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Category Archives: Good Eats

Epcot’s Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria is days away from opening – with video

Epcot’s Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria is days away from opening – with video

Via Napoli opens on August 5, 2010 for dinner service. Reservations will be taken starting August 6. Take a culinary tour of southern Italy, crafted by famed restaurateur Nick Valenti. Enjoy authentic pastas, salads, gelato and Neapolitan, wood-fired pizza. Via Napoli, the newest restaurant to join the Epcot Italy Pavilion, is open for lunch and dinner.

Menu

Start with a traditional appetizer, including Sicilian eggplant with olives and raisins, fagiolini bean salad, fried saffron risotto balls and corn-crusted fried calamari.

You’ll want to sample all of the classical Neapolitan pizzas, ranging from pizza bianca, quattro stagioni, piccante and ortolano to an unforgettable margherita. Delicious main courses include pastas, spinach lasagna, parmigiana dishes and chopped calamari, chicken and steak salads.

For dessert, treat yourself to gelato, tiramisù, zeppole di ricotta and apple cake with almond sorbet.

Authentic Neapolitan Pizzas

The delicious pizzas are made with real caputo flour imported from Southern Italy, San Marzano tomatoes, handmade mozzarella and water from a local spring similar to Italy’s Campania region. They are cooked in authentic wood-burning ovens named after the 3 active volcanoes in Italy—Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli.

To ensure every detail is perfect, Nick Valenti spent time in Naples studying the art of dough, crust, sauce and oven temperatures at the famous pizzerias Da Michele and Trianon.

Check out these videos from our friend Leff Lange. For pictures be sure to visit Jeff over at Mousesteps.

Patina Restaurant Group

Via Napoli was created by the renowned Patina Restaurant Group, which also operates the popular Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria at the Disneyland Resort and the Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria in New York City, which was awarded the coveted La Vera Pizza Napoletana certification.

Photo credit Jeff Lange

Good Eats – Paradiso 37 in Downtown Disney

Good Eats   Paradiso 37 in Downtown Disney

This high-energy restaurant and bar features cuisine from North, South and Central America at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island.  The lakeside eatery offers bites from mini-stuffed pita pockets to cheeseburgers and enchiladas plus an international wine bar, 37 kinds of tequila (hence the name) and 10 signature frozen margaritas.

The new concept was developed by Orlando-based E-Brands Restaurant Group.  The restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. until late night with nightly entertainment.

Check out this video of the inside of the restaurant:

Good Eats – La Cava del Tequila at Mexico Pavilion

Good Eats   La Cava del Tequila at Mexico Pavilion

The heritage and tradition of tequila-making in Mexico unfolds for guests at La Cava del Tequila, a new offering at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort.
Tucked away in the Mexico pavilion, La Cava del Tequila beckons guests with more than 70 types of authentic tequila, ranging from the simplest to the rarest of them all, aged to perfection and made from the finest distilled spirits from the agave plant. Tequilas range in price from $8 to $50 for a specialty tequila.
Amid warm décor, art work and original artifacts all celebrating the Mexican heritage, a “Tequila Ambassador” is on hand to educate Walt Disney World guests on the history of tequila-making.
Also on the drink menu: Exotic and uniquely blended margaritas, introducing a variety of flavored salts, spices and tropical fresh fruits masterfully prepared by experienced mixologists.  A variety of quick tastes, tapas style, will be available, including freshly made guacamole and ceviche as well as mahi mahi tostadas with diced mango and avocado and blue crab tostados with chipotle mayo and Valentina sauce.
The 30-seat La Cava del Tequila is open from noon until Epcot park closing time.  It is connected to the famous San Angel Inn as part of the Mexico pavilion, a popular stop for Walt Disney World guests.

Good Eats – Disneyworld’s Kouzzina by Cat Cora

Good Eats   Disneyworlds Kouzzina by Cat Cora

Kouzzina by Cat Cora is located in Disney’s BoardWalk at Walt Disney World Resort.

This is the first table-service restaurant for the celebrity chef, featuring a menu of Mediterranean-style cuisine that pays tribute to the Cat Cora family’s Greek roots.

Owned and operated by Disney and open daily for breakfast and dinner with seating for about 200 guests, the new restaurant features “time-honored recipes passed down from my ancestors, as well as my favorite Greek and Mediterranean dishes that my family loves,” Cora says.

