Favorite Options – Disney’s Beaches and Cream

One of these days, I will finally make my way to Beaches and Cream on Disney World’s Boardwalk.  This super popular eatery is home to some very famous Disney dishes!  Just in time for summer weather, Nick gives us some recipes for ice cream treats we can make at home!

Favorite Options – Disney’s Beaches and Cream

By Nick

On Episode 32 of The Disney Exchange Podcast, Lisa, Dave and I share our choices for a progressive dinner around the Epcot area resorts. For those who don’t know, a progressive dinner is a group meal where each course is served at a different venue.

Both Dave and I chose to have our dessert at Beaches and Cream at Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club, and that is because the ice cream and atmosphere is wonderful.

My wife, Barbie and I have eaten here many times through the years. I’m going to share some of our favorites, in no particular order.

The No Way Jose. Below is a photo of me encountering this absolutely delicious (especially if you like peanut butter) dessert for the first time!

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What’s in the No Way Jose?
  1. 2 scoops Chocolate Ice Cream
  2. 2 scoops Vanilla Ice Cream
  3. 1/2 cup Jif Smooth Peanut Butter
  4. 1/2 cup Hot Fudge Sauce
  5. 1-2 tablespoons Peanut Butter Morsels
  6. 1-2 tablespoons Chocolate Morsels
  7. Reddi-Wip (or good quality) Whipped Cream
  8. Cherry

Next, we have The Banana Split. Barbie doesn’t even like bananas, but loves this.

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This “Classic” consists of Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry ice cream, pineapple, strawberry and marshmallow toppings finished off with hot fudge, caramel, toasted almonds, whipped cream and a cherry.

Then there is the famous Kitchen Sink, which is, well…this.

Barbie and I have shared this monstrosity with our friends Kandi and John on a few occasions.

Here’s a listing of what this amazing dessert includes:

  • fudge topping, warmed
  • butterscotch topping, warmed
  •  peanut butter topping, warmed
  • 1 medium banana, sliced in 1/2 –inch slices
  • 1 cinnamon spice cupcake, quartered
  • 1 angel food cupcake, quartered
  • 2 4-oz. scoops vanilla ice cream
  • 2 4-oz. scoops chocolate ice cream
  • 2 4-oz. scoops strawberry ice cream
  • 1 4-oz. scoop mint chocolate chip ice cream
  • 1 4-oz. scoop coffee ice cream
  • 3 tablespoons chocolate syrup
  •  marshmallow crème
  •  strawberry topping
  •  pineapple topping
  • 1 14-oz can dairy whipped topping
  • 1 brownie, quartered
  • 1 regular-sized (2 ounce) candy bar, quartered
  • 4 chocolate cookies (oreos-basically) with cream filling
  • 1 tablespoon sliced toasted almonds
  • 1 tablespoon dark and white chocolate shavings
  • 1 tablespoon chocolate cookies with cream filling, crushed
  • 1 tablespoon chopped jellied orange slice
  • 1 tablespoon milk chocolate chip morsels
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter chip morsels
  • 1 tablespoon chocolate sprinkles
  • 1 tablespoon rainbow sprinkles
  • 1/2 cup drained maraschino cherries

But Beaches and Cream is more than just ice cream. They also have really tasty burgers, fries and onion rings.

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Have you ever eaten at Beaches and Cream, and what did you have?

 

To read more about Nick’s amazing Disney adventures, visit the Disney Musings Blog and follow him on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Pinterest.  You can also listen to Nick, our friend Dave, and me on The Disney Exchange Podcast where we talk about our love for all things Disney – new episodes every Sunday morning.

Tangierine Café in Epcot

This week’s Saturdays With Nick post is a restaurant review of a place our family has yet to try.  We’ve stopped in Epcot’s Morocco Pavilion plenty of times, but have yet to eat at any of the restaurants there – opting instead to shop or enjoy live music.  After reading this review, I’m adding Tangierine Café to my must-try list!  Have you eaten in Morocco?  Which restaurant would you recommend?

Tangierine Café in Epcot

By Nick

Like Flame Tree Barbecue at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, The Tangierine Café, located in Epcot’s Morocco Pavilion, is a quick service eatery that we don’t visit on every trip to Walt Disney World, despite it being one of our favorites.

We’ve visited on several visits to WDW, usually to meet with friends at their request.
The menu is on display outside to help you make a decision before entering.
Orders are made and picked up at the counter.

Seating is somewhat limited inside and out. The larger dining section is to be found in front of the counter.

