"What should we eat now?" - May 2015 - Food Report Day 1 - Travel Day

[yay-disney]

Hi, I'm Ash and we took a trip to Florida for two weeks in May - we stayed on property at Port Orleans French Quarter, and had the regular Disney Dining Plan. You may have seen a couple of our full trip reports in the trip reports section - but this will be a report solely focused on probably my favorite element of any holiday - the food that we ate. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the food along with the photos that we took of each dish so that hopefully you can spot something that you’d like to try! I’ll be doing the majority of the writing, with occasional input from Sarah when it’s a dish I didn't eat, so it will be a different style to our other reports - but hopefully you’ll find it useful/interesting!

Quick links:

Full Day Report



On our first day we started the day with a McDonalds breakfast from the Gatwick South Terminal. Sarah had a double sausage and egg mcmuffin, and I went with their newly released “Limited Edition” Sausage and Bacon sandwich.

Usually I would say that if you’re like me and can't stand eggs that you should probably just skip McDonalds for breakfast and head somewhere else, they've really focused on “egg + meat” as the theme for a lot of their breakfast items, so it was actually really nice to find something that could order as is, and didn't have to ask for them to take out half the ingredients.

Not much to say here really, it was a standard McDonald’s breakfast. Hot, cheap, and you know what you’re getting. I do still really wish they would add a double sausage and bacon McMuffin with no egg to the menu though.

The next food we had on our first day was the plane food, a couple of hours into our flight. We were flying Virgin Atlantic in Economy and could pick from what I thought was a pretty well rounded menu. The choices were the standard beef, chicken or pasta and we both went with the beef option. I usually prefer to go with the beef dish on planes due to the way plane food is prepared and handled.

For those that don’t know plane food is prepared in advance (usually approximately 10 hours before the flight) and partially cooked. Chicken is cooked about 60% of the way, and beef approximately 30% of the way. The food is then blast chilled to immediately halt cooking. The food is then transferred to the plane where the food is given a final 20 minutes in a convection oven (not a microwave as some people like to claim) to finish the cooking and bring it back up to temperature.

Unfortunately this process can be rough on proteins and starches especially, and I find that the result is that the chicken breast dries out very easily and pastas and noodles can get to be a little soggy. Often the beef dish on planes will be a form of casserole/stew or similar, a type of dish that can actually benefit from being cooked in advance, cooled, and then reheated. If you've ever had leftover beef stew the next day and thought it tasted better, it’s the same kind of thing.

On this flight the beef was a braised beef being served with carrots, cauliflower and a mustard mash. The vegetables were slightly overcooked, but still fine. The stew itself was excellent. I was honestly very surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The beef was soft and tender, practically falling apart and the sauce was rich and a flavorful accompaniment to everything else. The mustard mash was likewise really flavorful, but the mustard was slightly too strong and slightly overpowering for my taste, if you don’t like mustard it would have been tough to get through.

I chose to have red wine with my meal and the provided bottle was labelled as “Monastrell Palacio Merlot” which I've since looked up and appears to be from the Beaujolais region of France. This was a great match with the beef, and actually a perfectly enjoyable red wine in general.

Served alongside the main was a side salad with couscous and lettuce, a pack of Jacob’s crackers and boursin, a bread roll and a Gü Chocolate & Orange Ganache dessert.

I'm not a fan of boursin usually, and I think it suffers especially on planes for being very strong smelling and intense - which is not often what you want in the small close quarters of a plane cabin. I think going to a milder cheese like a cheddar or red leicester would be a really good idea.

The Gü Chocolate & Orange Ganache dessert was excellent, and I'm incredibly glad that Virgin have kept including products from the Gü range on their flights. This pot was a very rich intense chocolate ganache, but was small enough that I didn't find it too sickly - even though Sarah did.

Overall as plane food goes I was very happy with the main food offering from Virgin on our flight and I finished the meal quite satisfied. It was enough food to carry me through the rest of the flight until the evening, which is exactly what you need on a day like a travel day.

