Sunday Snapshot: Food & Wine Fest

As you may {or may not} know, the past few months I’ve been living with my sister and her family. Not just anyone would open up their home and life for several months, and after six years of living very far away from family, it’s been a rare privilege to live under the same roof. It’s been nice to get to know my niece and nephew quite well, and to realize perhaps I can wait a few more years to have kids.

Pretty soon I’ll be packing up my car for another cross-country drive to my new home in Washington, so Mike, Elizabeth and I decided to have one last hurrah sans kids this weekend. We headed to the adult version of the happiest place on earth, also known as the food and wine festival at Epcot.

Every fall, Disney sets up food booths from all the different countries with the culinary delights each is known for, served up in delightfully small portions.

Elizabeth and Mike have been to the festival before, and know exactly how to tackle the overwhelming feast for the senses.

As soon as the booths open, you start off with round one: the main course loop…as in paying a visit to every single country to get at least one dish that intrigues you, and perhaps a drink as well. The three of us, in order to make it through the marathon of food, would usually share one dish from each country.

We paraded around with fork and spoon at the ready. Mike had chosen the perfect shirt for the outing.

In Japan, Mike wanted me to try some Sake. Which I found not nearly as offensive as I expected.

So then Mike and I persuaded my sister, who abhors the taste of alcohol, to take a sip.

There were many theatrics leading up to the sip.

And a hilarious reaction…

…well worth the two dollar bribe.

We journeyed on via our stomachs to Poland.

And then arrived in China.

Where I failed to take a picture of the food, but did manage to talk to one of the servers in Chinese who was from my province–an interaction that was way more exciting than the dumplings (they just couldn’t live up to the real deal).

After eating ourselves to the point of immobility, we headed to a seminar on how to throw a wine party led by an HGTV host.

Bellies comfortably settled, we then headed out for a few rides before round two of all the countries: dessert.

During which we managed to do a repeat of the main course. Belgium waffles totally work as a main course and a dessert.

After round two we returned to a few favorites (Argentina’s beef skewers!) and took in a few rides while dodging rain showers (which couldn’t possibly dampen our spirits). All in all it was a fabulous day of food, laughter, and simply enjoying life together. Here’s hoping the outing becomes a yearly tradition! So sad to be moving quite far from these two very soon.