DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE: Food & Wine Festival 2022

 

Recently, my family and I had enjoyed a day at the Disneyland Resort, where we attended the 2022 Food & Wine Festival at the Disney’s California Adventure theme park.  The festival ended on April 26.  Below is a selection of the food and drinks I had enjoyed at the festival:

DISNEY’S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE:  FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL 2022

Carbonara-Garlic Mac & Cheese - This was a delicious macaroni and cheese dish with peppered bacon and garlic.  My only complaint was there seemed to be a bit too many bacon bits, making the dish a little too salty.

Gyro-inspired Flatbread with Impossible Ground Beef - I found this gyro-inspired sandwich with ground Impossible beef, chipotle hummus, tzatziki and spiced crispy chickpeas spicy and surprisingly delicious.  I believe many vegans and vegetarians may have found it a welcoming addition to the festival.

Honey-Orange-Glazed Verlasso Salmon Salad - This was the only dish at the festival that I did not care for.  I had no problems with the salad, the vinaigrette or the pickled chopped black olives and peppers that topped the salad.  I did not even mind that the salmon was served cold.  However, I thought the latter lacked flavor and could have been marinated before being cooked.

Snickers Caramel-Peanut Milk Chocolate Mickey Macaron - This macaron was probably the largest I have ever eaten.  It was also very rich, very sweet and very delicious.  Many YouTube influencers claimed that it actually tasted like a Snickers Bar.  I cannot say that I would agree.  But I did enjoy it very much.

Glazed BBQ Pork Belly - I will say this about the Disneyland Resort.  Its cooks seemed to be better at preparing pork belly than their counterparts in Central Florida.  I thought the pork belly was cooked perfectly - not undercooked or overcooked.  The BBQ sauce proved to be a great addition to the dish.  However, the macaroni salad that accompanied it struck me as incredibly bland.  I barely touched it.

Aji de Gallina - This Peruvian dish consisted of stewed chicken with spicy yellow chile , along with jasmine rice and olive tapenade.  And it was delicious.  I honestly believed this would be something of a miss, but I have always been a chicken and rice fan.  Although a bit salty at first bite, this dish proved to be my second favorite at the festival.

Black & Tan Beef Potato Puffs - This is it, ladies and gentlemen!  This beef and potatoes dish proved to be my favorite dish at the festival.   The dish consisted of pot roast with chives, lager micro sponge and tater tots, topped with a Karl Strauss Wreck Alley stout gravy.  O-M-G!  The flavor of this dish took my breath away.  What can I say?  Two thumbs up!

If you had attended the 2022 Disney’s California Adventure Food & Wine Festival, what were your favorite dishes?