Ready for a rant? Grab that bagel and your non-fat soybean watercress latte and read on!
So, I went to the Food and Wine Festival rather unexpectedly yesterday after I was informed I was being dragged to a 'vodka tasting' event at DCA. So, we showed up... and I had no idea what to expect... just that it cost me $16. We showed up, and were sat at a mish mash of tables out on one of the patios at the winery restaurant, where a guy spent 25~30 minutes telling us about his small start up company in San Diego and we got to taste 3 flavored vodkas he distilled at home. The samples were (no joke) 1/4 of a shot glass each (not even adding up to one full shot for the entire tasting). They were flavored (cucumber, scorpion pepper, and coffee) and were very sub par when it comes to vodka quality (no where near smooth at all), and while the flavors were bold, they were poorly controlled (the scorpion pepper was beyond spicy and destroyed your palette, the cucumber was 'raw' and missing other characteristics subtle to good cucumber flavor). After 30 minutes of him just talking about some things and his flavors of vodka, and asking if there was anything else he should talk about, it was over, and that was that.
What a joke, what a rip off, what a shallow attempt (barely an attempt) at a beverage 'seminar'. Disney is not even courting A-list, nor B-list, but C-list people for these things? Some (less than a shot) crappy vodka from San Diego and some commentary from a guy that didn't cover anything technical beyond defining 'distill', anything about the spirits beyond what they are at face value, nothing about the history of his company, nor about the industry itself... it was like a bad 20 minute infomercial being hosted by a guy who is selling homebrewed booze out of his personal vehicle.
After this, we explored some of the food offerings at the booths. We decided on some things and branched off into different lines to grab 4 things. We tried the pork belly taco, the chicken mac and cheese, the artichoke chips, and the salted toffee chocolate desert. Everything ranged from $4-$7 I believe. We amassed at a table eventually and had our forks in hand. Good GOD was every single thing ridiculously SMALL! What a joke! The artichoke chips and the chocolate thing were the worst offenders, stupidly small... the dessert in particular was the size of two bites. Now then, I'm ok with small dainty food, and have had it a lot before, and it's can be great because the flavors are amazing... and make you realize that 'oh yeah, this is pretty tasty and I'm glad I got it'. NOTHING here was amazing, nor beyond 'not bad'. The mac and cheese, bland, rubbery, salty. The artichoke hearts, greasy, flavorless, idiotically small chunks that aren't big enough to provide actual artichoke flavor along with 'no one cared about making this' aoli. The pork 'taco' was 'good' but bland, the slaw on top served no purpose and had zero flavor, the pork was at least fatty pork that is always good. The desert was stupidly small, flavorless, using crappy 'toffee' and was hard as a rock. What crap... what overpriced, stupidly small, crap. Sure, I didn't pair anything with wine, but I didn't see the point after this to continue.
What this made me think about (and I bet everyone is doing it) was how it compared to my time at the Boysenberry Festival at Knotts. There, I spent less money for more food, and the food had better flavor and while perhaps not as 'fancy' as what the food and wine festival promotes, it was GOOD hearty food. At Knotts, I could get a pile of tasty boysenberry chicken wings, some ribs, some fried gator bits with good sauce etc., all for MUCH more bang for my buck... while here at DCA, I was getting crappy 'wannabe' fancy tasting food that was subpar for way more money for what I was getting.
I seem to remember the food festival was GOOD last time I went years ago. What I went to yesterday seemed insulting... a cheap excuse for a food and wine festival... using low quality ingredients and products being sold as a premium. I simply will not look forward to this next year... and unless they change things and actually make things that are worth the money they're charging, I will avoid it. (The Boysenberry festival on the other hand, I've been recommending that to people and saying they should totally check it out next year.)
HOKAY, sorry about that long rant, but I was actually ed off by my experience yesterday. Perhaps I'm too much of a snob these days to appreciate a 'simple' offering from Disney... or I just expect too much...
How do other people feel? Am I growing beyond enjoying 'simple' Disney magic anymore? Or am I just a jerk?
