What to Look Forward to at 2016 Food and Wine Festival

Posted by Sep 12, 2016 Disney Dining, Disney Tips, Rides and Attractions , , , , , , , , , , , 16 Comments
What to Look Forward to at 2016 Food and Wine Festival

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! No, I’m not talking about Christmas. I’m talking about the Epcot Food and Wine Festival at Disney World. Leave the kids at home. This is when the adults get to have their own magical experiences. It’s time to eat and drink around the world! Disney announced this week the offerings for this year’s festival, and I’m stoked already. So what am I most looking forward to? Let’s break it down.

1. Pineapple Dole Whip Soft-Serve Ice Cream with Bacardi Coconut Rum

My all-time favorite snack at Disney World is the Dole Whip. Now they’re adding a coconut rum topper? I think this is what dreams are made of. Look for it at the Refreshment Port. Take a right when you enter World Showcase from Future World, and it will be one of the first kiosks on the right.

2. Twinings® Pumpkin Chai Tea Frozen Cocktail with Caramel Vodka

One of the great things about the Epcot Food and Wine Festival is that they bring in extra countries with kiosks around World Showcase that they don’t usually have around the rest of the year, such as Ireland. Why a chai drink is at the Ireland kiosk instead of at an India kiosk, I may never know. What I do know is that chai tea is my go-to drink at coffee shops unless it’s fall, in which case I’m as basic of a girl as it gets because I love my pumpkin spice lattes. Putting those two together just might make my tastebuds explode. But then they also want to add caramel vodka? It’s like they tailored this drink just for me.

3. Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle with Warm Whiskey Caramel

New to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival this year is the Chocolate Studio. If there’s one thing I love almost as much as Disney (other than my husband and family of course), it’s chocolate. I could totally relate in Frozen when Princess Anna sang, “I want to stuff some chocolate in my face!” This liquid nitro chocolate-almond truffle sounds like it will just melt in your mouth. AND it has warm whiskey caramel? Shut up and take my money!

4. Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese

Also new this year is the Wine & Dine Studio. The Artist Palette of Wine and Cheese includes a trio of cheeses (La Bonne Vie goat cheese served with toasted Craisin bread, Karst cave-aged cheddar cheese served with fig compote, and Statesboro blue cheese served with spiced candied walnuts), each paired with a wine (Conundrum White Blend 25th Anniversary, Kurt Russell’s GoGi “Goldie” Chardonnay and Robert Mondavi Maestro Red Blend). Is there anything in life that goes better than wine and cheese? Well, maybe magic and Disney. But really, this is a way to get all four at once.

5. Grilled Beef Skewer with Romaine, Apricots and Feta Cheese

Disney is more than just theme parks and movies. In fact, you might be shocked to find out what’s included in the vast Disney empire. One of the many things that Disney owns is the television channel ABC, which of course includes the TV show The Chew. And what promotes better synergy than exploiting the fact they own both a cooking show and a food-themed event than having a The Chew kiosk at the 2016 Epcot Food and Wine Festival? However, this grilled beef skewer with romaine, apricots and feta will likely make me forget that I’m giving into “the man” (or I guess in this case, it would be giving into “the mouse”).

What are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!

Food and Wine Fest

Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village

Posted by Sep 5, 2016 Disney Dining, Disney Resort, Disney Tips , , , , , , , , 20 Comments
Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village

While I’ve stayed at both Animal Kingdom Lodge (Jambo House) and Animal Kingdom Kidani Village, I had only eaten at Boma in Jambo House. However, my aunt (who lives in Celebration and goes regularly) really recommended going to Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village for lunch. She obviously knew what she was talking about because it was an incredible experience. If you like spice (like spices, not like hot), you will love Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village.

Sanaa Animal Kingdom Lodge

We started with their famous bread service. It comes with five different types of naan bread and around 10 different sauces, which you can try on the different breads. We enjoyed mixing and matching the accompaniments to get different flavors. I’m a huge fan of heat, so I really liked the hotter flavors like the jalapeño-lime sauce. But the mango chutney was among my favorites as well. The bread service alone is enough to fill you up! Plus, it is so yummy!


Sanaa has a view of many animals, including giraffes, zebras, oxen and an array of exotic birds. One of these birds (an African crowned crane) decided to hop the fence and come over to say hello. This was definitely the closest I’ve come to any of Disney’s Animal Kingdom animals! And a snake slithered right by our table too, which freaked me out a little bit. The servers were really knowledgeable about all of the animals, which I thought was awesome.

Sanaa dessert trio

For our main course, we had butter chicken and basmati rice. The flavors and spices in the butter chicken were amazing, and I highly recommend it. We finished off the meal with a trio of desserts so we could try a little bit of everything. We had Afrika povu, which was like a chocolate mousse filled with rum caramel, a lemon lychee tart with a marshmallow topper, and strawberry sorbet. Everything was super yummy, but the lemon lychee tart was probably my favorite. We didn’t try the bread pudding this time, but my aunt says that the bread pudding is delicious as well. I guess that just gives me another excuse to go back!