Hello Lovers and Dreamers!
Pardon my Rainbow Connection reference, but as you can see from the title, this post is about the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine. This was our first time fully experiencing EPCOT's International Festival of the Arts. In the past, we've gone during Disney Princess Half-Marathon weekend so I could do the races, and the festival was over by then. It usually runs from mid-January until late-February, ending prior to race weekend. The festival itself has art booths, artists, a scavenger hunt, sidewalk art, merchandise, murals, entertainment, and food booths.
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| Painting a mural |
This was also my first EPCOT food festival "passport." Each festival has a passport that gives an overall view of everything listed above, and a breakdown of each food booth with descriptions. (Side note: it says under the booth name where it is located, but the passport does not include a map.) I have been waiting years to attend my first EPCOT festival, so my anticipation to get my first passport was sky high. We looked all over the front of the park and ended up finding them tucked away by Guest Services; however, they are all over World Showcase at the food booths.
Figment's Brush with the Masters Scavenger Hunt $10 to play (on the left), and The International Festival of the Arts Passport for free (on the right)
The Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine consists of six food options to choose from listed in the back of the passport, and you need five stamps to complete the walk. It doesn't need to be five different food items, it can be five of the same thing if you wish. There are many food booths for the festival, but not all of them are part of this activity. The food items that qualify for the walk are marked with a paintbrush/fork symbol next to them. Once completed, you can redeem it for a Festival Treat. We decided to rate these items out of 5 rainbows for Figment and the name of the walk.
The first item we tried was the Neapolitan Trio from the Deco Delights booth. The chocolate part of the dish was a mini tart. It was dry, but the chocolate mousse made up for it. It had a light yet rich flavor, and was not super sweet. The vanilla portion was a vanilla bean cheesecake. The shortbread crust was buttery and had perfect slight crunch. The cheesecake was cold and creamy. It was excellent. The strawberry part was a mousse. It was nice and light. A little too light for my taste because it was more like a whipped cream, and I wanted it to be a little firmer like the cheesecake. 🌈🌈🌈🌈
The next item is one that they have had for the last few years because it is a fan favorite: the grilled cheese and tomato soup at the Pop Eats booth. You have the option of getting a regular grilled cheese, or a grilled cheese with pimento, bacon, and fried green tomatoes. It was a no-brainer that we went with the loaded grilled cheese. The grilled cheese was not greasy and had great flavor by itself. The pimento cheese was gooey and the bread was crispy. BUT dipped in the tomato soup, it was amazing. *Chefs kiss* The tomato soup was not your basic Campbell's. It wasn't very thick and had almost a smokiness too it. I liked how different the flavor was compared to a basic tomato soup and it paired perfectly with the grilled cheese. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Next up was the blueberry-filled pastry tart at Figment's Inspiration Station at the Odyssey. The pastry tart was a sugar cookie with blueberry filling and purple icing. My initial thought was it tasted like a blueberry Pop Tart. I liked the amount of purple icing because I'm the type of person who went ham on the purple icing on Toaster Strudels. If you know, you know. Unfortunately, the sugar cookie nor the blueberry filling had a lot of flavor. It was super sweet and that overpowered it. 🌈🌈
Strangely, the blueberry-filled pastry tart is not on the menu outside, but this is where you get it.
Another anticipated food item that is a fan favorite was the deconstructed key lime pie at the Deconstructed Dish. All the components together tasted exactly like a key lime pie. I liked the different textures of each item and the tangy, sweet, flavor pops they provided. My favorite was the key lime curd in the middle. The graham cracker muffin was a little dry and that was off-putting to the people with me, but I didn't mind it. We had a bit of a disagreement on this one because the separate textures and components threw them off. However, I loved it and I write this blog so my vote is the winning one 😉. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Our final food item was the chorizo and potato empanada at Vibrante & Vivido: Encanto Cocina. It had two different aioli drizzles, a turmeric and annatto (a Latin spice). There were plenty of both aiolis drizzled on the empanada. I liked the amount of heat-not too much and not too little. There was plenty of filling. You can't really taste potato because chorizo has a very overpowering flavor, but it was still really good. The empanada itself wasn't greasy and had a great flaky texture and flavor to it. 🌈🌈🌈🌈
Once you get all five stamps, you can redeem your Festival Treat at the Deco Delights. You don't need to wait in the ordering line, you can go straight to the second window to redeem. The Festival Treat was a palette cookie and a berry smoothie in a souvenir cup. The berry smoothie was water based, not milk, and it made it a thinner consistency. It was very cold and refreshing and tasted really good. The palette cookie was like a mix between a sugar and shortbread cookie. It was buttery and not super sweet. I could taste a hint of salt and I liked the thicker dough. The icing was chewy like a fondant, and I'm in the minority that loves fondant so I really enjoyed this cookie. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Festival Treats for completing The Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine
The Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine had almost a 50/50 split between savory and sweet items, which was nice. I wouldn't have been too happy to eat desserts all day, as weird as that sounds. As far as my tree nut allergy, there was only one item I couldn't have-the verjus-roasted beets (spiced pecans). It was very simple for me to just pick other items without feeling limited. (Side note: for the overall festival food, it was mostly desserts that contained coconut that I couldn't have.) Out of the foods we tried, our favorite was the grilled cheese and tomato soup. Our least favorite was the blueberry-filled pastry tart. The Festival Treats for completing the challenge were much better than we anticipated, and I adore the little souvenir cup.
Prize for completing the Figment's Brush with the Masters Scavenger Hunt
We enjoyed the International Festival of the Arts overall and would absolutely come back for it. Doing the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine and Figment's Brush with the Masters Scavenger Hunt made us feel more involved with the festival itself than just walking around. I liked the prize options for the scavenger hunt (Mickey, Minnie, or a Figment Paint Your Own Figurine) and the fact that it wasn't easy to complete. Eating at all the food booths and completing a festival food walk can get pricey, but we'd do it again. It lets you try things you may not normally go out of your way to try. This festival has grown so much since it first started and I'm curious where it will rank as we experience the other EPCOT festivals moving forward.
Let me know what your favorite EPCOT festival is in the comments!
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