Monday, August 21, 2006

Disneyland Resort
Corn Dog PalaceBack with a new post finally. Things have been busy since my parents and brother came into town, but I got a ton of great pictures from this past weekend's trip to Disneyland Resort. Corn dogs are one of my favorite treats at any kind of fair or amusement park. It's the perfect form of meat on a stick - yes, I even think corn dogs are better than chicken skewers. Blasphemy? Ah, well, it's a personal choice. The corn dogs at Disney's California Adventure were on par / above average than the usual corn dog from anywhere else. First off, we got a Hot Link Corn dog, not just a regular footlong hot dog. This monstrosity wasn't as LONG as one of those other ones, but it made up for length in MEATINESS. (yeah, this all sounds gross, but we're talking about corn dogs here! Mind out of the gutters!) Spicy, with good fried breading on the outside, this was a great treat before lunch. Unfortunately, a few complaints were of course the price, that topped 6 dollars. Yes, it does come with a small package of Lay's original potato chips, but really, 6 dollars? I guess I should have expected as much from a Disney Resort food product. The size comparison of this thing to my brother's head. This corn dog is NOT joking around. Neither is my brother. Each bite we doused in ketchup...we all shared one, which was plenty to tide us over until lunch (clam chowder bowls, sadly didn't get a picture of those.)

Now to the real deal - DINNER. I had originally wanted to take my family and Owen to Storyteller's Cafe, as it was relatively close (cutting through California Adventure or Downtown Disney) but I found out that they had gone the day before. As much as my brother wanted to go to the Blue Bayou, they were completely booked up. So I switched our reservation to Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. This was the appetizer platter for 4. So good! The red and white substance in the shot glasses were Oyster Shooters - "fresh Pacific oysters served in shot glasses with a Bloody Mary cocktail sauce ". These were huge oysters, and kind of hard to eat because you were supposed to swallow them? I didn't, I chewed on mine (I know, faux pas!) but they were good. The rest of the plate consisted of coconut shrimp, grilled andouille sausage and fried calamari with a Creole marinara. The coconut shrimp was sweet, but not overly so, very tasty. Calamari is calamari, I only get disappointed when a restaurant messes up on it...and this place did not. Trust me, there was nothing left on the plate. Everything was excellent.
Mom and I got this dish - Blue Crabmeat Topped Blackened Salmon
"Blackened salmon topped with blue crabmeat, served with garlic roasted fingerling potatoes, fresh watercress and a green onion herb vinaigrette." This was a great piece of salmon, rich and flavorful. The crabmeat was icing on the cake (well, yes, crabmeat on the salmon, more like.) The pool of sauce that the salmon was cooked in gave everything a great flavor. The fingerling potatoes were perfectly cooked, the greens were peppery fresh.
This is Owen's dish -Grilled Tournedos of Beef . "Two 3-ounce medallions of filet mignon, served with crawfish mashed potatoes, bacon pecan crusted baby green beans, and a red Zinfandel reduction." Owen was extremely happy as he finished this meal. The meat was perfect - he asked for it to be cooked "medium", but it was a little on the medium rare side which he preferred. I had a taste of the mashed potatoes - so decadent when mixed with the crawfish! He praised this dish over and over again. This was dad's Pasta Jambalaya. "A twist on a New Orleans favorite! Gulf shrimp, andouille sausage and roasted chicken tossed with spinach fettuccine and Creole seasonings". I didn't try this but his plate was cleaned so I'm assuming he liked it.
My brother's dish was Lobster & Shrimp Ravioli - "Housemade pasta pockets filled with Maine lobster and gulf shrimp, tossed in a champagne butter sauce. Finished with pan roasted shrimp and a tomato basil relish". I tried half of one of these, and they stuffed each of these ravioli's FULL of shellfishy goodness. Considering the number of shrimp they gave my brother with the ravioli, the ravioli itself AND the coconut shrimp appetizers...I think my brother got a pretty good dose of shrimp.

Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen is awesome! I haven't been disappointed yet (I've been maybe 3 times total). I think we actually lucked out that we couldn't get reservations to the Blue Bayou - their service is excellent but sometimes I am disappointed by their food - whereas Jazz Kitchen is great on both! My complaint for the night was the fact that we were probably seated a little too close to the live jazz band playing music, we couldn't even hear ourselves as we gave our orders to our jolly waiter. Fortunately, the band took a break before we started eating...our ears and stomachs were happy. For dessert later, Owen stopped by the Haagen Dazs ice cream shop in Downtown Disney. He got a Rocky Road Sparkler - a concoction of rocky road ice cream, thick fudge, oreo cookies, whipped cream and sprinkles. This was massive, and even though Owen loves chocolate...he was a little overdosed on this. The price tag to this heaping chocolate serving is also hefty too - almost 8 bucks!

Overall, some good food was eaten at Disneyland this past weekend...next time I go, I'm trying for one of those turkey legs!

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