As a Mississippi native born to a family of Greek restaurateurs, Cora grew up immersed in two different and flavorful cultures, and has taken from that unique background the kitchen “know-how” handed down through generations.  The cuisine at Kouzzina (Greek for “kitchen” and pronounced “koo-zee-nah”) showcases Mediterranean cuisine and Chef Cora’s philosophy to create simple yet sensational meals.

The restaurant’s spacious interior features an open kitchen, wooden tables and chairs and a walk-up pizza window for casual dining at outdoor tables on the boardwalk.  Breakfast specialties include Kouzzina’s signature blend of press-pot coffee and an icy Greek frappé with coffee, milk and natural sugar.  Sweet choices include steel-cut cinnamon oatmeal, blueberry orange granola pancakes and Greek-style yogurt with fresh fruit and house-made granola.  Savory breakfast creations include turkey-sweet potato hash with two eggs and arugula salad; the stacked Kouzzina breakfast with two poached eggs, kalamata olive toast, artichoke spread, sweet potato hash and bacon or chicken sausage; and spinach-tomato-feta scrambled eggs.

For dinner, Cora’s hand-selected beverage menu includes “Cat’s Ouzo-tini,” Mediterranean sangria and her own wine label, Coranation, featuring California wines.  Starters include crisp calamari, goat cheese-stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie and Spiro’s Greek Salad.  Entrées range from cinnamon stewed chicken to traditional whole fish and a char-grilled lamb burger, with sides such as chilled salt-roasted beets, smashed garlic-fried potatoes, sautéed brussel sprouts and herbed orzo with Greek olive oil and Kasseri cheese. A traditional baklava and dense, rich, chocolate budino are dessert favorites.

Cora began working with Disney in 2008 by creating a Disney Video on Demand series to showcase ways to help families develop more healthy eating habits.  The first and only female Iron Chef on Food Network’s hit show “Iron Chef America,” Cora is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York.  She also is executive chef for Bon Appétit magazine.  In addition to hosting the instructional cooking demonstrations for Disney Video on Demand, Cora has been a featured chef at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival and at Disney’s California Food & Wine Festival at Disneyland Resort.

Creating the Perfect Disney Dining Day – Where would you grab 3 meals and a snack?

Creating the Perfect Disney Dining Day   Where would you grab 3 meals and a snack?

I love planning for our Disney Vacations. Since I am always reading Disney News Articles, looking at Disney Food Photos, and running  a Disney website I try to think of different fun ways to plan for our next vacation. In between writing Disney Food Confessions and Top Eat articles this past week I thought what would be my Perfect Disney Dining Day. Start to finish if money were no object and I had ADR’s waiting on me anywhere. What places would I choose?

My wife and I have dined at almost every Disney restaurant over the years except for some of the Higher Priced Signature Restaurants and of course Club 33.

So out of all the restaurants I have dined at what places would make up the perfect day from Breakfast through dinner including one snack. Follow along with me as I pick my favorites and then afterwards let me know yours either here or over on Facebook.

BreakfastKona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort – Tonga Toast with bacon and Kona Coffee French Press & POG Juice. Earlier this year when we went to Walt Disney World we actually ate here twice it was so good! Truly a one of a kind breakfast item!

LunchLe Cellier Steakhouse Canadian Pavilion Epcot – After a hearty breakfast and armed with a magical metabolism I manage to be hungry again. So I stop off at Le Cellier for Cheddar Cheese Soup with Pretzel Bread, and a Medium Rare Steak. For dessert I dive into a Chocolate-on-Chocolate Whiskey Cake.

DinnerBoma Flavors of Africa Animal Kingdom Lodge – Fresh ingredients and unique African flavor this place is hands down my all time favorite place to eat at Disneyworld. The atmosphere is great, food even greater, and the service is spot on! This is the perfect meal to end the perfect day. But wait I almost forgot my snack.

SnackDole Whip from Aloha Isle in the Magic Kingdom – The Dole whip is one of my Top 10 Disney Desserts. It’s a perfect pairing for sitting at the Magic Kingdom and watching the fireworks. Since this is all hypothetical I am going to imagine I can take my time and eat this yummy dessert without it melting at all.

So that is my choices for Perfect Disney Dining Day. Now its your turn to let me know yours in the comment section below or on our Facebook Page.

This article is featured on the July edition of the Disney Blog Carnival.

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