I’m not a Foodie, but I LOVE Food – Epcot’s International Food and Wine Edition

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a foodie. I don’t have an exquisitely refined palette or a plethora of culinary knowledge, but I LOVE food! Food is comforting; I associate delicious meals with great memories.

When planning a Disney vacation one of the first things that crosses my mind is food. The restaurants, the snacks, and even more snacks, it all combines into great Disney memories.

For me, a fall trip to Disney is even more focused on food because it overlaps with the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. A chance to taste my way around the world. It has very quickly become one of my favorite times of the year to visit Disney.

This year’s festival is running for 75 days which started at the end of August and continues until November 13, 2017 (just over 3 weeks remaining). If you have the opportunity to visit Epcot before this festival ends, I recommend exploring the festival activities that are found throughout the park.

First off is the food. What I love about this festival, is that the servings are snack size portions; it allows me to enjoy numerous plates in the same night. I can try something new without committing to an entire entrée worth of food.

For years I’d make multiple visits to Poland’s kiosk for the potato pierogi. It was perfection! I would crave the pierogi throughout the year and patiently wait for the next Food and Wine Festival. Poland’s kiosk was part of the festival since 1996 yet did not return for 2017. When I realized that I wasn’t going to be enjoying my delicious pierogi I’ll be honest, I was worried that the festival may have lost some of its appeal. That being said, my worries were unfounded. Although Poland did not have a kiosk this year, I fell in love with several other dishes.

India Kiosk – Warm Indian bread with pickled garlic, mango salsa and coriander pesto dips.

Traditional Scottish lamb stew with neeps and tatties.

Belgian waffle with berry compote and whipped cream.

France Kiosk- Warm goat cheese pudding with spinach.

I also found a new favorite dessert! This is the dark chocolate raspberry torte with whipped cream and raspberry dust from the Chocolate Studio. It was a perfect balance between deliciously sweet but not overwhelming sweet.

A nice surprise for Annual Passholders is that 8 kiosks offer collectable buttons.

When ordering food simply show your Annual Passholder card to the Cast Member and he/she will give you a button (while supplies last).

The AP button kiosks are: Light Lab, Flavors From Fire, Coastal Eats, Active Eats, Earth Eats, the Chocolate Studio, the Cheese Studio and the Wine & Dine Studio.

There is also another Annual Passholder speciality button available in the Festival Center.

In addition to great food, I like the festival entertainment. Each year I look forward to when Disney releases their line up for the Eat to the Beat Concert Series and seeing which artists will be performing on the dates that I’m visiting.

Sometimes I’ll choose to sit and watch the whole concert or listen to the songs as I continue my trek around the world and onto the next kiosk.

For guests that want to dive deeper into culinary experiences, there are seminars, demonstrations and top chef discussion panels.

Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival appeals to me because it attracts both foodies and those of us that love to eat! With the number of kiosks growing each year, I’ve never achieved the entire world tour in 1 day. Rather, I prefer to savor the experience over 2 or 3 days, giving me the chance to relish each plate. For those that will be visiting over the next 3 weeks, I’d recommend trying a new kiosk and seeing what items on menu entice you. As for me, I’m already daydreaming about which kiosks I hope to see in 2018.

~Kelly