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2017 Epcot Food and Wine Festival menus, bringing the heat

By Cristine Struble

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The annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival is a huge annual event for foodies, Disney fans and locals. The 75 day event brings the heat this year with new Flavors from Fire.

Every fall, Epcot transforms into a foodie extravaganza with Epcot Food and Wine Festival. Scattered around Future World and World Showcase are 35 food booths. This year marks the Epcot’s 35th anniversary. To celebrate, this food festival is bigger than ever.

Disney recently announced the complete menu for this year’s event. One can’t miss booth is the new Flavors from Fire. Every year, Epcot tries to bring at least one popular food trend to the food festival. The “fire” booth focuses on two trends, heat and pickling.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival, Festival Center, photo by Cristine Struble

Reports show menu items will include Korean style pork wings, corned beef with pickled onions, chipotle chicken and a spice infused chocolate dessert. While die-hard spice fans may want more heat, these options are good for the masses. Yes, the food festival brings lots of diehard foodies, or foodie want to be, the event does have to cater to everyone. A person who has never had a haberno can’t eat gochujang sauce.

Epcot Food Festival, photo by Cristine Struble

Adding a heat-centric booth introduces more people to different spices. Since each plate is a small-ish bite, people don’t have to be afraid to try new foods or flavors. While some people may not seek out a Korean restaurant for pork wings, they can spend under $10 on that dish at this Epcot food festival. Maybe they will like the flavors and the dish; maybe they won’t like it. Either way, the investment isn’t high and they are more willing to take the risk.

Another popular food trend is pickling. Pickling isn’t a new concept. Sauerkraut has been around for centuries. But, people are discovering the health benefits to eating pickled food. The fermentation is good for digestion.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival, photo by Cristine Struble

Looking any of the Epcot food festival dishes, several booths have pickled ingredients. For example, India offers pickled garlic with its bread. This type of pickle isn’t the green served with a hamburger or sandwich. The pickled ingredient add brightness and depth of flavor to a dish. Again, this type of food festival is a great way to introduce people to a food trend.

Of course, Epcot doesn’t disappoint with the plentiful choices. Favorites from Le Cellar and France return. Spain and India are new. One booth even offers some molecular gastronomy.

Food festival, Epcot at Disney World, photo by Cristine Struble

The only downside to the annual Epcot food festival is having enough time to enjoy all the food and drink offerings. I have never been able to try as many bites as I have wanted. One day isn’t enough to even mark it through just the World Showcase booths. I would recommend a weekend to leisurely sample the many plates and beverages. Annual passholders have the benefit of returning over and over.

Next: Disney Springs adds another celebrity chef restaurant

The 2017 Epcot Food and Wine Festival runs from August 31, 2017 through November 13, 2017. The food festival is included with park admission. Food and beverage prices vary.

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