Tangierine Cafe at Epcot

I ate at Tangierine Cafe at Epcot in the Morocco Pavilion. It's been several years since I've been here, and the menu has changed. I remember lots of pitas filled with various items, specifically falafel. On today's visit, I learned that now they have kababs. I tried the Grilled Chermoula Chicken Kebab with Carrot-Chickpea Salad and Garlic Aïoli. Pretty tasty, but the portion was very small. Seemed like a Epcot festival size menu item rather than something in a restaurant. Would have preferred a falafel pita.
 

Tangierine Cafe at Epcot

I ended my day at Epcot with a visit to the Morocco Pavilion to get some dinner. There's the Restaurant Marrakesh at the back of the pavilion that I have yet to try, but not for this meal.

I got my food from the Tangierine Cafe. It's a fast food restaurant serving Moroccan food.

I ordered a Falafel Wrap, served with lentils and couscous. There it is being prepared behind the counter:


The couscous had some raisins mixed in and was nice and sweet. The lentils were a bit tart and were really tasty. I sat down to eat on the restaurant's patio just as the Illuminations fireworks show was starting. It was a pretty good view of Epcot exploding into a giant fireball...

Once I finished the lentils and couscous which both required forks, I ditched the plate and tray and walked closer to the lake with my falafel. Street vendors in major cities sell falafel for a reason. It's easy to eat on the go. The wrap was filled with the deep fried chickpea balls, lettuce, tomato, onions, and tzatziki.

As far as theme parks go, Epcot is pretty awesome when it comes to food. What other amusement park is there where you can have good Chinese noodle soup for lunch, get free soda, and then end the day by eating falafel while simultaneously watching fireworks?



(This post is listed at the Disney Blog Carnival)

Club Cool at Epcot

The words Disney and free generally don't mix, but at Epcot they do. At Club Cool in Future World, this Coca-Cola sponsored exhibit/gift ship gives free samples of Coke products from around the world.

They had soda from seven different countries on the day I visited. Some of it tasted better than any of the soda that is available here in the United States, while others I could do without.

My two favorites were the watermelon soda from China and Kinley from Israel.

Kinley tasted sort of like Sprite, only a lot more lemony and much less sweet.

I normally don't drink soda. At all. I'm perfectly happy with water, and my teeth and digestive system probably appreciate it. On my multiple trips through Club Cool during my day at Epcot to get the free beverages, I probably drank more soda than I've had in the past six months. I got my money's worth of free soda...

Lotus Blossom Cafe at Epcot

During a visit to Epcot, I had lunch at the Lotus Blossom Cafe in the park's China pavilion.

It was a fast food restaurant serving mostly Americanized versions of Chinese dishes such as sesame and orange chicken.

I ordered the one thing on the menu that I don't see in every Chinese restaurant I visit, that being Beef Noodle Soup. The menu described it as shredded beef, onion, and fresh vegetables over noodles in broth. I'm picky when it comes to beef, I don't like the taste of burgers and find steak disgusting, but beef in Chinese restaurants I normally don't mind. This soup was no exception and was really tasty. There was plenty of beef and noodles and lots of a leafy green vegetable (possibly malabar spinach?). The portion was huge and was reminiscent of Vietnamese pho or Japanese Udon soup. I don't know if this soup was more of an authentic Chinese dish than Orange Chicken, but it was really tasty regardless.

As I ate, I had a nice view of pavilion's recreation of the Temple of Heaven.

Just as I was finishing my meal, a Chinese Acrobatic troupe was starting their show...



(This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival)

Fish Tacos from Market Street Cafe in Celebration, FL

I ate Fish Tacos from the Market Street Cafe in Celebration, FL. Celebration was the planned community created by Disney and the Market Street Cafe is one of the original restaurants in the city. The restaurant has the whole classic diner look going on (as seen by the picture below), and they seem to try to have the appropriate food. I really don't know how appropriate tacos are for diner food, but they were still good.


My fish tacos were good. They consisted of fried cod, lettuce, and salsa wrapped in tortillas, and were served with an avocado tarter sauce and fries. My only complaint was that the French fries were kind of soggy, and didn't exactly seem freshly cooked. Otherwise, my Market Street Cafe Fish Tacos were tasty.


It also snowed in Celebration while I was there. They had soap machines that blew out bubbles that simulated snow on the lampposts downtown. Every hour, everyone would get completely covered with oily soap. It was fun...



Here's a video of the fake snow in Downtown Celebration followed by a house with Christmas lights synchronized to music from Epcot's Illuminations.


As for something else food related in Celebration, I took a picture of this large ginger bread house in a store window.


Of course, that little ginger bread house is nothing compared to some of Disney's larger ginger bread creations: