Runner Up: Brazil’s Crispy Pork Belly ($5.50) - The reason the Brazil line is so long is for the crispy pork belly. On top of a succulent piece of pork belly is a mix of fresh avocado, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. Underneath is black beans. It’s a great dish, but the only reason why I made it a runner up is because I have had better elsewhere.
10. Poland’s Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi ($5.50) – This was such a popular dish at prior Festivals that it’s served year round at Food Truck Park in Disney Springs. The Polish Kielbasa sausage has a lot of flavor and served with caramelized onions and sour cream. The potato pierogis (similar to a dumpling) were soft and the pure potato mix inside tastes fresh. I advise you to get this early in the day because they tend to skimp on the Kielbasa pieces (went from 7 to 2 pieces!).
9. Cheese Studio’s Trio of Artisan Cheeses ($5.00) – What list is complete without cheese? Left to right: there’s the Karst cave aged cheese served with honey, La Bonne Vie goat cheese with Craisin (dried cranberry) bread, and Rogue Creamery blue cheese with a berry-port compote. All are great cheeses alone, but the pairings really enhance the taste. My favorite was the Karst cheese. The same cheese trio is also served at the wine studio.
8. Australia’s Grilled Lamb Chop ($6.75) – One of my personal favorites that I just cannot miss when I’m at the Festival. The grilled lamb chop is served with mint pesto and potato crunchies (broken potato chips). When you put all three together, it’s just amazing. Generally the lamb chop is cooked medium rare to medium. The great thing is you can watch the chefs prepare the lamb chops right in front of you.
7. Patagonia’s Beef Empanada ($4.75) – Originally at the Argentina food booth a few years back, the empanada returns again this year at the booth that brings both Chilean and Argentinian style cooking, Patagonia. Inside is a moist beef mix that has spices and very little chopped onion and pepper. It’s a little bit spicy, but absolutely delicious. Last year’s seemed to have more fillers in the beef mix, but this year has more beef in a nice dough shell.
6. Farm Fresh’s Loaded Mac ‘N’ Cheese ($4.25) – Macaroni cheese with bacon is great. Macaroni and cheese with Nueske’s pepper bacon is even greater. According to Nueske’s website, the bacon is smoked for 24 hours on Applewood chips. Last year at the Farm Fresh, they had the pepper bacon hash with sweet corn, potato, hollandaise, and pickled jalepeno peppers for $4.00. For an additional $0.25, adding creamy macaroni and cheese is a major improvement. A must have dish if you’re a fan of either bacon or mac ‘n’ cheese.
5. France’s Croissant aux Escargot ($5.50) – Yes, escargot are snails, but they are very tasty and should at least be tried once. And this is absolutely the dish to try them. Escargot alone are a tad chewy and rather tasteless, but when you add garlic, oil, and parsley to the mix, they are scrumptious. That mix is put inside one of the flakiest, most buttery, toasted Croissants I ever tasted. Délicieux!
4. Hawaii’s Tuna Poke ($4.75) –The best fish dish at the Festival. The fresh raw tuna mix is spicy and served on top of seaweed salad. Nori strings (seaweed) garnishes on top to make it a truly eye appealing dish. It’s light and very refreshing. The seaweed salad is simply the best. Here’s to you Gabriel.
3. Mexico’s Chilaquiles de Pollo ($5.00) – I was really surprised about this new dish. From the title and description, it didn’t seem all that appealing especially compared to the already amazing shrimp tacos, but I had to try it. It’s seasoned chicken amidst corn chips, queso fresco (sweet crumbly Mexican cheese), sour cream, and cilantro. It’s like if you left your chicken nachos out to become soggy and then toasted it. I could have the Chilaquiles as a meal alone.
2. Hops and Barley’s Lobster Roll ($7.50) – A New England staple and a Festival favorite. The lobster roll is the tied with Canada’s Filet Mignon as being the most expensive food dish at all the outside food booths. It’s also filled with fresh lobstah! The roll, although on the smaller end, is freshly baked and soft to the bite. It has mayonnaise, celery, and chopped onion. Just full of flavor.
1. Chew Lab’s NY Strip ($6.25) – This dish tastes as impressive as it looks. The NY Strip is prepared sous-vide, meaning the steak is placed in air tight bags and boiled until it reaches the perfect temperature, to ensure even and juicy cooking. The steak will melt in your mouth. It comes with parsnip silk (the white potato like puree underneath), balsamic glaze, arugula foam on top. I believe it’s a dish worth keeping year round because it really stands out.
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