Monday, October 6, 2014

A Guide to (More) Food in California Adventure






Disney Week continues!  Today is all about food in California Adventure.  This is a Volume 2 because I wrote another one back about 2 years ago.  Click HERE to check it out.  Now let's dive into the new eats I discovered



We started off our day at The Pacific Wharf for breakfast.  This was out of the norm for us because we never have breakfast in the park.  We either eat at the hotel or consider our 11 am stop for clam chowder to be breakfast.  Actual breakfast type foods never really enter the picture....until this particular day.

We both thought the croissant breakfast sandwich sounded pretty good, and for $4.49 with some grapes and orange wedges I thought it was pretty decently priced too.


Next snack pit stop was at The Cozy Cone Motel.  In the past we've had the chilli cone and pretzels bites, so for the sake of trying something new we got the Cheddar Garlic Bagel Twist for $4.39





In my world everything could have more garlic and cheese...but I liked it.  A little dry on the ends where there wasn't as much cheese....but not enough for me to not eat it.  Go figure

Our next stop for a real sit down meal was over at the Paradise Garden Grill.  I had been wanting to eat there since our last trip because they have Greek/Mediterranean food, some of my favorite.

The Boy got the Gyro Platter for $12.49


It came with cucumber salad and tabouli.

I opted for the Mediterranean Skewers.  You had the choice of steak, chicken, spicy meatball, or tofu with veggies.  Then you picked one of 3 sauce: tzatziki, chimichurri, or spicy tomato.

I chose the steak with chimuchurri sauce.  It came with rice pilaf and cucumber salad


I liked everything.  The steak could have used more seasoning, but that's typical to me at restaurants.  But with a sprinkle of more salt and the chimichurri it was really good.  Espcially wrapped up in a little bit of the pita





The pita bread was really good.  It had a nice char on it and was not overly fake. I hate the really fake type pita bread that is super dry and reminds me of a Taco Bell Gordita.  This was moist and fluffy.  The rice was fluffy too and not overcooked...win!  Overall I thought it was pretty successful

While we were ordering, The Boy suddenly ordered some baklava.  It wasn't part of the original plan...but I was game!

Apparently he thought I didn't want any and ate the whole thing himself before I could finish my plate.....but I did in fact want some.  This resulted in him feeling bad and going back to buy another....which I then ate all by myself too.  It probably worked out for the best that we each got our own...so I'm not complaining.  And it was only $3.69 a piece so I'm really not feeling too bad about it


I just love the ooey gooeyness of baklava.  And the flaky top....yea...it's good.

This is sold in both parks so I could have posted it in a Disneyland post....but since we technically ate it in CA Adventure I thought I would post it here.  Mickey ice cream!

Prior to this trip we had never had Mickey ice cream before.  Does that make me a bad Disney fan?  It kinda makes me feel weird to even admit it!!

I chose the ice cream sandwich




And The Boy got the ice cream on a sick





And holy crap was it frozen! I mean I get it...yes ice cream is frozen.  But this stuff was a damn rock!!  It was hard to enjoy




I swear the woman took it from the coldest most remote corner of the freezer....cuz it was like gnawing on a Mickey brick.  And I do have to say....I have never come across a rude Disney employee until this woman.  Isn't that ironic?  

Needless to say our ice cream dreams were a little crushed....but someday I'll get it again and hopefully it won't be rock solid 

Next up....Hot link corn dogs!

In both my Volume 1 CA Adventure food  and Volume 1 Disneyland Food I ramble on and on and on about how much I LOVE Disneyland corn dogs.  Like I really, REALLY do.  So much that we will eat one every single day that we are there with no shame whatsoever.

Well.....over in CA Adventure they also offer a Hot Link Corn Dog at the Corn Dog Castle.  We had been meaning to try it for a while and the time had finally come

For $7.99 (30 cents more than the original corn dog) you get a a monsterous corn dog with a bag of chips or sliced apples.  (But seriously though....who gets the apples? It's vacation damn it!)

