I visited EPCOT earlier this month to enjoy the annual International Festival of Holidays, and of course you can’t visit a Disney festival without trying some of the food.
The Holiday Kitchens this year featured a lot of sweet treats, but there were also quite a few savory dishes. As I tried various selections, I took photos and notes on each dish.
Here is everything I ate at the 2022 Festival of the Holidays at EPCOT, and what I thought.
Holiday Kitchen: Holiday Hearth Desserts (aka The Odyssey Pavilion)
The Dish: Maple Bûche de Noël
Also known as a Maple Yule Log in English, it had maple mousse and cranberry jelly rolled in a gingerbread chiffon cake and coated in a dark chocolate shell.
This was my second favorite thing I ate all day. I’m not a chocolate fan so I peeled it off for my friend to enjoy, but the spiciness of the gingerbread cake mixed well with the sweet creamy mousse and tanginess of the cranberries so it had great textures and a not-too-sweet taste. This was well worth the $6 price…and big enough to share, if so inclined.
Plus, as a bonus, you can meet Santa while you dine, and have your picture taken with him for free.
Holiday Kitchen: Nochebuena Cocina
The Dish: IMPOSSIBLE Chorizo Tamale
This plant-based dish featured IMPOSSIBLE Chorizo, a non-dairy cotija cheese, and a spicy red chile sauce, and for the most part was very tasty.
I really enjoyed the tamale, but it was dusted in some sort of crumble that made everything, including the chile sauce, gritty.
This was a delicious dish, and a good value priced at $5.50, but I would ask for it without that crumble.
Holiday Kitchen: Las Posadas Holiday Kitchen
The Dish: Giant Tostada de Barbacoa
I was really looking forward to this dish, which featured braised barbacoa beef on a giant hard shell tostada with chipotle black bean purée, salsa verde, queso cotija, crema Mexicana, and pickled onion.
Flavor-wise, it was my favorite thing I ate that day. The barbacoa beef had a fall-apart texture and just the right amount of spice, which was countered by the smoothness of the chipotle black beans. Add on the various crunchy and smooth textured toppings with their different flavor notes, and I savored every bite.
However the dish was the most expensive one I ate that day, coming in at $10.50. For that price, it was worth the taste, but I wouldn’t buy it again…not unless they fully covered the tostada with toppings.
Holiday Kitchen: Tuscany Holiday Kitchen
The Dish: Tortellini in Brodo
This Tortellini in Broth dish featured several pieces of five-cheese tortellini in a house-made aromatic winter truffle broth with chives.
I liked the packaging, with a closed top which kept the broth from spilling, and the dish itself was ok. The tortellini was tasty, and the broth tasted more of a chicken broth than truffle, but was warm and complemented the pasta.
However, as you can see in the photos below, the portion was quite small, and with it costing $9.50, I didn’t feel it was worth the price.
Holiday Kitchen: American Holiday Table
The Dish: Traditional Turkey Dinner
You can’t get more American holidays than this dish, which featured slow-roasted turkey with Ben’s original stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, fried onions, and cranberry sauce. The stuffing and potatoes were served underneath the turkey in the photo below.
Tasting it brought me back to Christmas with my gramma as a child, and the flavors were spot on. Nothing fancy, but a delicious offering nonetheless. I felt it was worth the $6 price, and I would definitely get it again.
While I was EPCOT, I also did the Holiday Cookie Stroll, but that will be for another post.
If you’ve tried these dishes, let me know what you thought of them. And if you’ve tried others that you love from this year’s Festival of Holidays, let me know about those as well.
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