In 2021, it was by pure coincidence that the week we were going to Disney World happened to also have this International Flower and Garden festival. There are a myriad of flower and grass decorations of some of your favorite Disney characters displayed. It was our first time ever going to a destination with a lot of variety of little tastings scattered throughout. In different sections of the park, Disney has set up little booths that have different themed items, each ranging from $5 to $10. We didn’t drink much, but we’re going to share some of the cool foods we ate.
The first section we stopped by was the Epcot Farmers Feast which is located near the Canadian pavilion. There is a long hall that goes to an indoor exposition building.
Food
The duck confit came with carrot purée, roasted root vegetables, rainbowchard, and duck jus. This was actually prettty good, but not too much out of the ordinary. If you like carrot purée as much as me, you should expect it to be fairly sweet and delicious. The duck was cooked perfectly, but it’s not much different than any other duck confit I’ve had.
The fried green tomatoes came with blue crab-fennel salad, remoulade, and smoked paprika oil. I’m a big fan of tomatoes, so that’s why we went for this. The crab fennel salad had that crab flavor although I think they could’ve seasoned it a little more. I’m pretty sure they were trying to let the blue crab’s sweetness come out more naturally, but it ended up being subtly fishy. In the end though, the combination could have worked very well.
The house-made potato and cheddar biscuit came with salmon tartare. This was actually my favorite tasting as the potato and cheddar biscuit is just a match meant to be. The salmon tartare, being very fresh and airy, complimented very well to the saltiness of the cheddar.
The next section we went to was the Epcot Sunshine Griddle which is in the Future World East. It’s relatively close to where the Test Track attraction is.
The corned beef brisket hash came with house-made potato barrels, onions, peppers, cheese curds, and a soft poached egg with Tabasco hollandaise. Potato barrels are basically tater tots. The soft poached egg was very raw, and I wonder if that was supposed to be that wet. When you blend everything together, it was pretty good, but I felt the ingredients sounded better on paper than how it actually tasted. I think having the poached egg being overly raw made it not as enjoyable.
The shrimp and grits came with blackened shrimp and cheddar cheese grits with brown gravy and sweet corn salsa. This was surprisingly much better than the corned beef brisket hash. The grits tasted like super finely mashed potatoes. The shrimp was cooked perfectly and had that nice blackened after taste. The salsa of corn and peppers added a nice mix of sweetness and kick to it. We really liked this.
After, we went to the Magnolia Terrace which is located in the American pavilion.
The cajun-style roasted oysters came in threes. There were a decent amount of cajun spices, butter, and the oyster was already disconnected from the shell. So everything was easy to eat in one slide. The oysters themselves tasted fresh, plump, and delectable. I don’t think there was anything special about this, so the pictures should say how it is.
We then ended up in Hanami, which is located in the Japanese pavilion section.
The shrimp and crab came with spicy mayonnaise and cucumber slices and was finished with a creamy avocado and violet sauce. I was expecting the crab and shrimp to be super sweet and delicious with the spicy mayonnaise. I didn’t really get any of that. It tasted like the innards of the California roll but with mayonnaise and cream as its most central profile. Understandably, they needed the mayonnaise to keep things together, but it also ended up being the primary flavor.
The frushi came with strawberry, pineapple, and cantaloupe wrapped in sweet rice and pink soy wrap. In pictures and on paper, this sounded much better than what it was. I was expecting the sweet rice to be very sweet and soft comparatively to Chinese rice dessert dishes (e.g. glutinous rice pudding with sweet red bean - “ba bao fan”). The rice actually tasted slightly on the dry and harder side, and the fruits pretty much tasted how they are. I think if they made the rice more glutinous, this would’ve added a layer and texture to make it more delectable.
In between Morocco and France, was the La Isla Fresca booth.
The tropical mousse cup came with layers of passion fruit cake, coconut mousse, and a tropical fruit glaze with fresh pineapple. This was actually very delicious and much better than I was expecting. It seems the craze now (at least for NYC) for desserts is passion fruit, and they did a good job here making it into a cake. It was neither overly sweet nor sour. The layers added a nice harmonious touch to it, and it would be absolutely wonderful if it was a legitimate dessert option in a restaurant.
And just walking around, we tried the different popcorns …
The maple popcorn was popcorn soaked in maple dressing. It was crispy, fresh, and hot. It was pretty good though on the sweeter side.
The butter popcorn was of course my preference. It’s very much akin to movie butter popcorn, but the butter was definitely more evenly distributed.
We then stopped by the Honey Bee-Stro in the Showcase Plaza.
The tupelo honey and sweet corn spoon bread came with jalapeños, bacon, and house-made whipped honey butter. This was really good as the corn bread was sweet, moist, and tasted like actual corn! The bacon was nicely crisp and didn’t taste stale. I think everything is kind of how you would expect from the ingredients alone, so not too much uniqueness to it.
The local wildeflower honey-mascarpone cheesecake came with orange blossom honey whipped cream, whipped honey, crystalized honey, honeycomb, dehydrated honey, and fennel pollen meringue kisses. This was actually our favorite in this booth. There are so many honey flavors all over. The cheesecake was delightful especially with the orange honey whipped cream. If you love honey, rest assured that it feels they added minimal sugar outside of the sweetness of the honeys.
Finally, we stopped by the Taste of Marrakesh which is located near the Moroccan pavilion.
The Moroccan seafood couscous came with shrimp, mussels, olives, preserved lemons, and anchovy breadcrumbs. The couscous was actually a little dry, but the seafood was pretty fresh. The combination of ingredients did remind me of a tomato based pasta sauce, so I wasn’t too ecstatic about it. My partner on the other hand enjoyed it a lot.
The shakshuka came with Moroccan baked eggs in a spiced eggplant and tomato stew. This dish seemed like it was prepared ahead of time, so the egg came overly done. Shakshuka when done fresh is something that is really delicious, so this was a slight disappointment. The egg in shakshuka places here in NYC are actually runny. However this one tasted pretty much like tomato sauce with a hard egg in it.
Final Verdict
There were some winners and losers at this festival, but it was really enjoyable to walk around and try different things. Since this is part of the Epcot admission, I think this is an incredible opportunity for those that not only love Disney/Epcot but also love tasting different foods.