Here's a pic for ya to show you how huge and filling these bad boys are


They aren't messing around! Which is exactly why I still dub the corn dog combo as the best deal in the entire park.  It will fill you up as a meal and comes at a good price considering.  Anyway....back to the hot link binass.....

In this picture you can sort of see it's hot linkiness...see how it looks a little spicey?



It was good....really good!  In fact my husband deemed this his favorite...a big statement considering how much he loved the original corn dog.  I on the other hand am sticking with my corn dog as my favorite.  Don't get me wrong....I really did like it!  But while I can wolf down a regular corn dog no problem and still contemplate getting a second one (I never do, I just always contemplate it...my mind gets ahead of my full stomach) I could barely finish this one.  When I was getting down to the end I threw in the towel and let The Boy have the rest.

Maybe this is just my fat girl mentality shining through....but I guess I considered that a tad bit of defeat lol.  The corn dogs are rich in general...but this was a tad bit too rich for me...at least to finish the whole thing myself.  But I will gladly get myself a regular corn dog in the future and The Boy can get a hot link and I will just steal bites from him.  That's what wives do anyway right?? 

Now let's end this post with a little booze.

Now imma be honest witchoo.....I had every intention of getting lit and walking around Disneyland.  Well....maybe lit is the wrong word.  I never imagined myself stupid drunk....just to the point of floppy.  To where my arms feel warm and I'm right on the cusp of not being able to feel my face....toasty I should say.  I just thought tipsy toasty mixed with Disney magic would be an experience of my dreams....so we set out to get some booze!

I'm not a beer drinker...it bloats me and wastes my time....so we headed to Rita's Baja Blenders.  They had the regular margarita for $7.75 but I upped the ante and got The Grand Margarita for $8.25.  It's supposed to have extra liquor in it


Homegirl don't do fake strawberry so I went for the lemon lime.

And got to slurrpin right away!!



And sadly....nothing happened.  Not a damn thing.  Not even a 2 second buzz....not even the beginnings of "awwww"  Nuttin.  All it did was leave me shivering.

It could have been a lot of things in hindsight.  

A.  I could just be a lush and even the Grand maragarita won't do anything to me
B.  I don't normally do frozen drinks....I'm a rocks kinda gal....so I could have just taken waaaaay to long nursing it from it's coldness to get any kind of anything going. OR the cold sent my body into over drive and all my energy went to warming me up and not to feeling a buzz.  Sounds scientific and legit right?
C.  I ate way too much food beforehand

We almost went to get another immediately to see if I could conjur something up....but I was turned off by the frozen aspect...just not my style

Sooo.....my dreams of gettin floppy in Disneyland will just have to wait....though I am not giving up hope!!

I think it will take some planning beforehand.  Maybe a few hours without food....and maybe a trip to the Cozy Cone Motel for a Vodka Pomegranate Limeade instead.  I'm actually kinda kicking myself for not going that route in the first place....BUT....you live and learn right?  A Disney buzz will be mine!!  (flexes bicep)

Well that about sums up this trips food crawl through California Adventure.  Be sure to check all my past posts for food in CA Adventure and Disneyland (links are earlier in this post)

Hope this comes as some sort of help to you.  Comment and let me know what foods you've had and what I need to try next time :)

Saturday, October 4, 2014

A Guide to (More) Food in Disneyland



I'm back with all kinds of Disney yums.  And before we dive in, I want to remind you that 2 years ago I wrote the original Guide to Food In Disneyland, making this a Volume 2 (thus the "More" in the title)


So if you haven't read that post yet I suggest you do before you start reading this one and go "What the heck!!... where are the churros? Where's the corn dogs??"  because they're in the first post....so simmer down now.  I kid.

The first post I did was more about the staples that I get every time I go to Disneyland and trying one or two new things.  For the sake of blogging.....and not just because I love food and use vacation as an excuses to gorge myself until I gain 8lbs that then takes me 6 months to lose...no, no...for the sake of blogging I have tried even more Disney delicacies to share with you.  Now let's get to my second favorite thing besides eating food.....talking about food!

