DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: Food & Wine Festival 2024

Recently, my family and I had enjoyed a day at the Disneyland Resort, where we attended the 2024 Food & Wine Festival at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park. The festival ended on April 22. Below is a selection of the food and drinks I had enjoyed at the festival:

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL 2024

BBQ Beef Brisket Slider – This small sandwich with barbeque beef brisket, smoked white cheddar and dill pickles on salt and pepper brioche was my favorite item at the festival. To my joy, I could barely make out the pickles and cheese.

Carbonara Garlic Mac & Cheese – The festival featured a few Macaroni and Cheese dishes with meat (especially pork). However, this old favorite of mine was seasoned with garlic and sprinkled with Nueske’s Peppered Bacon, cheese and bread crumbs. I really managed to enjoy this dish after I had brushed aside the bacon and bread crumbs.

Cheeseburger Bao – This dish was served with Thousand Island dressing, grilled onions, pickle, and tomato relish. This dish seemed okay. But I found the bao pastry too soft and inclined to become soggy. And the ground beef seemed to lack decent seasoning.

Chile Relleno Empanada – I have not eaten a Chile Relleno in years. Eating the dish as an empanada sprinkled with Arbol pepper, salsa and Oaxaca and Cotija cheeses made me remember how much I had enjoyed it. Very delicious.

Huckleberry-Citrus Cooler – This non-alcoholic drink featured Gold Peak Black Tea, huckleberry and agave syrups, grapefruit soda, and lemon and orange juices, garnished with an orange wedge. Quite simply, I found it not too sweet, delicious and very refreshing.

IMPOSSIBLE Beef Stroganoff – I cannot deny that this pasta dish with Egg noodles and IMPOSSIBLE beef, tossed in a mushroom cream sauce garnished with sour cream was delicious. But I was surprised to discover that the IMPOSSIBLE beef did not taste like genuine or artificial meat. Instead, it tasted like mushrooms.

If you had attended the 2024 Disney’s California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, what were your favorite dishes?

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: Festival of Holidays 2022

Recently, my family and I had enjoyed a day at the Disneyland Resort, where we attended the 2022 Festival of Holidays at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park. The festival ends on January 8, 2023. Below is a selection of the food and drinks I had enjoyed at the festival:

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE:  FESTIVAL OF HOLIDAYS 2022

Pork Belly Adobo – This dish consists of braised pork belly, served with Garlic fried rice, chicharron pieces, and topped with green onions. A first bite of the pork belly revealed a strong vinegary flavor. But once I ate it with the rice and green onion, the strong vinegar flavor receded somewhat, and this proved to be a delicious selection.

Lox & Everything Bagel Nachos – Although not a big favorite of mine, I rather liked this dish of bagel chips, cream cheese, diced smoked salmon, everything spice, onions, tomatoes, and capers. I would have preferred if the bagel chips had been softer, but the smoked salmon was deliciously fresh.

Mickey Shaped Gingerbread Cookie – Although I found the sprinkles irrelevant, I really enjoyed this rich gingerbread cookie.  I also thought the ginger flavor was strong and perfect. 

Churro Toffee Coffee Cold Brew Latte – This coffee latte with Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Co. Mexico Origin Blend Coffee, demerara, cinnamon sugar, vanilla bean, and almond milk garnished with churro syrup, whipped cream, and chocolate toffee crumbles was delicious, but very familiar to me.  At the moment, I cannot recall when or where I have drunk something similar before.  There is an alcoholic version of this drink with coffee liqueur. 

IMPOSSIBLE Meatloaf with Mashed Potatoes – This was a surprisingly first-rate dish with meatloaf made from IMPOSSIBLE ground meat and served with mashed potatoes, classic gravy and crispy shallots.  Honestly, the meatloaf almost tasted like real meat.  Almost

Pumpkin Layered Cheesecake – I really enjoyed this rich and delicious dessert made from layers of New York-style cheesecake, pumpkin gooey cake, and graham cracker topped with spiced Chantilly and a chocolate decoration.  The mixture of cheesecake and pumpkin flavors struck me as first-rate.

Brisket Slider – This mini sandwich consisted of smoked brisket with smoked onions and horseradish ketchup on a pretzel roll.  Yes, the horseradish ketchup came off as a bit strong on the first bite, but the brisket was … O-M-G!  It was simply delicious and tender.  It was some of the best brisket I have ever sampled.  Even the pretzel bun was nice and soft

Peri Peri Chicken with Yellow Jollof Rice – This dish was served at the Flavor of Wakanda booth but is not considered part of the official festival.  Nevertheless, this was the best thing I had eaten at the festival tjhat day – grilled chicken flavored with the peri peri seasoning from Mozambique and served with the heavily seasoned Jollof rice that originated in the Senegambian region.  Superb!

If you had attended the 2022 Disney’s California Adventure Festival of Holidays, what were your favorite dishes?

