Reduction. It was nice and creamy. The mushrooms tasted good. The Parmesan really added. It was, in a word, “perfect”!
4. Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie
This dish should earn extra brownie points (or cookie points in this case?) for one simple reason. Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to play with your food? Well, don’t worry about that with this cookie!
This is really an ingenious cookie. It is designed like an artist’s palette. It comes with a paintbrush. And you can take the food coloring on the palette and spread it across your palette, like so!
Though if you possess more artistic ability than me (which shouldn’t be hard!) you may come up with something even more spectacular. At any rate, I wasn’t taking this painting home with me, as it was far too delicious not to eat!
Now, one worry I did have before I ate this cookie was that it would just look great and be fun to play with. But it might not actually taste good.
But luckily, that was not the case. The cookie was actually quite delicious. It was fresh and soft, which is the way I like cookies.
You can pick this up at the same Refreshment Post in Canada where you get the poutine.
3. Beef Wellington
Beef Wellington is a dish you can get at the Craftman’s Courtyard near Creations Shop. It consists of Mushroom Duxelles, Prosciutto, and Puff Pastry with Red Wine Demi-glace and Baby Vegetables.
So, how good was it? Well, when my mom first ordered it and tried it and I asked her is it good she replied “Oh God, yes”. So that might say it all. It was so tender and delicious that when you eat it you don’t want it to end.
2. Deconstructed French Onion Soup
So remember when I said that another menu item from the Deconstructed Dish market would appear on this list? Well, here it is! In this case, it is the deconstructed French Onion Soup.
The Deconstructed French Onion Soup consists of Beef Broth Ravioli, Gruyere Cream, Onion Bread Pudding, and Onion Textures. And this was a dish that would make you want to order this again and again. It was, as my sister put it, “amazing”! She discovered that in particular, the onion bread pudding was her favorite way to have an onion. You still get that onion taste without it being as strong.
Winner: Cast-Iron Roasted P.E.I Mussels
This was a tough choice because there were so many great food items. And I debated between this and a couple of the others.
But what puts this dish over the top is that every single member of my family absolutely fell in love with this dish. And that includes a family member who doesn’t even like seafood very much!
So what made this so delicious? Well, it was a great blend of flavors. The Prince Edward Island Mussels were combined with sauteed tomatoes, garlic, and fresh herbs. And the blend was amazing!
I was truly blown away by how good it was. I actually first had P.E.I. Mussels at Disney World as my choice of an appetizer at Cinderella’s Royal Table (you can see our review here). And as much as I loved the mussels there, this was even better. It makes me want to go back to the Festival of the Arts before it is over just to try it again!
Festival of the Arts
Speaking of which, the Festival of Arts runs through February 20, 2023. So if you haven’t visited yet, you still have time!
You’ll need a ticket for Epcot to attend the festival. You can find out ways to save money on Disney World tickets here.
And if you are looking to book a stay at the Walt Disney World Resort, you need to read this. It gives you a step-by-step guide to finding out how to find a room at a deluxe Disney World hotel for a fraction of the price. I was able to do this and stay at a one-bedroom villa at the Beach Club last week for less than what I would have paid for a moderate Disney World hotel. And that was great since I could just walk to Epcot and attend the Festival of the Arts! So I highly recommend following these steps to get yourself a great price for a hotel!
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