*All prices are from when we were there 6/ 9/14-6/11/14


In the first post you'll remember how I said our first food pit stop of the day is always a bowl of clam chowder in New Orleans Square.  Well after some deep deeeeeep conversation, The Boy and I decided to shake it up a little bit and hit up the Harbour Galley right off The Haunted Mansion along the water of the Mark Twain Riverboat

We got alll kinds of wild and crazy and ordered a Lobster Roll. For $13.99 you got the sandwich and chips that are dusted with some sort of yummy seasoning....maybe cajun?  I can't really remember but I loved them.


And while the price may seem a tad steep....your are in Disneyland....and they really load up on the lobster!  Had there been less maybe I would have felt ripped off...but there was a surprisingly good amount.  I loved how lemony the dressing was but there wasn't too much to overpower the lobster goodness.  It was all in good proportion and piled onto a nicely toasted roll. I would highly recommend it. 

But for the record....we ultimately decided we still NEEDED to start our day off with some clam chowder.  Luckily they also sell the chowder at the Harbour Gallery so we got one of each and split it between the two of us. It was necessary....gotta keep up the tradition right?


They sell Broccoli cheese soup here as well which is what my niece got and always does gets.  I took and bite and it is delicious!.....but I'll stick with my chowder...it has my heart. This was a good snack to get our Disney day rolling.  Snack??...you say.  Isn't that a full meal?  On a normal day...yes, it would be considered a meal....but not on a Disney day.  Disney days take eating to a whole new level.


Next up.....Dole Whips!

Last trip I had a Dole Whip for the very first time.....and my life was forever changed.  Before I was even finished eating said Dole Whip, I started dreaming of when I would try the float version.

See....I have this thing for floats.  Root beer, orange,...whatever.  I love me some ice cream and drank!  So I was super excited to get my dirty paws on a Dole Whip float....and this trip was my opportunity


Stroll on over to the stand just outside the Tiki Room and for $5.79 you get your float complete with little umbrella

But here's the crappy part.  I was so pumped up about and was so sure I'd love it....and I didn't.  Don't get me wrong, I liked it.....just didn't love it.  I think from now on I'll stick the to the traditional soft serve.  But you never know which you'll prefer until you try them both!

Moving on to the next......

This may come as a shock to you....but in all my 24 years I had never had a funnel cake before.  Crazy right?

So I decided Disneyland  was the perfect place to finally give it a try.  I totally forgot to make note of the price, but I got it at The Stage Door Cafe in Frontierland.  I went super traditional and got the powdered sugar topping as opposed to the strawberry or chocolate.  It was pretty much everything I wanted it to be.  Coming from a girl who used to basically deep fry her pancakes as a kid instead of "griddling" them....funnel cake was my dream come true.  Light and crispy and not overly greasy.  What's not to love about fried battery goodness?


 
While were on a sweets kick, here's the other sweet treat we got...a peanut butter sandwich


It's basically graham cracker topped with peanut butter stuff (filling? frosting? Does it really matter?) and covered in chocolate.  A peanut butter lovers dream.  It only set us back $3.99 at Pooh's Corner 

We've made it sort of a tradition to buy something out of the sweets case before we settle in for the Parade.  We almost always get toffee (it's one of my favorites!) and have gotten cupcakes and dipped pretzels before too.  Now we've added this to the list and I'm pretty sure it will become a regular for us

Continuing on....we had also never gotten popcorn before.  I think mostly because it's not that "special" in comparison to the other foods.  But after a few sweets, some salt sounded really good so we finally bought ourselves a box


And it was some damn good popcorn.  I can be pretty pick about it too....but it was the perfect amount of butter and salt.  You can't ask for much else

Last but not least for this trip....we finally ate at The Carnation Cafe on Main St.  We don't normally take away from precious ride time to eat at sit down restaurants in Disneyland, but considering we were there an extra day than normal we thought we could squeeze it in.

There were two major things that reeled us in: The PB&J soda, and the fried pickles.

