Food & Wine Festival 2010: Round Four

On the first counterclockwise excursion around the World Showcase Lagoon, Nichole, Daniel & I made our first stop in...

NEW ZEALAND
Seared Sea Scallop with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon Vinaigrette. Villa Maria Private Bin "Unoaked" Hawkes bay Chardonnay.

I had the sea scallop last year as well. It was perfectly seared & so tasty, especially against the crunch of the vegetable slaw. i wish I could recall more about the wine...but I can't.

It didn't take us long to decide on our next destination. The lure is just too great to bear to pass by the delicious smells coming from...

GREECE
Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki. Boutari Naoussa.

The chicken souvlaki was very tasty, but a little challenging to eat (especially when you are attempting to split it between three people). It was worth it though. The yogurt sauce added a nice dimension to the spices on the chicken. I don't seem to remember anything about this wine either--I actually had to text Daniel to figure out which one it even was!--which leads me to wonder if I even took a sip at all. I shouldn't have trouble remembering the *first* two wines of the day...

It was particularly warm on Sunday, so our next mission was to find Nichole a cool, refreshing beverage. We landed in...

FRANCE
Escargot Persillade en Brioche.

While Nichole sipped a Parisian Cosmo Slush, I shared some escargot with Daniel. It was just as much buttery, garlicky goodness as the last time...and *this* time I remembered to snap a photo!

After departing France, our next stop brought us home to...

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Heirloom Tomatoes with Oregon Blue Cheese, Red Onions and Basil. Sagelands Vineyard Riesling, Columbia Valley.

I have been anticipating this dish since I first laid eyes on this year's Food & Wine Fest menu. I waited for the one person who enjoys tomatoes & basil as much as I do. It was not easy. This salad was so.very.good. We discussed attempting to recreate this ourselves at a later date, but substituting thinly sliced shallot for the red onion & increasing the amount of basil. Really, though? You cannot go wrong where tomatoes & basil meet. The Riesling is as they all are for me: delicious. I surprised myself by immediately noticing that this one had a definite citrus flavor to it! I usually don't taste the subtle flavors of a wine that easily & I thought I was mistaken, but Daniel confirmed it. (The red wine in the photo was the Sagelands Vineyard Merlot, Four Corners, that he chose. I didn't actually order two wines. Heh.)

Determining that it was time for something sweet to wrap up our culinary travels, we made our way to...

GERMANY
Apfel Strudel featuring Wether's Original Karamell Sauce. Gunderloch Diva Spatlese Riesling.

There is just something so satisfying & comforting to me about apple strudel. Plain or with a sauce. Warm or room temperature. With raisins or without. This strudel had just a couple of raisins & was room temperature, but the best part were the *two* sauces. It sat in a wonderful pool of vanilla sauce & was topped with a super yummy caramel drizzle. (You'll have to forgive the photo. It was dark out & I was left with the sole option of having my dessert & wine held beneath a muted light while I tried to hold as still as possible, since I never bring a tripod into the parks with me.) The Riesling--mmmm, Riesling--was sweeter than the one I had with the heirloom tomato salad, and it had a definite apple undertone. More specifically, it distinctly reminded me of the mellowed flavor that my Gramp's apples had during the Winter, when he would bring a few up from the root cellar to slice & have with popcorn. It was the strangest thing for me to taste that so vividly. Each sip started out tasting "just like wine," and ended with the "tingly bite" that wines always have for me, but between those two was a burst of mellow apple, plain as day.

I still have a pretty decent list of dishes I want to try. I am sure we'll make at least one more round this coming weekend & then I will have one last chance the following weekend to squeeze in anything I've missed. I can't believe it's been almost six weeks already!