I didn’t quite succeed in my attempt, but I thought I should share anyway. We just got back from an epic trip to Disney World (hence the epic movie marathon preceding it). Many people talk about “drinking around the world” at Epcot, with t-shirts bragging about it. I decided to try desserts around the world for my birthday. There are 11 countries represented in Epcot- that’s a lot of desserts!
The showcase hasn’t changed much over the years- I think the map above is from 1994 or earlier. I didn’t start them in order, but instead where I started shopping with my best friend, in Morocco.
Morocco– I had an almond cookie (ghrieba) along with a refreshingly bitter pomegranate slushy. This was fantastic- soft, fluffy cookie tasting of marzipan.
Japan-I got crunchy strawberry pocky, while my husband got gummy candies. They had an edible inner wrapper that looked like plastic but melted on your tongue- a very odd experience. Pocky is a nice, delicate dessert- my son and I devoured the whole box (I mean, we didn’t eat the BOX, we ate the contents).
U.S.A. At one of the garden festival stalls we got a Georgian praline, a huge one, which we put away for later. Pralines are best fresh, but even so this one was delicious, smoky, nutty and sweet.
Italy I considered having a tiramisu push pop, but my husband, who was sharing with me, voted for the lemon sorbet. It was very tart and refreshing- I didn’t get much of it, my husband really loved it.
Germany– We went to the Karamel-Kuche, a caramel centered bakery, and had a salted caramel pretzel chocolate chip cookie. It was trying to be too many things, and I wished I had gotten the buttered caramel bar or the caramel popcorn instead.
China– This country defeated me. I didn’t want to go to a restaurant, and the shops only had large bags of candy. I looked at the bag of bubble milk tea mochi candy- but mochi is a Japanese food, I thought. There was also hello panda, a dessert I love but can get anywhere. So I ended up not getting anything.
Norway– In Norway I got a candy bar we’ve had at Ikea many times, Daim. First, it’s fun to say. Also, it’s toffee covered in chocolate. Hard to go wrong with that! Ikea is Swedish, not Norwegian, but…Daim.
Mexico– I also struggled to find desserts in Mexico not in a restaurant. I was admitting defeat until we found a garden festival booth within sight of Mexico, and ruled it acceptable. The booth was serving vegan everything, so I took a chance with the vegan chocolate cake with raspberries. Very spongy and light.
Canada– I reached Canada in a tea-time heat melt slump, so instead of a dessert I went to Joffrey’s coffee. They have giant dinner plate sized donuts, and a twist that the people in line with me said were called yum-yums in the UK. I saw the speciality drink was the game-changer, and it lived up to its name. I was caffeinated up to midnight!
U.K. I got a raspberry chocolate tart from a garden festival booth. The crust was really dry and hard, not my favorite. It was lovely to stand at a table (Disney, can you please provide more chairs?) and listen to live piano music from the garden gazebo.
France- I love macarons. They are so lovely and decadent, and something very difficult/time consuming to make at home. I forgot to take a picture of the mini macarons we consumed the first day. They were also selling 50th anniversary macarons at our hotel. When we got back from Epcot late at night, my son had put a pile of the boxed macarons on the table, as well as a video of a birthday cake, and played happy birthday to me when we came in. Such a beautiful memory!
I have so many more pictures (of desserts and other things!) I will probably do a few more posts.