Later in the flight they also brought round a mini fab for each passenger, which was well timed as a mid afternoon snack and really quite a nice little novelty.

A short time after that they brought round the final food for the flight. A choice of two wraps, some crisps, a rocky road bar and a small pack of mints. The wraps were a little disappointing for me - as they both contained some form of mayonnaise, a condiment I really don’t get along with. In the end we both decided to skip the wraps and stick to the crisps. Tyrrell’s make excellent crisps, and it was again nice to see that Virgin are sticking with recognisable brands for most of the food items. The rocky road bar was coated in powdered sugar, making it difficult to eat - but provided a much needed energy boost and was overall pretty tasty. My favorite thing from this “round” of food was actually the mints, they were really nice with a slightly unique flavor - and certainly helped me feel a bit more refreshed after the long length of the flight.

Our evening meal for our travel day was at Wolfgang Puck Express at Downtown Disney. One of the best meals (both in value, and in taste) from the trip, it was really well worth the visit. The meal itself comes in at only a quick service credit if you’re using the dining plan, and for this you get a drink, entree and dessert. If you’re not using the plan the entrees range from about $10-$20 depending on what you get. You order your food at the counter, and then find a table where your food will be brought out to you when it’s ready. The beverage choices are your standard fountain sodas with refills as well as Iced Tea, Coffee and Hot Tea. Bottled juices are not included in the Dining Plan, but are available if you’d prefer.

I ordered the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf and Sarah ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese as our entrees, and we both ordered the creme brulee for dessert. The food arrived very quickly, it was on the table in under 10 minutes and our server even refilled our drink glasses for us which was unexpected but very much appreciated in our tired state.

The Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf comes with mashed potatoes, “onion rings” and a port wine sauce. This was my first experience with meatloaf, and it could not have been better.

Starting with the meatloaf itself, it was well seasoned and packed with herbs - tasting similar to a very good meatball - the crispy bacon wrapped around the outside edge really helped to keep some of the moisture inside the loaf as it was cooking as well as to give another dimension to the flavor. Overall the meatloaf was left perfectly cooked, not too dry or dense with an amazing taste.

I mentioned “onion rings” in quotation marks earlier, as while they are called onion rings on the menu description - when they arrived they were more similar to battered shoestring onions than to traditional onion rings. I am a big fan of onion rings in all their forms, and these were no disappointment. Despite being fried and the fact that they were piled high on the plate, it never felt like a heavy addition to the dish - as can occasionally happen with very bready onion rings - and were excellent by themselves or with the meatloaf.

The mash was an incredibly creamy mash, in the classic American style it was cooked with plenty of butter and practically whipped until completely smooth. There were chives scattered over the plate, which are a natural partner to creamy potatoes, and the whole thing just worked really well. It was a great addition to the dish, my only complaint would actually be that there was slightly too much mash! Usually I would never complain about getting more of something than I wanted, but it made the dish slightly too filling. On the plus side, you’ll definitely not be that hungry afterwards.

The final component of the dish was the sauce. This was the absolute standout part of the dish in my opinion. Wonderfully sweet yet savoury, it was an incredible port sauce that perfectly drew together all of the separate elements. It was rich and hearty and reminded me more of a demi glace rather than a gravy. I have no idea if they make it fresh on site, or if it’s shipped in after being prepared elsewhere, but it doesn't matter. It was as good as any “proper” restaurant sauce, my only complaint was that there wasn't quite enough of it - especially with the mountain of mash!

Sarah’s dish was the Spaghetti Bolognese, a staple dish in our house, so it was interesting to see their take on what can often be a very “standard” plate of food. It arrived looking really very appealing, with parmesan and ricotta covering the top, and basil leaves scattered throughout.

