Orlando Memories

Five years and one month ago (or thereabouts), we went to Orlando with the primary goals of seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and stuffing our faces at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. It was our first time at both, and although the days were long and busy and exhausting (tons of steps!), and A unfortunately got sick, we had a really good time.

Now that we've finally finished recapping the trip, here's a summary recap of everything we did and some reflections, since our memories of this trip have been spread out on this blog over the last five years.

We left in the morning from Newark, grabbing a breakfast of cinnamon pretzel sticks, chili, and a Jamba Juice smoothie for breakfast before our flight. (Oh, to be young(er) again.) The flight from NYC to Orlando wasn't long, only a few hours, and we got there in time for a late Chick-fil-A lunch. (Since we wrote that post two years ago, Chick-fil-A has opened a couple of stores here in NYC, so it's no longer so hard to find.) Then we were off to rent our car and check into our hotel and get settled in at Disney.

Most of the time when we've stayed on the Disney World premises, we've stayed on the Epcot side. That made sense this time especially since we were pretty much going to spend all of our time at the Food and Wine Festival, but we've always preferred staying there to not take buses. It's a short walk to Epcot, a short water taxi to Hollywood Studios, and then our preference was usually a walk through Epcot to the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom. No easy way to get to Animal Kingdom, but three out of four is pretty good. This time, it was tough to get a room because of the festival, and we ended up on the Vacation Club side of the Boardwalk. It was fine, and the location was good, but pretty expensive.

After checking in and relaxing a bit, it was time for dinner. We were really excited because we had made advance reservations for Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We love Boma, which if you're unfamiliar is a buffet of African dishes. We like it mostly because it's different, and we always end up trying some dish we've never had before. We're glad places like Boma exist, since in many parts of the country and world, it's not really that easy to try food from different regions in Africa. We're lucky here in NYC to have done some exploration, but even here, it's not that easy, and so much of the continent isn't covered, so there is so much we still haven't tried. Boma is a great way to push out of your comfort zone, and it's on our must list for Disney visits. It's even easier if you have a car since getting there by bus could take forever. (We've done it.)

We spent our first full day in Orlando at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal's Islands of Adventure. I love Harry Potter, so I had been wanting to set foot in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts for a long time. We were pretty excited about our lunch at the Three Broomsticks - fish and chips, Cornish pasties, pumpkin juice, and butterbeer. It was fun getting to try things that they always talked about in the books and the movies, even if the food/drinks weren't that exciting on their own. We also checked out the shops and went on all of the rides (although only A rode the Dragon Challenge).

We spent a lot of our Universal Day doing Harry Potter stuff, but we also visited the other "islands" (mostly Marvel Super Hero Island, Jurassic Park, and Seuss Landing), going on more rides and picking up a few snacks along the way (chicken fingers and ice cream). Universal's fun, although the price keeps climbing, and we can imagine that buying tickets for a family to both halves of the Universal theme park (which you'd now have to do if you wanted to see all the Harry Potter stuff, since the new half we haven't seen yet is in the other park) could be really cost-prohibitive these days. Our first day concluded at Downtown Disney/Disney Springs with a late dinner at Raglan Road, enjoying the music and food at the Irish pub.

For the next 2.5 days, we spent our time at Epcot, which is our favorite part of Disney World, eating at every single kiosk at the Food and Wine Festival, going on rides, visiting the pavilions of the World Showcase, and soaking up the hot Florida weather. Some of the kiosks and dishes from 2011 are still around in this year's festival, but others have since rotated out. The ones we visited were (in alphabetical order):

Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Brewer's Collection
Canada
Caribbean
Cheese
China
Craft Beer
Desserts and Champagne
Fife and Drum
France
Germany
Greece
Hawai'i
Hops and Barley
Ireland
Italy
Japan (parts 1 and 2)
Mexico
Morocco
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Scandinavia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea 

As we mentioned in our final post on the Food and Wine Festival, some of our favorite kiosks were Scandinavia, Hops and Barley, and New Zealand. There are also some more notes in the overview and some tips in the post about the 2012 festival. We tried every kiosk since it was our first time and we weren't sure when we would be back next. We probably could have had more self-control but we wanted to eat everything. It was a fun challenge trying to hit all the kiosks, and we succeeded!