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: Food and Wine Festival 2022

Recently, my family and I had enjoyed a day at the Disneyland Resort, where we attended the 2022 Food & Wine Festival at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park. The festival ended on April 26. Below is a selection of the food and drinks I had enjoyed at the festival:

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL 2022

Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese – This was a delicious macaroni and cheese dish with peppered bacon and garlic. My only complaint was there seemed to be a bit too many bacon bits, making the dish a little too salty.

Gyro-inspired Flatbread with Impossible Ground Beef – I found this gyro-inspired sandwich with ground Impossible beef, chipotle hummus, tzatziki and spiced crispy chickpeas spicy and surprisingly delicious. I believe many vegans and vegetarians may have found it a welcoming addition to the festival.

Honey-Orange-Glazed Verlasso Salmon Salad – This was the only dish at the festival that I did not care for. I had no problems with the salad, the vinaigrette or the pickled chopped black olives and peppers that topped the salad. I did not even mind that the salmon was served cold. However, I thought the latter lacked flavor and could have been marinated before being cooked.

Snickers Caramel-Peanut Milk Chocolate Mickey Macaron – This macaron was probably the largest I have ever eaten. It was also very rich, very sweet and very delicious. Many YouTube influencers claimed that it actually tasted like a Snickers Bar. I cannot say that I would agree. But I did enjoy it very much.

Glazed BBQ Pork Belly – I will say this about the Disneyland Resort. Its cooks seemed to be better at preparing pork belly than their counterparts in Central Florida. I thought the pork belly was cooked perfectly – not undercooked or overcooked. The BBQ sauce proved to be a great addition to the dish. However, the macaroni salad that accompanied it struck me as incredibly bland. I barely touched it.

Aji de Gallina – This Peruvian dish consisted of stewed chicken with spicy yellow chile , along with jasmine rice and olive tapenade. And it was delicious. I honestly believed this would be something of a miss, but I have always been a chicken and rice fan. Although a bit salty at first bite, this dish proved to be my second favorite at the festival.

Black & Tan Beef Potato Puffs – This is it, ladies and gentlemen! This beef and potatoes dish proved to be my favorite dish at the festival. The dish consisted of pot roast with chives, lager micro sponge and tater tots, topped with a Karl Strauss Wreck Alley stout gravy. O-M-G! The flavor of this dish took my breath away. What can I say? Two thumbs up!

Have any of you visited Disney’s California Adventure theme park and experienced its Food & Wine Festival recently? If so, what were your favorite dishes?

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: A Touch of Disney Food Festival 2021

Back in late March 2021, my family and I had enjoyed a day at the Disneyland Resort, where we attended the A Touch of Disney Food Festival at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park. Below is a selection (in alphabetical order) of the food and drinks I had enjoyed at the festival:

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: A TOUCH OF DISNEY FOOD FESTIVAL 2021

Chicken Gumbo – This is a Louisiana-style stew with chicken, Tasso ham, Andouille sausage, and vegetables. Louisiana natives might find this delicious stew a little more acceptable, but I found it a bit too salty for my tastes.

Grilled Beef Tenderloin Slider – A sandwich sample with grilled beef tenderloin, picked onions and chimichurri. The beef proved to be very tender, but lacked any flavor. Unfortunately for me, the pickled onions and chimichurri was not enough.

Impossible Cheeseburger Mac ‘n Cheese – This dish proved to be a very pleasant surprise for me, considering I usually dislike the mixture of macaroni and cheese with any form of meat, aside from seafood. The macaroni and cheese proved to be solid, but the addition of the Impossible ground meat and special burger sauce really made it enjoyable for me.

Strawberry-Rose Lemonade – Although I found this drink delicious, I also thought it was a bit too sweet. The addition of rose petals sprinkled on top was . . . interesting.

One-Half Monte Cristo Sandwich – This popular dish is a sandwich that consists of sliced turkey, ham and swiss, deep fried in a light batter, dusted with powdered sugar and served with berry purée. It is one of favorite Disney Park food selections of all time. Although it is usually served in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, it originated in California.

Pork Belly Banh Mi – This variation of the Vietnamese sandwich consists of marinated and grilled pork belly, pickled daikon, carrots, sliced cucumber, jalapeño, cilantro and seasoned mayonnaise and served in a French baguette. Considering my last encounter with pork belly at a Disney park (Walt Disney World’s EPCOT), I had doubts I would enjoy this. The sandwich, thanks to the well-seasoned pork belly, proved to be one of my favorite selections at the festival.

Sweet-and-Spicy Chicken Wings – I really enjoyed this selection of deep fried chicken wings (no batter) with a honey glaze and black sesame seeds spread over them. The dish is served with Togarashi aïoli on the side, but I found the latter bland and unnecessary. The honey glaze provided enough flavor for the chicken.

Walt’s Chili – I have always been a fan of the Disneyland Chili, but I did not expect to enjoy this variation with cheese, sour cream, green onions and beef chunks, instead of ground beef. A tad salty, but very enjoyable.

Watermelon Agua Fresca – This drink was surprisingly not that sweet. And yet . . . I really enjoyed. Despite the fact that my family and I had attended the festival on a cool day with overcast skies, this drink with watermelon juice and touches of lime proved to be very refreshing and enjoyable.

Did anyone else attend?