My wife and I ate both lunch and dinner at the festival today. It was pretty packed, especially in the evening. It was also very hot. I loaded up on SPF 100 sunscreen and still got a pretty bad sunburn on my face. We skipped the France booth because there were literally 50+ people in line, maybe more.
Here are my rankings of the items we tried:
Great
- Maple Boursin Cheesecake (Refreshment Port) - 10.0 - This has always been great, and this year is no exception.
- Corned Beef Corner Route (Flavors From Fire) - 9.0 - Ours had a comically large amount of beef.
Very Good
- Spicy Hako Sushi (Japan) - 8.5 - Only two pieces, but very tasty and quite spicy.
- Roasted Porchetta (Swanky Saucy Swine) - 8.0 - Potatoes were very plain, but pork was tender and flavorful.
- Beef/Chicken/Lamb Kabobs (Tangierine Cafe) - 8.0 - All 3 meats were very good. Beef and chicken were cold, but still tasty.
- Chilaquiles con Chorizo (Mexico) - 8.0 - Really flavorful chorizo and salsa verde.
- La Clasica Reyes Margarita (Mexico) - 8.0 - Nice spicy kick. Best festival margarita in a while.
- Capirotada de Chocolate (Mexico) - 8.0 - Large portion loaded with chocolate. Wife's favorite item of the festival so far.
Good
- Stone-Baked Moroccan Bread (Tangierine Cafe) - 7.5 - Bread was fresh and the three dips were all good.
- Wild Mushroom and Truffle Tart (Rotundra Bistro) - 7.5 - Flavor is subtle but nice.
- Pistachio Cake (Tangierine Cafe) - 7.5 - Very basic and light.
- Griddled Cheese (Greece) - 7.0 - Not as good as the previous version. I think it's a different cheese.
Decent
- Tempura Shrimp Sando (Japan) - 6.5 - Ours had barely any crab or green onions. It was literally a tempura shrimp on a Hawaiian type roll. Not bad at all, just underwhelming.
- Schinkennudeln (Germany) - 6.0 - I usually really like this, but this serving was greasy and kind of gummy.
- Soy-Glazed Sticky Ribs (Swanky Saucy Swine) - 6.0 - Sauce had a good flavor, but both ribs had lots of weird little chewy/hard bits that made them hard to eat.
Mediocre
- Crispy Barbecue Pork Rinds (Swanky Saucy Swine) - 5.0 - These were really hard and hurt our teeth. Pimento cheese was decent.
- Schofferhofer Wild Cherry Hefeweisen (Germany) - 5.0 - I'm not really a beer guy, but the grapefruit version is much better.
Bad
- Teriyaki-Sesame Wings (Brew-Wing) - 4.0 - These were really sour.
- Garlic-Parmesan Wings (Brew-Wing) - 3.0 - I ate two. First was meh but not terrible. Second tasted like a used dish rag. Both were really dry.
- Deconstructed Pavlova (Australia) - 2.0 - We usually love this. But it was literally served hot. The meringue was melting, and the pastry cream and fruit were very warm. It was gross. They need to keep these refrigerated before serving.
Mexico and Tangierine Cafe were the clear winners of day 1. We stayed at the Swan tonight, and will be back for lunch tomorrow. We'll definitely be hitting up France, China, and Hawaii, and finishing the cheese stroll.
On a side note, my wife was super excited because she got to talk to the Trackers.