After our short Orlando trip, it was time to go home, with one last meal at the airport before leaving Florida. We haven't been back to Florida since then, and we're not sure when we'll be back there next. Disney is always a fun place to go, but it's gotten really, really, really expensive. Hopefully someday we'll make it back and also back to the Food and Wine Festival.

Food and Wine Festival 2012

The annual International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot begins this weekend (September 28).  We won't be able to make it this year (sadly) but if anyone going to the 2012 Food and Wine Festival is looking for some info on last year's offerings, we're here to help!

First, our reviews of the kiosks. It looks like this year they have most of the same kiosks as last year (Brazil and Portugal are not returning and are being replaced by Florida and Terra which sound pretty good). Not all of the food offerings are the same, but some of our old favorites are back! Here are our reviews (of the food, not the drinks, unless the kiosk only had drinks), with some notes on this year's changes in menu, thanks to Disney's awesome site.

Argentina
(All the same offerings)

Australia
(All the same offerings except the lamb chop now has mint pesto and potato crunchies instead of potato-goat cheese salad. Kind of sad since our favorite part of the lamb chop last year was the salad.)

Belgium
(The waffle and chocolate are the same, but this year the mussels are in Hoegaarden beer broth, instead of roasted garlic cream, a change that sounds awesome to us.)

Brewer's Collection
(Very similar to last year's offerings except this year there is Schofferhofer Grapefruit, which I am intrigued by.)

Goodbye Brazil kiosk... until next time (when hopefully the feijoada doesn't come out like hot dogs and beans)

Canada
(There is filet mignon (which looks like it's from their Le Cellier restaurant) instead of salmon, but otherwise the famous cheese soup and sausage + polenta are back.)

Caribbean
(Same offerings except the ropa vieja has cilantro rice instead of white rice and the jerk chicken has mango chutney instead of mango salsa (just different in name?). Hopefully this improves the dishes.)

Cheese
(Same offerings but different artisan cheeses)

China
(Only the pork pot stickers remain from last year's menu. Not sure how chicken satay is Chinese, but mango tapioca pudding sounds quite good.)

Craft Beer
(Mostly similar offerings)

Lemon chiffon, white chocolate macadamia mousse, and tres leches verrine dessert trio from last year

Desserts & Champagne
(Completely different set of desserts - A is most intrigued by the dark chocolate mousse with chili and salted caramel, and I can't decide whether I would prefer the yogurt panna cotta with orange cake, raspberries, and pomegranate, or the lemon custard verrine with blueberry compote - but we would most likely end up getting the trio if they offered that again)

Fife & Drum
(We had frozen Red Stag lemonade; this year it's regular Red Stag lemonade and Red Stag honey tea lemonade. This year's offerings sound good, but I can tell you which of the 3 would be the best on a super-hot Florida day.)

France
(All the same offerings)

Germany
(A new menu - I think I would choose the roast bratwurst in pretzel roll (although it is similar to something from last year) and A would pick the schinken nudel since he doesn't know where else he could get it.)

Greece
(All the same offerings plus spanakopita. Love spanakopita.)

Greek feast at a lagoon-side table. Spanakopita would look quite nice joining those dishes.

Hawai'i
(All the same offerings)

Hops & Barley
(All the same offerings except the lobster claw cuddler is chilled with herb mayonnaise instead of warm with butter, and there is a Maine home style clam chowder.  I think I prefer last year's, but A would pick this year's.  We both would go for the clam chowder, for sure.)

Ireland
(All the same offerings except the cheese selection is slightly different and the fisherman's pie is lobster and seafood, and not just lobster and scallop.  So it's basically the same.)

Italy
(The ravioli and cannoli are repeats, but they switched out the shrimp pasta for salsiccia e papacelli napoletani. Italian sweet sausage sounds like a winning dish.)

Japan (parts 1 and 2)
(They've changed up the offerings here - they still have the CA roll, but the spicy tuna & salmon hand roll, karaage hand roll, and the sukiyaki beef pan are new additions. Sadly our favorite - the tuna and salmon sensation (like poke) - is not returning.)

New Zealand delicacies ... I could go for one of those sliders right now!

Mexico
(It looks like they renamed the beef taco and that there is natilla de cajeta instead of flan, but otherwise the same offerings.)

Morocco
(Same offerings except the Harissa chicken roll (which I did like) was swapped out for merguez sausage with grilled peppers and onions. That sounds delicious. Merguez is yummy.)