Sadly, the PB&J soda had just recently been taken off the menu. Wah Waaah! But I do have high hopes that popular demand will bring it back someday and we can try it.  I'm gonna keep a positive outlook on this one

Luckily the fried pickles were still on the menu!  For a pickle lover like myself this was something I just had to have



For $5.99  you got nice panko crusted pickle spears with their House Sauce for dipping.  Not a bad start to the meal....not bad at all....

We also went all old timey and shared a Cherry Malt.  (cue 90s sitcom "Awwwwww" track)



I always thought I didn't like malts....but I guess I do.  Maybe the other ones I had were to malty before....or maybe everything just tastes better in Disneyland.  Either are entirely possible.

For another $5.99 we got to look super cute and coupley.  Except we only had one straw....so it actually wasn't that cute...but whatevs.

For the main course The Boy got The Main St. Cheeseburger for $12.99. Your typical cheeseburger fixings on a brioche bun along with that house sauce again.  He added bacon because..well.....why not?



This lady got herself a Sourdough Bacon Cheese Melt for $14.99

 



Pepperjack cheese, grilled onions, bacon, and spicy house sauce on toasty sourdough



The Boy liked the spicy sauce so much he asked the waiter to bring him a side of it for his burger.  We slathered that stuff on everything...dipped a few fries.  It was good eats

That sums up all the new eats we tried. It was fun to try some new things but at the same time I think it's created a biiiiiig problem for our next trip.  Instead of our usual 5, 6 things we have to hit....now we're gonna have to get like 30. But I think I can handle that problem....I gear up for months for this Disney food crawl.  I accept the challenge whole heartedly!

 Like I said at the beginning of the post, don't forget to check out Volume one of Disneyland food.  I also have posts on food in California Adventure so be sure to check those out too!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Peter Pan and Wendy Cosplay


After having done Mickey and Minnie and Carl and Ellie we decided on Peter Pan and Wendy for Day 3.  Of the 3 days I would say these were the least "costume-y" and more of the Disney bound style like you see all over Pinterest. Less in your face trying to look exactly like a character and more just inspired by them.....if what I'm saying makes any sense at all?

For Peter Pan I bought The Boy a lime green shirt from Walmart and ordered him a pair of green Dickies off the internet.He wore the same brown shoes he did for Carl and also Woody way back in the day.  That left his hat.  

I thought it would be cool to have it be an everyday modern style hate....just done to look like Peter's hat instead of him actually wearing one like the kind you buy at the park.

So this is what I came up with.  I found a white fedora at Walmart



And broke out the old Rit dye and dyed it dark green and then hot glued a red feather in place.  I forgot to take an after picture of the hat on its own.....but you can see it here.  (It was bright as CRAP so please excuse the terrible face shadows etc)



For Wendy Bird I bought a cheap white shirt and cheap white shorts and dyed them both light blue.  I went with white for both so I could dye them to the same shade to imitate her nightgown being all the same color instead of buying two different pieces that would be different shades of blue.  Which really isn't a big deal.....but for some reason I was stuck on them being the exact same.

Hindsight I wish I had left them in longer....but I was having some weird yellow spots appearing on parts of the clothes so I pulled them a little early for fear it would get worse.  And to finish my Wendy look I curled my hair that day and wore a darker blue bow in my hair. Oh and black shoes




While we were shopping I had to snap a picture of our inspirations




And here we are...........



Funny story....ironically we were wearing these outfits as we stood in line for Peter Pan's Flight when I noticed a Smee in the  line with us.

I gave The Boy and nudge and pointed him out.  That's when we decided that as soon as we got closer to him in line we would ask to take a picture.  He happily obliged and then put on a grump face for the picture.

Let me warn you.  It is like a terrible, HORRIBLE picture of me.  It was toward the end of a June day spent out in the sun and I look like a sweaty disheveled mess and my curls have fallen out. I guess I got way to turnt at the House of Mouse. lol But here it is anyway........................................................................








A nasty Wendy, a cute Peter Pan, and a stranger Smee. What a scene!

Well that completes the outfits for this Disney Week....more Disney goods to come!