We’ve arrived at the middle of the list, my friends.  Already ten dishes down, after today, we only have the All in WDW 2013 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Final Top 10 to go!  Let’s get moving!

15. Garlic Shrimp – Australia

Pre-Festival: 20

Change: +5

Frankly, with this one, I ran into the same problem that I had with the lobster … a little bit messy.  Just not quite as messy.  You have to pull the tails off the shrimp, after all.

Florida did the same thing with their Shrimp and Stone Ground Grits at this past Spring’s “Food” & Garden Festival.  The jambalaya-like flavors of that particular dish combined nicely with spicy andouille sausage and fresh corn to overcome the fact that a partnership of “shrimp tails” and grits turned me off.  The flavors, alone, carried that item into the #4 spot in my final Top 20.

Australia’s garlic-laden shrimp were tasty, but there just wasn’t enough flavor there to overcome the intrusion of dissecting shrimp, in my opinion.  Also, unlike “Food” & Garden’s shrimp, garlic shrimp, itself, is a bit on the ordinary side.  Sorry, Australia. I guess that “jambalaya” shrimp is a hard act to beat.

14. Seared Scallop – Brazil

Pre-Festival: 19

Change: +5

You’re going to think that I sound like a broken record, but I really think that a scallop dish should include at least two scallops.  Often, people like Mrs. All in WDW and I will share an item.  Do you know how hard it is to share a teeny, little scallop?  Of course you do.

Mainly because I didn’t have to get in there with my hands and pull tails, shells, or anything else off of the scallop, I did prefer this plate to Australia’s shrimp.  The tastes were pretty equal, but the scallop was a lot more “civilized” to eat.

Now, if you would bear with me for a moment, I would like to have a quick side-conversation with Epcot’s culinary “brain-trust”.  We absolutely LOVE your festival, but here’s an idea for you:

You’re charging $4.25 for this item.  We don’t expect you to double the protein’s portion size in order to satisfy the “sharers” among us without raising the price.  How about, say, $6.00 to have the choice of getting a second scallop included in the dish?  Just a thought.

13. Kimchi Dog – South Korea

Pre-Festival: 15

Change: +2

Oh, I hear you already.  A hot dog.  Really?  I don’t know what to say other than that I told you so.  We were served this little gem as an appetizer at the Tables in Wonderland preview event in late July.  I liked it then, and I liked it at the festival.

One word of advice?  Ask them to go light on the mustard.  For some reason, they drenched our first “dog” in a flood of spicy mustard.  Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. All in WDW and I like a spicy mustard, but it overpowered the kimchi slaw.  You really want to taste that spicy slaw.

We went back for a second helping on our last day in Disney, asked for less mustard, and really enjoyed the dish.

12. Grilled Lamb Chop – Australia

Pre-Festival: 18

Change: +6

You all know that I’m not a huge fan of lamb … at least not in the form of chops, so I’m going to let Rick Howard and Mrs. All in WDW speak to this one.  Rick?  Take it away.  “It’s nibble to the bone good.”

Well, that’s what Rick said on the 2012 episode of Travel with Rick that covered Australia.  How about Mrs. All in WDW?  Dear?

It’s just fabulous.  Delicious.  A simple dish, but the addition of the pesto and potato crunchies just lift it high above most everything in the entire festival.  It’s a nice portion, it’s consistently good every time, and it’s never disappointed me.  Bob can put it at #12 if he wants, but I nominate it for “best in show”!

11. Lamb Meatball – New Zealand

Pre-Festival: 17

Change: +6

With respect to Mrs. All in WDW, this is how I like to have lamb.  Lamb burgers, lamb sliders, and lamb meatballs.  Very yummy.  This particular version was extremely tasty last year as well.

Although you can’t see it, as its smothered in tomatoes, it’s a really nice sized meatball.  When it comes to flavor, the lamb was seasoned with just the right amount of spice.  That meat-to-bread ratio “thing” came into play again, though.

What I did was separate the dish a bit and eat a lot of the meatball without including the “bread bowl”.  I liked that much better!  Of course, combining the spicy tomato chutney with the bread was quite delicious too.

There you go, folks.  Tomorrow, we visit the Top 10!  Please leave your comments.  We love hearing what YOU have to say!