New Zealand
(Same offerings except lamb meatball instead of lamb slider - should be the same except sliders are easier to eat, and who doesn't love sliders?)

Poland
(The golabki that we liked is gone, but in its place is zapiekanki - a toasted mushroom, caramelized onion and cheese bread - which sounds amazing.)

Last year's Portugal kiosk which is not making an appearance this year

Scandinavia
(All the same delicious offerings)

Singapore
(The beef rendang is back, and we're not unhappy to see the bland Singapore noodles replaced with a seared mahi mahi.)

South Africa
(Instead of the confusing bunny chow, there is a spinach and paneer cheese pocket, which also confuses us because that sounds Indian.)

South Korea
(We both loved the bulgogi last year, but they substituted a mung bean pancake with shrimp and kimchi sauce this year.  That sounds pretty good too.)

The 2 new kiosks list culinary offerings that sound incredible and I'm sad we're going to miss them.  Florida has an arepa (and, as you know, we love arepas) and a shrimp ceviche, while Terra has vegetarian chicken curry and chili. Sounds interesting.

Hops and Barley had some of our favorite dishes - the lobster roll and the pumpkin mousse were fantastic.

After we got back from the festival, we made a list of our favorites. The big winners among the kiosks were Scandinavia, Hops and Barley and New Zealand, along with a few others.

Some final tips (without having to buy any special tickets or do any special planning):

- If you can, avoid going to the festival on Saturday unless you want to drink around the world like all the other Saturday festival-goers. Lines are long, the park is crowded, it smells like alcohol everywhere, and if you just want to try the food, you're going to be waiting a long time for small portions and have nowhere to eat them.

One of the emptier areas of the World Showcase on drink around the world Saturday - you can see in the back how packed the pathways are

In the center of the World Showcase on Sunday afternoon... the crowds are gone. Could never have taken this photo on Saturday.

- Put your money on the reloadable cards that you can buy throughout the festival.  It makes paying very easy and you can wear your "cash" on your wrist.

- Get the festival passport and get the stamps from each kiosk. It's a nice souvenir. (And if it's the same as last year - don't forget the final stamp like this one!)

- Be prepared for good food but don't expect the most amazing food ever. (None of the dishes made our 2011 favorites lists.) It's still a theme park, it's still a festival, and you're still in Florida instead of some other country (although this year there is the Florida kiosk).  A Greek salad or grilled Greek cheese isn't going to be as good as the food in Greece, but it's still a fun adventure.

- If you're going to eat around the world like we did, go to the park hungry, don't rush and try everything! (And hopefully you're there for more than one day...)

We can't wait to go back to the festival another year and hope there will be lots of great new kiosks!

2011 Festival Finale

This is our last post on the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival, which just concluded at Disney this weekend. We were there for a short three days but got to try so many dishes from around the world and had a great time.


To conclude, here's a list from each of us of our favorite 10 items from the festival. Similar to our year-end favorite foods lists, we made our choices independently and there may be some repetition. This is only based on taste, not cost-efficiency or plating. This sadly meant that A's list is impacted by his inability to taste some things while sick.

A's 10 favorite dishes (in no particular order)
1. Rice Pudding from Scandinavia
2. Lobster Roll from Hops and Barley
3. Pumpkin Mousse from Hops and Barley
4. Seared Scallop from New Zealand
5. Lamb Slider from New Zealand
6. Escargots from France
7. Cheddar Soup from Canada
8. Chicken Chipotle Sausage from Canada
9. Tuna Poke from Hawaii
10. Nurnberg Sausage from Germany

M's 10 favorite dishes (in no particular order)
1. Perfect Maine lobster roll from Hops and Barley
2. Pumpkin mousse from Hops and Barley
3. Tuna poke from Hawaii
4. Lamb slider from New Zealand
5. Escargots from France
6. Swedish meatballs from Scandinavia
7. Rice pudding from Scandinavia
8. Bulgogi from South Korea
9. Beef empanada from Argentina
10. Tuna and salmon sensation from Japan

Did you make it to the festival this year? If so, what was your favorite dish?

We don't know if we'll be back next year (too few vacation days each year) but we look forward to seeing the offerings!

Ultima Parada

The Portugal kiosk was our last stop at the festival. We didn't plan on making this our final kiosk, but it was a nice end to the festival.


The Portugal kiosk's menu had 2 savory snacks and 1 sweet snack.