There is also a smaller, more intimate seating area past the coffee/dessert counter.
October 2013 we ate with our friends Pam and Tom, and this is the section we dined in.

On that trip I had the Mediterranean Lamb Wrap, served with Tangierine couscous salad and lentil salad. Barbie had the Vegetarian Platter which is Tangierine couscous salad, hummus and tabouleh.

Both excellent.

In January 2014 we went with friends Claire, Laurie, and Angelo.

Angelo, Laurie, Claire, Barbie and me.
I look forward to stopping by this wonderful eatery on my next trip!
Tangierine Café’s menu can be found here.

To read more about Nick’s amazing Disney adventures, visit the Disney Musings Blog and follow him on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Pinterest.  You can also listen to Nick, our friend Dave, and me on The Disney Exchange Podcast where we talk about our love for all things Disney.

Disney Dream – Dinner at Remy

Remy-TableOne of the best things aboard a Disney Cruise is the opportunity to enjoy adults-only dining.  I am not ashamed to say – dining without children around is sometimes a rare treat on a Disney vacation…One we’re inclined to take full advantage of!  When sailing on the Magic and the Wonder, our choice for this was Palo – which we have loved every single time we’ve been there.  On the Dream, we had two choices for grown-up dining and opted to try them both.  Palo as a tried and true favorite and Remy as a new and highly anticipated experience – so much so, we booked both brunch and dinner.  For today, let’s just focus on one particular meal…

Disney Dream – Dinner at Remy

If you’re interested in a night out sans little ones, Remy is an excellent choice.  We were delighted with our meal, in fact, and I have only glowing, positive things to say about it.  So, in the manner I so often employ, let me give you FIVE good reasons to enjoy a dinner at Remy.Remy-chair

  1. The atmosphere – I’ll do my best to describe the setting, but Remy’s ambiance will need to be experienced in order to truly appreciate every detail.  The restaurant is named for the famous chef from Ratatouille and there is no shortage of Remy references and tributes throughout the dining room.  The  hostess, Maître D’, and servers are French and their pride in the restaurant and the service delivered is obvious from the moment of arrival until the final au revoir.  Remy-displayThe tables, chairs, lighting, windows…so much attention to detail is incredible.  There are even little padded footstools near each table in case a guest should need a place to set down a handbag.
  2. You like a culinary adventure – Remy boasts two world-class chefs – one French and one American – Chef Arnaud Lallement of L’Assiette Champenoise restaurant (two-Michelin-stars) located near Reims, France and Chef Scott Hunnel from Walt Disney World’s Victoria & Albert’s.  The two chefs present two different six-course meals and guests may choose one of those to enjoy OR meals can be built of separate, individual menu offerings.  Remy-menuI chose the six courses presented by Chef Hunnel and Raymond preferred to build his own meal from the a la carte menu options.  Both meals are accompanied by “surprises” (amuse-bouche) from the kitchen sent out by the chefs during the meal.  Remy-amuse-boucheOur first surprise was a tiny brown ball that looked rather like a small hush-puppy, but was instead a delicately wrapped “bite” of tomato soup!  The second offering was a foie gras foam with macadamia nuts topping a bit of salted caramel.  Remy-foie-gras-foamThis sounded so ridiculous, but was, in fact, absolutely wonderful.  The rest of the courses would take many hundreds of words more to describe (ask me if you have any questions), but included things like shrimp, duck, sablefish (personally my favorite part of this meal), Kobe steak, pork tenderloin, chicken, and more.  Dessert for both of us included a lot of chocolate.Remy-plate Remy-sablefish Remy-duck Remy-presentation Remy-dessert Remy-dessert2
  3. The exquisite service – Alexia was amazing!  Remy-AlexiaShe helped us through all our food selections (with her gorgeous French accent) and as our courses kept being presented and we gradually got fuller and fuller – we were confronted with a real dilemma – the cheese course.  Had this surprise on a cart arrived bearing anything other than cheese, we could have resisted, but it was full of CHEESE!  Remy-cheese-cartAlexia understood that we were quickly running out of intestinal real estate but wanted to taste all the cheeses, so she prepared tiny samples of 12 different cheeses with their dried fruits and honeycomb accompaniments for us to try.  Remy-cheesesShe placed the cheeses on the plate in a particular, circular order and explained their presentation from hard and mild to softer, to the most strongly flavored.  We were even presented with a list of the cheeses to take with us!  Remy-cheese-listIf you love cheese like we do, this alone was worth the price of admission (see #5).
  4. Romance – There’s a dress code at Remy.  There’s candlelight and lovely china and table linens.  We like dressing up from time to time and acting like mature human beings, plus, we enjoy each other’s company.  26 years of marriage is not something that happens by accident.  Remy was the perfect combination of delicious dining in a romantic setting – exactly right for spending the evening with your favorite person in the world.
  5. You have an extra $400 lying around.  The up-charge to dine at Remy is $85 per person.  If you don’t want to pay for water with your meal (there are a staggering number of pricy options), specify TAP WATER.  If you opt for the wine pairing offered with each course, add $105 per person.  We (having learned our lesson about wine-pairing-perils at Jiko) opted for a single bottle of wine – one of the more economical offerings – with help from the sommelier for $187.  Remy-wineOnce gratuity was added…well, we’d spent much more on this meal than we’d intended.  Was it worth it?  YES!  Raymond and I both gave this experience a resounding two thumbs up, but for sure it needs to be accurately budgeted!

