Disney Goes Vietnamese

I visited Disney's Animal Kingdom for the first time in who-knows-when today. The park was actually opened late tonight, until 8 pm. Can you believe that? So I finally got a chance to see Animal Kingdom at night. It was very nice and peaceful. Almost eerie, too. But that wasn't the coolest thing I did there. I decided to try out the new Yak & Yeti Restaurant in Asia. I must say that it is quite nice. It has a variety of Asian dishes, including one that shocked me. While going through the menu, one item jumped out at me... Pho. Disney has Pho now??? For those who don't know, Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup with beef and rice noodles. Never did I think I would see the day that Disney would serve Vietnamese food. I was tempted to try it but I already had some earlier in the week. Odd, over 5 months in Orlando and the first two times I would see Pho on a menu would happen in the same week. Instead, I had the Shaoxing Steak and Shrimp, which consisted of skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables, and a chili plum dipping sauce. It was excellent! Absolutely delicious. The shrimp was perfect and the steak practically melted in your mouth. I will definitely eat here again. The Yak & Yeti has become my restaurant of choice now at Animal Kingdom. It's one of the better Asian restaurants Disney has. Epcot's Nine Dragons has some serious competition now.

Birthday Dinner

I celebrated my birthday at California Grill atop Disney's Contemporary Resort last night. It was my second time there. It was really nice. The atmosphere, the service, and the food was just amazing. I had a three course meal with Spicy Sensation (a sushi dish with Scallops, Tuna, Avocado, Tobiko, and Fireball Sauce), a Spiced Butternut Squash Soup, and an Oak-fired Filet of Beef. The sushi there is the best! We were so stuffed, we didn't have room for any desert. And dinner was wrapped up with splendid view of Holiday Wishes. It was so cool how they piped in the music from Main Street into the restaurant.

The Disney Cheesesteak

About two weeks ago, I was walking through Pinocchio's Village Haus when I noticed something strange. There was something new, something different on people's plates... but it was also something familiar. They were cheesesteaks. Wha? At Disney World? In Orlando? In Florida? I had already eaten so I didn't have one. But on my visit back to the Magic Kingdom last weekend, I got to try one out. It's made with slices of sirloin steak, grilled onions, melted swiss cheese, and cheese whiz on a roll. I was surprised by two cheeses, especially the swiss. I've never seen swiss used in a cheesesteak before. The steak and the onions were good. And the sandwich was plenty messy, a definite requirement of a cheesesteak. One problem, however, was the roll. It was all wrong and really took away from the contents. It's just not a real cheesesteak with the wrong roll. Still, it was good enough that it will join my list of food options at Disney. Am I surprised Disney decided to serve a cheesesteak? Well, considering the massive amount of guests they get from the Delaware Valley, I shouldn't be. It was about time. Now if only they can get the roll right.