Linguica sausage with onions, peppers and olives ($4):

Sausage plate, as served
Without the bread on top
Linguica, as the mobile site explains, is "a Portuguese pork sausage that's cured and seasoned with garlic and paprika."

M's take: The linguica sausage was really tasty. The peppers and onions it came with were a nice combination of sour and salty. When I have sausages and peppers, it's usually Italian-style so it was interesting to see the Portuguese take on a similar dish.

A's take: This was a tasty dish, but it reminded me of a modified sausage and peppers sandwich that I could get in any NYC street festival. Granted, I really like them so it wasn't a bad thing. It was nice that the onions and peppers were pickled and not grilled, and that was the main difference between this dish and a NYC street sausage. The sourness was a nice change. A very tasty dish overall.

Calamari salad with fennel, smoked paprika and olive oil ($2.75):


M's take: This salad was good, but too salty for my taste. I liked that the seafood was fresh and clean, and the peppers and onions were good, but there was just too much sodium.

A's take: This dish had a lot of potential. The seafood tasted very fresh and was well cooked. The peppers and onions were clean and added a nice crunch to the dish. The only problem was that they seemed to just dump an entire container of salt on to this dish. The saltiness nearly made this inedible.

Pastel de nata (egg custard in a puff pastry shell) ($3):


M's take: This was OK. I'm not a big fan of egg tarts or egg custards, so I gave most of this to A, if I remember correctly. It was very rich.

A's take: I like Chinese egg tarts. This one was okay, but the pastry shell was a little too hard/crunchy. By comparison, a Chinese egg tart is a flaky, buttery pastry shell. It was still tasty, though.

Favorite dishes at the Portugal kiosk:
A: Linguica sausage with peppers
M: Linguica sausage with peppers

Scallops and Sliders

New Zealand's kiosk was high on our list of places to try but it was always crowded. We didn't make it there until our penultimate stop and we really wish we had been able to go twice.


The menu for New Zealand sounded delicious!


First, seared sea scallop with kumara (sweet potato) and red curry puree and apple radish salad ($4.25):


M's take: I'm not usually a fan of mixing fruit into savory dishes, but I didn't mind the apple here. It added a crispness and freshness to an already excellent dish. I was a little disappointed that it was only a single scallop for the price we were paying, but the scallop was cooked perfectly. It was juicy and flavorful. The puree had a unique taste, and its smoothness was paired well with the crunchiness of the apples and radishes. This was very good.

A's take: Everything that I've ever read and seen on TV suggests that scallops are very difficult to cook. They often come out too raw or overcooked, and I was concerned about this dish because of it. This scallop came out perfectly. Buttery and tender and full of flavor. The sweet potato puree added to the natural sweetness of the scallop, but I don't recall much curry. The apples actually added a nice tartness to the dish and added a fresh flavor to the heavier sweet potato.

Second, lamb slider with tomato chutney ($5):


M's take: This was SO. GOOD. Again, a little pricey at $5 for a single slider, but it was very high quality and very good. The flavors of the slider and the chutney worked perfectly together and the first bite of this was amazing. I immediately wanted another slider!

A's take: One of the best things we ate all weekend. The lamb was a touch overcooked and dry, but it was so full of flavor and seasoning. The chutney added additional liquid to the slider, and it gave an extra texture while also giving a nice tomato/ketchup taste to the dish.

It's a shame we were only able to get to this kiosk the day we left as it was easily one that we would have revisited at least once more before we left.

Favorite dishes at New Zealand kiosk:
A: Lamb slider
M: Lamb slider

Cheese Overload

Next up was the cheese kiosk. Apparently in past festivals it had been a charcuterie and cheese kiosk, but this year it was just cheese. This was also the first time we had eaten fondue since one of our "versary" meals at Artisinal.


There were 2 dishes on the menu to try - fondue and a cheese sampler:


First up, the cheese fondue with sourdough bread ($3):


M's take: We don't go for fondue that often (so. much. cheese.) but dipping all sorts of foods into cheese is fun. We like dipping sausages, vegetables, bread, everything. Here, our options were limited as the only thing available for dipping was bread. And after we finished dipping the bread, there was still more fondue left. We didn't toss it though, and just ate it like it was cheese soup (except the Canadian cheese soup was better). The fondue here wasn't bad, but it was very, very rich. I'm not sure what type of cheese it was, but it was fine.

