Menus and details of this year’s Epcot Food & Wine Festival will be released soon.
I looked at last year’s menu and picked out some things I ordered when I went with Irene. 1) Corn and cheese arepa from Chile; 2) Grilled beef skewer with chimichurri sauce, Argentina; 3) Aged-Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Vernia cheeses with apple chutney and brown bread, Ireland; 4) Chicken souvlaki with tzatziki, Greece
Sampling eclectic food wouldn’t be a big deal, but there’s some kind of airy buzz at Epcot that I don’t know how to describe. I feel like the approach to the 9pm Illuminations fireworks show has something to do with it. It’s a nightly ritual heavy on symbolism and the use of fire, and the park shuts down for it— then closes when it’s over. All the fanfare, really, is a preface to Illuminations.
The park is widely believed to be a celebration of ongoing diversity and history but after a few visits it can be seen for what it really is: a funeral for all time and all places. The month-long mashup of national cuisine at the annual Food and Wine Festive is the first shovelful of dirt onto the coffin.
