Food Porn: what you sick people come here for.

Most people when they think of theme parks think junk food and Orlando certainly has plenty, some of which I have previously covered. 

WDW is driven by an underlying principle of being a destination for anyone, and they also want to keep improving and keep pace as one of the world's most frequented tourist destination. ( with more than 47 million tourists going to Orlando each year they are valid competition against Paris).

Ohh - the decisions! Do I go to France and eat at the Paul Bocuse restaurant? Or do I go to Epcot and eat at the Paul Bocuse restaurant (Bistro de Paris)?

On this trip I went to WDW to eat and certainly did consume vast amounts of delicious comestibles representing most areas of the globe (allegedly). ( I say 'allegedly' because the travesty of the Disney version of a lamington leaves me wondering a bit about the other nations represented.).

"I'll have the meercat - not raw, a few chips, bit of broccoli"

Two major elements were in play:

1. I was on free dining at Disney (which, frankly, only sets up the temptation to pretend that I am taking Disney for a ride, by jamming as much as possible in my cake hole) and 
2. the Epcot Food and Wine Festival was underway for my entire stay.

With some strange belief that you, my sole reader from Poland, may be vaguely interested, I have photographed every dish, every drink and have chronicled the festival and my restaurant visits.It will take me several - numerous - posts to get it all out and through these coming posts I will lay out the culinary offerings awaiting you for your trip to the World.

So let's not waste any time and get started. Join me after the jump for my first dining report.




In my first days I stayed at Loew's Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Studios. After enjoying my Trad English Breakfast in Harry Potter Land I went for lunch at Emeril's Tchoup Chop

Can you tell it's Asian inspired?

Once I had been delivered my drink.....

which I can't remember and Emerils don't post a menu on line - it was something orange/passionfruit/pinappley.  Maybe their signature cocktail with Cointreau, passionfruit etc:

It was obviously a great start to food blogging to not take notes

... I checked out my surrounds.

Emeril is a celebrity chef in the USA ( I think he started in New Orleans) who has had scant coverage here in Australia. He has become a huge cross country marketing machine with a dozen restaurants, the TV shows, books, charitable foundation, branded food products, branded kitchen goods etc etc. So there was a bit of money to flash around on the fitout.

Huge, blown glass, flowery chandelier

E.C.U. (extreme close up)

The restuarant advertising shows this dramatic watercourse in the midde of the restuarant:

Drama! Opulence! Modernism!

But somehow in real life it wasn't so dramatic - esp. with a curtain drawn across the room, and the not so generous plastic water lillies

ummm .... not as impressive in real life

The Lunch menu has quite a lot of choices including sushi - tuna, california and vege rolls; Crunchy (i.e.. deeeep frrrry) shrimp on lettuce with "Chile" sauce (I wonder if that is different from chilli??); dumplings, spring rolls, miso soup, a bunch of salads - caesar, blue cheese wedge and the signature salad; as well as "sandwiches" (read: burgers) "crispy chicken" (there's that fryer again); mongolian bbq pulled (shredded) pork and angus BAM!

Angus BAM! burgers use only the angriest cows

You could also have a noodle bowl - seafood, chicken, beef etc

What I did was have a "bento box" - where I got a sampler from these things. So my Bento Box had :

• the signature salad - mixed asian greens, candied pecans, orange supremes and creamy soy dressing (top left)
• I eschewed the choice of a sushi roll  - thus the empty box top right
• Noodles with shrimp (yes soupy noodles in that bottom right box)

The noodles E.C.U.:

See that knife and fork I was given? I had to ask for chopsticks and a spoon to eat the noodles (clear bean). Americans and their cutlery etiquette is territory unknown to me.

The salad:

E.C.U. salad

OK the verdict!

All the ingredients were fresh and high quality - crunchy when they were meant to be etc. There is added sugar in the salad - which did add to the ymmyness - the dressing was sweet and the orange and candied pecans - well added sugar in my salad - YAY! Beautiful balance as to the amount of dressing - and it had been dressed fresh so the lettuce (sorry Asian Greens) were still crisp.

Same for the noodles - although I have my doubts about the prawns being "lemongrass". They were not fried, and I suppose once they are put in the broth they lose any other flavourings. The mix of veges was pretty good. Broth was pretty standard and fairly bland - if you are used to Sydney vietnamese noodles you would be missing the chilli and fish sauce.

This is safe, corporate, high quality tourist food. Admittedly I have not seen this type of menu and presentation at any Disney restaurant, so it comes across as unique. Drink + Bento Box + gratuity = $25 so not overly expensive for lunch. I would recommend this restaurant. The dinner menu is more fancy. but I felt like I had a partially healthy, fresh lunch.

Do I need a scoring system? What would I use? Umbrella's? Spoonfuls of Sugar? Bert's? perhaps a 'Mr Creasote' scale would be more appropriate? Let me know your ideas in the comments.

Photo credits: WDW and Emeril official sites, otherwise my own photos