So, I went to the Food and Wine Festival rather unexpectedly yesterday after I was informed I was being dragged to a 'vodka tasting' event at DCA. So, we showed up... and I had no idea what to expect... just that it cost me $16. We showed up, and were sat at a mish mash of tables out on one of the patios at the winery restaurant, where a guy spent 25~30 minutes telling us about his small start up company in San Diego and we got to taste 3 flavored vodkas he distilled at home. The samples were (no joke) 1/4 of a shot glass each (not even adding up to one full shot for the entire tasting). They were flavored (cucumber, scorpion pepper, and coffee) and were very sub par when it comes to vodka quality (no where near smooth at all), and while the flavors were bold, they were poorly controlled (the scorpion pepper was beyond spicy and destroyed your palette, the cucumber was 'raw' and missing other characteristics subtle to good cucumber flavor). After 30 minutes of him just talking about some things and his flavors of vodka, and asking if there was anything else he should talk about, it was over, and that was that.
What a joke, what a rip off, what a shallow attempt (barely an attempt) at a beverage 'seminar'. Disney is not even courting A-list, nor B-list, but C-list people for these things? Some (less than a shot) crappy vodka from San Diego and some commentary from a guy that didn't cover anything technical beyond defining 'distill', anything about the spirits beyond what they are at face value, nothing about the history of his company, nor about the industry itself... it was like a bad 20 minute infomercial being hosted by a guy who is selling homebrewed booze out of his personal vehicle.
After this, we explored some of the food offerings at the booths. We decided on some things and branched off into different lines to grab 4 things. We tried the pork belly taco, the chicken mac and cheese, the artichoke chips, and the salted toffee chocolate desert. Everything ranged from $4-$7 I believe. We amassed at a table eventually and had our forks in hand. Good GOD was every single thing ridiculously SMALL! What a joke! The artichoke chips and the chocolate thing were the worst offenders, stupidly small... the dessert in particular was the size of two bites. Now then, I'm ok with small dainty food, and have had it a lot before, and it's can be great because the flavors are amazing... and make you realize that 'oh yeah, this is pretty tasty and I'm glad I got it'. NOTHING here was amazing, nor beyond 'not bad'. The mac and cheese, bland, rubbery, salty. The artichoke hearts, greasy, flavorless, idiotically small chunks that aren't big enough to provide actual artichoke flavor along with 'no one cared about making this' aoli. The pork 'taco' was 'good' but bland, the slaw on top served no purpose and had zero flavor, the pork was at least fatty pork that is always good. The desert was stupidly small, flavorless, using crappy 'toffee' and was hard as a rock. What crap... what overpriced, stupidly small, crap. Sure, I didn't pair anything with wine, but I didn't see the point after this to continue.
What this made me think about (and I bet everyone is doing it) was how it compared to my time at the Boysenberry Festival at Knotts. There, I spent less money for more food, and the food had better flavor and while perhaps not as 'fancy' as what the food and wine festival promotes, it was GOOD hearty food. At Knotts, I could get a pile of tasty boysenberry chicken wings, some ribs, some fried gator bits with good sauce etc., all for MUCH more bang for my buck... while here at DCA, I was getting crappy 'wannabe' fancy tasting food that was subpar for way more money for what I was getting.
I seem to remember the food festival was GOOD last time I went years ago. What I went to yesterday seemed insulting... a cheap excuse for a food and wine festival... using low quality ingredients and products being sold as a premium. I simply will not look forward to this next year... and unless they change things and actually make things that are worth the money they're charging, I will avoid it. (The Boysenberry festival on the other hand, I've been recommending that to people and saying they should totally check it out next year.)
HOKAY, sorry about that long rant, but I was actually ed off by my experience yesterday. Perhaps I'm too much of a snob these days to appreciate a 'simple' offering from Disney... or I just expect too much...
How do other people feel? Am I growing beyond enjoying 'simple' Disney magic anymore? Or am I just a jerk?