It’s time to give us a bit of a break, I think.  I’ve had you carving through so many Food & Wine items that you must be exhausted!  I know that I am!  Of course, we’ll only allow ourselves a brief amount of “kick back and chill out” time.  After all, the festival is only 32 days away, and we have a lot of work to do yet!

What do we look like after yesterday?

From Group #4, the items that you selected as “safe” (for now) include:

• Shrimp Ceviche – Florida
• Berbere-Style Beef – Africa
• Cheddar Cheese Soup – Canada

You eliminated:

• Potato Pierogie – Poland
• Gratinated Mussels – New Zealand

From Group #5, the items that you selected as “safe” (for now) include:

• Ravioli – Italy
• Shrimp Taco – Mexico
• Blue Cheese Soufflé – Cheese

You “gave the axe” to:

• Kefta Pocket – Morocco
• Pineapple Fritters – Refreshment Port

Our thoughts with regard to these two groups are, pretty much, completely in line.  For example, I’m very confident that the Shrimp Ceviche, Berbere-Style Beef, Ravioli, and Shrimp Taco will make my Pre-Festival Top 25.

First, the Shrimp Ceviche gets rave reviews, and, since I haven’t tried it yet, I think it’s high time I give it a chance.  The Ravioli and Shrimp Taco may sound a bit on the ordinary side, but you’ll have to trust me when I say that they are VERY MUCH worth the shot.  They both finished in All in WDW’s Top 5 in 2012 with the ravioli winning the #3 slot and the taco landing at #5.  Finally, an Ethiopian chili pepper-spiced beef sounds too intriguing not to sample.  It has to be on the menu.

There are a lot of new things I’ll be trying this year, like Africa’s Berbere-Style Beef. There are also a lot of things that have been around for a while that I’ll be giving a first chance, like Florida’s Shrimp Ceviche. Finally, there are some dishes that I left off of 2012′s sampling menu (because of their poor performance in 2011) that are going to get a chance at redemption. These include Argentina’s Beef Empanada and Ireland’s Fisherman’s Pie … items that you, too, have already passed through these first few rounds of “voting”.

Why do I tell you this? It’s because the inclusion of all of these new, newly-to-be-sampled, and second-chance dishes are going to push some very popular items completely out of my cross-hairs … like Poland’s Potato Pierogie and Canada’s Cheddar Cheese Soup.  Oh, the shock!  Well, maybe not for the pierogie, eh?

Yes.  I have been to Le Cellier.  And, yes.  I have had this famed soup.  It is outstanding … especially if you use it as a place to dunk a piece of the restaurant’s yummy pretzel bread.  The fact of the matter is that there are just other things on the initial list of 61 dishes that intrigue me much more than this signature cup of soup.  It, unfortunately, can’t make my cut.

In the meantime, however, Le Cellier’s “gem” survives your vote.  Its ‘cheddar cheese delicious-ness’ is still safe when it come to the All in WDW Readers’ Pre-Festival Top 25.  By the way, keep up-to-date with our progress on our Readers’ Pre-Festival Top 25 page.

Have a great Sunday, my friends!  Enjoy!  We’ll be back!