International Food & Wine Festival

I have had my mind on purchasing a new camera for the past few months. I am not really any good when it comes to electronics, so I knew I would never be able to pick one out all by myself. I found being in Disney with my dad to be the best time to have him help me pick a camera!! Fortunately, he was just as (if not more) excited about the purchase as I was, and he was such a great help. A great help in the form of asking all of the right questions to the salesman, giving me the confidence I needed to make the purchase, and spending time reading through the instructions manual to set me up. As good as I am with electronics is as good as I am with instruction manuals so this was a big help!! My first "outing" with my new camera came when we went to Epcot to enjoy their 15th annual International Food & Wine Festival. The pictures aren't that great because I really had no clue what I was doing, but the food and memories are out of this world. These pictures are all over the place, but for recaps sake, here we go:

The International Food & Wine Festival hosts food carts from 25 countries all over the world. Each cart has between 3-7 tapas plates, some including alcoholic beverages, with each plate priced between $2-$8.

We made our way through each country of Epcot's World Showcase, peeking at each cart before we made our decision on which plates to eat. A few of the countries represented were Australia, Belgium, South Korea, Singapore, Argentina, Chile, Poland, South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Spain on top of the 11 countries represented in the World Showcase such as the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Morocco, Japan, China, Mexico and the United States (where we didn't pass up the opportunity for a Sam Adams Seasonal).

If you know me, you know how much I appreciate Disney's perfection. I swear, they think of everything. The International Food & Wine Festival was no different. Since guests would be stopping at several carts making small purchases, it could be silly to make change for cash at each cart, or better yet, to make several small charges on your credit card. (My parents found this out the hard way last year). This year, we purchased a wrist band with a small key card on it. We put a certain number of dollars on the card, and could just swipe the card at each cart. This also "forced" us to eat until our money was gone.

We couldn't pass up a glass of wine in France! We also had braised beef ribs here too which were awesome! Since my dad and I are two peas in a pod and get a kick out of the simple things, I insisted my dad keep the receipt from each country. This would be a great way for us to look back and track each item we bought/ate. Believe me, the receipts piled up.

There was live entertainment at several of the World Showcase countries which made for a nice pit stop in between tapas or beverages.

There was shopping to be had! In Germany, there was an entire room of a shop dedicated to Werther's Original.

And of course, each country was decorated for Christmas!!

We couldn't resist acknowledging E's city of choice for her short residency in Germany!!

Donald Duck dressed in his Mexican attire!

We enjoyed a Beatles cover band while roaming the streets of the UK.

The talent of kids (were they kids or just small adults?) from China (seriously, how does she do this??)

We ended the night with an AWESOME concert by the Big Bad Voo Doo Daddies who had everyone dancing and on their feet! Fireworks concluded the event, and I think we had to be wheeled home (after we had pastries in France).

Other artists who performed on earlier dates included Kool & the Gang, Sugar Ray, Taylor Hicks, Sister Hazel, Billy Ocean, Boyz II Men, Jon Secada, Hanson & Rick Springfield.

Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival also hosts several wine tours, history of beer classes, culinary demonstrations, samplings and book signings.

Talk about an awesome event!! I can't wait to do it again!