A's take: I really like cheese, and I think that's been documented before. The cheese itself tasted really good. It was a light-flavored cheese that paired well with the wine they selected to mix in. The bread was fine, but I missed the additional items to dip into the fondue. We ended up drinking the remainder of the cheese which, because of my sickness, probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Oh well.

Artisan cheese selection with Le Delice de Bourgogne Lincet, Thomasville Tomme Sweet Grass Dairy, Chevre Affine Wyngaard Kaas (a goat gouda) ($4.50):


M's take: I have already mentioned I am cheese-dumb. Even with descriptions, I couldn't tell these cheeses apart. The one on the left was a soft cheese with a fig. I think this one was fine. The middle one was a harder cheese with craisins, and I think I liked that. The one all the way on the right is concealed by the crackers, but I think it was soft and had a fruity glaze on it. I think I liked the one in the middle best, but my memory of this is sadly already a little hazy.

A's take: I'm going to be really honest, I don't remember a lot about these cheeses. What I do remember is that they were all pretty tasty, but they obviously weren't incredibly memorable.

Favorite dishes at cheese kiosk:
A: Fondue
M: Cheese assortment (according to my notes from the time)

Dessert Trio

We originally intended to visit the desserts and champagne kiosk at the end of the day. We never made it though, so we ended up visiting on the last day.


We saw 4 dishes listed on the menu and thought we would end up filling up all remaining stomach space with desserts from this kiosk. Luckily we spotted the dessert trio which included all 3 of the listed desserts. Easy choice! (Side note: The passport included the ice cream with Grand Marnier under food. But since the menu board included it under drink, we hadn't ordered it. We still consider ourselves to have completed all the food even without having this. A wouldn't have been able to eat it anyway because of the creaminess and alcohol.)


The dessert trio ($3.75):


The trio consisted of lemon chiffon, white chocolate macadamia mousse with dark chocolate pearls and tres leches verrine (a Spanish cake).

M's take: We tried each of the desserts in the order they came up on the menu. The lemon chiffon I remember was light and fluffy. The best part of the chocolate mousse was the dark chocolate pearls. They were really, really good and the dessert was full of great chocolate flavor. The tres leches was fine, but honestly, I don't really remember it anymore. The one thing I really remember from this kiosk was the dark chocolate pearls.

A's take: The lemon chiffon was light and refreshing. The chiffon was a nice and light cake, and the lemon sauce was both sweet and tart. The chocolate macadamia mousse was obviously heavier. I can't remember much about it. The dark chocolate pearls were really nice and reminded me of something we had gotten from Shake Shack before. The tres leches was also heavy. Sweet and caramel flavored, but overall nothing too amazing.

Favorite part of the dessert trio:
A: Lemon chiffon
M: Chocolate mousse

Craft Beers

The last of the drink-only stands was the craft beers kiosk. This place was mobbed during "drink around the world Saturday" and we didn't even try waiting for a beer. We needed to go on the last day to get the passport stamp but poor A was on antibiotics and couldn't drink any beer. Therefore, it was all up to me.


There were a lot of options for beer, but the one thing I knew was that I was going to get the smallest size.


I ended up (with A's recommendation) picking the Widmer Hefeweizen, which I've had before, and which I like (description below):


Forgot to take a photo of the actual beer, but it just looked like beer. It was refreshing in the heat, but I would have preferred using the stomach space on something else, like more poke from Hawaii. But we got our stamp!

The Other Half of Japan

When we visited the Japan kiosk on Sunday we went for the sushi, so this time we went for the 2 non-sushi items. It was great being able to eat and relax on the benches with a view of the lagoon and without crowds.

One of M's favorite festival photos
First, we tried the pork kakuni ($4.95):


According to the mobile site, this dish consists of braised pork slow-cooked for hours in Japanese sauces and seasonings.

M's take: I don't really eat a lot of pork, at least not giant pieces of pork. That said, the flavoring of the pork was pretty good, and it wasn't that chewy, so I had more than a bite. The mustard was nice and spicy. Generally, pretty good, but since I don't have that much experience (by choice) with this type of pork, I'm not really a great judge.

A's take: The pork was braised nicely. It was tender, but not fully fork tender. The soy sauce based braising liquid made the pork a little salty, but the spicy mustard tempered the saltiness and added a nice kick to the dish.