What about you?  Have you dined at Remy?  What did you think about the experience?  If you’re planning a Disney cruise in the future, is this something you’d splurge on?

Disney Dining Review – Narcoossee’s

Narcoossee's ViewWith so many restaurants to choose from at Walt Disney World it can take quite a while sometimes to make a repeat visit to one.  In the case of Narcoossee’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, it took us 26 years to dine there for a second time.  Certainly this wasn’t because we didn’t enjoy our first dinner there.  We really did have a great experience.  It’s just that on the next several Disney vacations, we had children with us and chose more kid-friendly options.

Disney Dining Review – Narcoossee’s

A few weeks ago we finally made our way back to Narcoossee’s and were pleasantly surprised that the experience was even better than we remembered!  Excellent menu, delicious food, top notch service, and a couple of seasonal extra-special surprises made the evening absolutely wonderful.  Narcoossee’s is a signature dining location, so it takes two table service credits if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan…is it worth it?  We think so.  (See current menu here.)Narcoossee's Dining Room

Narcoossee’s is located on the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon.  The décor is beautiful and, on the night we dined there, we were mostly among other adults with a few families that had mostly older children.  The tables offer great views (even if you’re not sitting right next to a window) and the open kitchen is entertaining in its own way.  Narcoossee's Open KitchenOne thing we noticed right away was that our server, Tom, was a professional – he knew how to pace our meal and how to add the extra touches that made what we thought would be a nice dinner into an extra special one.Narcoossee's BreadOf course, bread came first and we ordered appetizers and a bottle of wine.  The menu offered so many tempting items, we actually passed up an artisanal cheese offering (so unlike us!) in favor of the Maine Lobster Bisque for Raymond and the Prince Edward Island Mussels to share.  Narcoossee's Lobster Bisque Narcoossee's Mussels AppetizerWe were very pleased with our selections.  When we finished, Tom brought us warm towels for hand-washing and suggested we take our wine out onto the deck to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks.    Narcoossee's Hot TowelsTom promised to hold our entrees until we returned and encouraged us to enjoy the show.  How great was this??!!  We stepped outside and spent the next little while sipping wine and taking in the view.Narcoossee's view of MK fireworks Narcoossee's view of fireworks at MKAs promised, when we returned to our table, our entrees were delivered and they were delicious!  Raymond opted for the Key West Shrimp and Garganelli Pasta (“Wild Florida Shrimp, Spinach, Oven-roasted Tomatoes, Basil Pistou, Comté Cheese, and Chardonnay-Garlic Cream“) Narcoossee's Pasta Entreewhile I chose the Coriander and Shichimi-spiced Seared Ahi Tuna (“Charred Beans, Gai-lan, Green Papaya, and Sesame Sticky Rice with Ginger-Kaffir Lime Broth“), which sounds fussy and complicated, but was actually pretty straight forward in both presentation and flavor.  The seared tuna was the star of the show and the rest was a perfect supporting cast.  Narcoossee's Tuna EntreeGenerally, we’re huge fans of spicy, well seasoned foods and these entrees fit the bill perfectly.  Completely satisfied, we decided to catch the little boat from the Grand Floridian back to the Polynesian, then use the stroll from the boat dock to the Moorea building to digest a bit before calling it a night.  Grand Floridian Boat TransportationWe noticed the outdoor movie had drawn a small crowd and appreciated again how those great Disney touches can make vacations so magical.Polynesian Movie Night Inside OutWe gave Narcoossee’s a definite thumbs-up!  Have you enjoyed Narcoossee’s?  Was your experience similar to ours?  If you haven’t eaten there before, has this restaurant even made it onto your dining wish list?