Ghirardelli offers a glimpse at the chocolate making process in word and photo, but the real treats come for free (a Ghirardelli chocolate square) and at a price – the drinking chocolate. For $2.75, the drinking chocolate is well worth the sipping. Still not as good as Modern Dwellers in Alaska, which will always be my measuring stick, Ghirardelli offers a smooth drink that satisfies.
The Chase Disney Visa Lounge is exclusive to those who hold a Chase Disney Visa Card. The lounge has complimentary coffee, tea and soft drinks, but the real draw comes early in the morning when card holders are able to get preferred seating for the current musical guests and for Illuminations – Epcot’s fireworks spectacular.
Terra offers vegetarian items during the International Food and Wine Festival. The Trick’n Chick’n Curry with basmati rice makes the same mistake that a lot of vegetarian dishes make. It tries to be meatlike. Unfortunately, the true joy of vegetarian cuisine is not in the attempt to be meat but embracing the fact that it is vegetarian. Tofu touted as meat inevitably disappoints because the eater is expecting something that tofu cannot deliver. It isn’t that it was bad; it just wasn’t chicken.
The rice was perfect. I actually enjoyed eating it, and I don’t like rice. The red curry sauce did just enough to hold the rice together and give it a flavor boost.
Canada offers a chicken chipotle sausage with sweet corn polenta and “Minus 8” onion jam. This appetizer was a winner all around. The chicken had a good bite to it, and the onion jam was tasty. The biggest surprise was the polenta.
Another item that I generally don’t like to eat, the polenta was creamy and sweet. It was also piled on the plate. I was expecting something completely different and was happy with what I got.
Leave it to dessert to be the most satisfying part of the meal. At the Desserts and Champagne Marketplace, I opted for the dessert trio – yogurt panna cotta with orange cake, raspberries and pomegranate, lemon custard verrine with blueberry compote, and dark chocolate mousse with chili and salted caramel. Not only did this offer all three dessert items at the marketplace, it did so at a discount.
The yogurt panna cotta cake was moist, and the pomegranate seeds provided some mystery as I tried to figure out what the crunchy things were. The lemon custard verrine provided a smooth consistency with blueberry sweetness.
The real winner was the dark chocolate mousse. The salted caramel really overpowered the dish, but that wasn’t a detriment. The chili kicked in after the dessert was finished.