We also tried the tuna and salmon sensation ($5.95):


The tuna and salmon sensation reminded us a lot of the poke from the Hawaii kiosk. It consisted of "fresh, cubed Alaskan salmon and sushi-grade Ahi tuna, mixed with sliced avocado and tossed in a blend of soy sauce, sake, sesame oil and fresh-squeezed lemon juice."

M's take: Fresh, light and tasty! The fish tasted nice and clean, and didn't have that gloopy texture that sometimes plagues fish when it's not prepared well. The soy sauce mixture was good and the avocado slices were also soft and fresh. This was a good dish. If I had to choose between this and Hawaii's poke, I would pick the poke, but this comes in close behind it.

A's take: This was a tasty dish. I thought it was very similar to the poke even if the poke was a little better. The fish was fresh, and the flavors were good. Salt from the soy sauce was offset by the creaminess of the avocado.

It took us two days and two trips, but that's it for Japan's kiosk!

Favorite dishes at the Japan kiosk:
A: Tuna and salmon sensation
M: Tuna and salmon sensation

Gaufres, Moules et Chocolat

Last year, we visited Belgium for the first time, taking in the sights in Antwerp, Brugge and Brussels. It was a great trip and we hoped the Belgium kiosk would bring back great memories.


3 food items for which Belgium is well-known are waffles, mussels and chocolate. All 3 were on the kiosk's menu.


Steamed mussels with roasted garlic cream and a baguette ($3.75):


On our Belgian trip, we had gone to Chez Leon, a somewhat touristy but still tasty place in central Brussels, which had all you can eat mussels on the night we visited. Those mussels were delicious. We doubted that these could be as great as those, but hoped they would be good.

M's take: The mussels weren't bad. They were cooked correctly and weren't overdone or chewy, which was good. The garlic cream sauce wasn't bad, although I prefer mussels in a tomato-based or lighter sauce.

A's take: The mussels were great. Cooked perfectly and with very little grit. The garlic cream sauce wasn't as heavy as I thought it might be, and it tasted great. I liked the mussels I had in Brussels better, obviously, but for festival food, this was very well done.

Belgian waffle with berry compote and whipped cream ($3):


M's take: The waffle was pretty good, especially with the berry compote (I'm not a big fan of whipped cream). But I don't remember that much about it, which means it must not have been as good as some of the other wafels we've had, here or in Belgium.

A's take: Eh, we've had some really good Belgian wafels in our lives, and this one just didn't live up to those. The waffle was chewy as is the norm, but it didn't have the sweetness and sugar crunch that the better wafels have. The berry compote was good. Nice and tart to counterbalance what should have been the sweetness of the waffle. The whipped cream was whipped cream.

Guylian Belgian chocolate seashell truffles ($1.75):


M's take: The seashell truffles came in a sealed package. Not sure what I was expecting but a little sealed box wasn't it. The mobile site calls this "a tasty twist on a decadent dessert favorite" but I'm not really sure what decadent dessert they're referring to. The mobile site also says the truffles are "elegant, smooth and fruity, with a finish of bold spice and bitter orange." I thought they were really good with a complex chocolate flavor, but I didn't feel the need to go back for more.

A's take: I like chocolate, and these weren't bad. I didn't get the decadence they advertised, but I did get a hint of orange. The chocolate tasted good, but in the end it was just chocolate. We had Dumont chocolate in Brugges, and that was amazing.

Favorite dishes at the Belgium kiosk:
A: Mussels
M: Waffle (I may not remember it now, but I made my favorites list at the festival and picked this)

Sushi Snack

Our last stop on the second day was the Japan kiosk. We were getting pretty full by the end of the day but decided on one last snack.


Looking at the menu, we decided to get the sushi this time and then finish the menu the next day. We definitely didn't have enough stomach space for all 4 dishes.


First, the California sushi roll ($3.50):


Like most other California rolls, this consisted of crab, avocado and cucumber. We thought it was fine but nothing special. This was a very basic and not-exciting dish.

The other roll was the spicy tuna roll ($3.75):


We both agreed that this was the better option. The spicy tuna was flavorful and we wished we had more, but it wasn't really that spicy.

Generally, the prices of the sushi rolls don't seem that alarming by NYC standards, until you realize it's only for 3 roll pieces instead of the usual 6 (or 8). It was a little bit pricey at over $1 per piece, so we probably wouldn't get it again as it wasn't out-of-this-world extraordinary. It's sad when something is considered overpriced even by NYC pricing.

Japan's dishes to be continued the next day!