The sauce was very well seasoned, and just like the meatloaf it was packed full of herbs. Some of the basil leaves were a little larger than I would have personally cut them, but they added an interesting amount of freshness to the dish. It wasn't a very “meat heavy” bolognese, and instead focused more on the sweet freshness of the tomatoes. American tomatoes always seem to taste very different to the UK varieties, and the result was a surprisingly light, fresh sauce.

There were plenty of vegetables and mushrooms included in amongst the sauce, these weren't chopped so finely that they wouldn't be noticeable, so if you did have particularly fussy eaters at your table they may pick these out, but they added a nice amount of bulk to the sauce and contributed nicely to the flavor.

The spaghetti was cooked well, not too soft but not too “al dente” either. I can’t quite go into as much detail on this one, as it was Sarah’s and she only let me try a little bit! From what I did try it was really nice, and was a great take on a classic pasta dish. The only criticisms we have were a bit of a personal thing, the plate had a small pool of oil around the edge - usually we don’t tend to finish our food with oil so this was slightly different to what we are used to, but not really a dealbreaker. The other thing was the herbed ricotta served on the top of the sauce, personally we aren't a big fan of ricotta cheese - but this was again just a personal preference and nothing against the food!

The portion size was general and very filling, Sarah didn't quite finish the bolognese. Overall both the dishes were really enjoyable entrees, and at the price point they were definitely great value and quality.

Onto dessert, and we actually both decided to order the same thing. We ordered the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, which came with strawberries and strawberry sauce on the top.

This was where our opinions differed slightly. Sarah really enjoyed the cheesecake, it was rich and full of vanilla flavour but she did feel that it could have done with a crunchier base. Something we've noticed is that most American cheesecakes tend not to have quite the same crisp biscuit bases as we’re used to, it’s again one of those differences that just takes a little getting used to and wasn't in any way “bad”. Sarah did say she thought it was one of the best cheesecakes she’s had in America, only just behind the Cheesecake Factory - which is pretty high praise!

However personally, I was slightly disappointed with this as a dessert. I think this is probably because I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake anyway, so I found it was a bit plain for me. The strawberry sauce was nice, and the fresh strawberry was a nice addition as well but I didn't think there was enough sauce for the amount of cheesecake.

By far the best part of the dish was the top of the cheesecake, as it had been heated with a Crème Brûlée torch to give a slightly crisp sugary top. This was easily the tastiest part of the dessert for me, and I just wish they had caramelised it slightly more - as I love the taste of really caramelised sugar!

It was a fantastic meal, and even with Sarah not quite finishing hers we weren't hungry for the entire rest of the evening. It was a great first day for food, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Wolfgang Puck Express as somewhere to eat. It’s not anywhere I’d really considered before this trip and I had absolutely no idea what to expect. The “Express” in the name wasn't filling me with high hopes for the food standard and quality, but I'm happy to say that they completely delivered and I will definitely make sure that we eat there again sometime. Absolutely worth it.

Food Report - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

[Little_Miss]

Looking forward to reading your report!

[LISAM]

What a lovely detailed report, great photos too. I'm really looking forward to the rest

Lisa x

[ChoppyGirl]

Yeah! A new food trip report! Thanks for posting

[parkgirl]

Lovely photos! Love Wolfgang Puck express too.

[Pussycat Doll]

Fantastic report and such lovely clear pictures, my food ones are usually blurred or half eaten! Hubby loves the look of the Meatloaf so that might have to be on the list for Christmas! Pussycat

[Ycryan]

Hi

Great photos, will definitely need to try the meatloaf at Wolfgang Puck Express.

BTW - we have been watching your Vlog last week and its fantastic! x

[Man v Disney]

Great start to your report. Looking forward to reading about your eating experience. The food on the plane looked ok as well, which is a bonus!

[MariaLynda]

Great start and love the meatloaf too! Had it for the first time last year, do wish it was slightly less herby tho, but a lovely meal that is diff to chicken, fries burgers etc. Subscribing!

[Guest]

The cheesecake looks good.