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: 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?

EPCOT Food & Wine Festival 2019

Recently, I had enjoyed a vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort. During my stay, I discovered that the resort’s annual Food & Wine Festival was being held at the EPCOT theme park. Below is a sample of the food I had enjoyed at the festival:

EPCOT FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL 2019

Twinings Pumpkin Spice Chai and Chocolate Shake – This was a damn good drink. It was refreshing and delicious.

Crème Brûlée – I do not know what to say about this famous French dessert. I realize that it is highly regarded by many. But if I must be honest, I found it overrated. The hardened caramelized sugar layer on top added much needed flavor to the dish’s bland custard. What else can I say?

Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans and Tomato – I liked this dish from the Brazil booth, but I did not love it. My problem was that the black beans seemed to overwhelm the pork belly. Come to think of it, I thought it nearly overwhelmed the tomato topping.

Kāalua Pork Slider with Sweet-and-Sour DOLE Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise – Oh . . . my . . . God! This was my favorite selection at the festival. It was soooo damn good. The mixture of roast pork, pineapple and spice was . . . what can I say? It was nirvana inside my mouth.

Traditional Sicilian Cannoli – This dessert from the Italy booth was excellent as always. In fact, I later bought a regular size cannoli at one of the coffee booths at the Italy Pavillion.

New England Lobster Roll – This traditional American sandwich was excellent. The lobster meat was fresh. And it wasn’t overwhelmed by the mayonnaise.

Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce – This dessert from the Germany Pavillion was probably my favorite one at the festival. It was delicious and the vanilla sauce blended well with it. More importantly, I was provided with a nicely sized portion of it. Excellent!

Piri Piri Skewered Shrimp with Citrus-Scented Couscous – I suspect that the seasoning for this dish (piri piri) originated from Mozambique. Nevertheless, this was probably my second favorite dish at the festival. The mixture of the grilled shrimp with the couscous and the tomato-based topping was superb.

Teriyaki Chicken Bun – This dish from the Japan booth was not only delicious, but also surprising since the filling made from chicken, vegetables and Teriyaki sauce was cooked inside a bao – a bread I usually associate with China. Nevertheless, it was damn good.

Nigerian Meat Pie – This was a delicious selection for me, but it did not exactly knock my socks off. I did not realize that curry was popular in Nigeria. Ignorant me.

The Impossible Burger – I am not usually a big fan of the plant-based meat substitute, but this Impossible burger nearly knocked my socks off. It was better than the beef burger served at another booth.

Chicken Dumplings with Chinese Slaw – This was a nice little item that I found tasty, but not exactly mind blowing. I do wish the serving could have been a little bigger.

Spice-Crusted Verlasso Salmon – This excellent smoke salmon was fresh and full of flavor. And I say thank goodness, because the quinoa salad that accompanied it taste like horsefeed to me. But the latter is quite tolerable if you mix this excellent salmon and the avocado topping with it.

Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions, and Beer-Cheese Fondue – I would say that this was my third favorite dish at the festival. It was sooo good and a nice hefty portion was provided. The mixture of the smoked meat, potatoes and fondue nearly blew my mind. However, I wish they had left out the cheese curds. Unnecessary.

Pacifico True Striped Bass Tostada with Slaw and Fire-roasted Tomatillo Sauce – The festival provided another dish featuring fresh seafood – this time, striped bass. I had my doubts about it being served with slaw and on a deep fried tostada, but I ended up enjoying it very much.

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I do have one minor complaint about the festival. I realize it was the “Food & Wine Festival”, but I wish that it had provided more unusual drinks that were NOT alcoholic . . . like that shake I had experienced. Have any of you been there lately?