I had the lovely opportunity to visit Disneyland last week with my wonderful friend Vanessa. Unfortunately I am still undergoing a bit of an issue with my heart I couldn't rage as hard as the Disney adult in my soul wanted me to. On the bright side though I got to eat a whole bunch of food and chillax which are two of my favorite things. I am no Gordon Ramsay but I did see him in person at a taping of MasterChef so I think that basically makes me his apprentice. Nevertheless, I am going to attempt to go through all the holiday and non-holiday items I tried so you don't waste your money on them if you go.
We started our Holiday food journey at California Adventure. My friend and I had already started the day with McD's hashbrowns and sausage mcmuffins (*please boycott McDonald's and Disney* this was before I learned about them being pro-Israel/genocide, I will provide further resources at the end of this post if you’re interested) so we weren't completely in the breakfast mood. However, I needed to find something to eat so I could take my meds, so me and Vanessa did spend a solid 20 minutes looking for a food that wouldn't make me feel too sick and would let me take my medicine. So technically speaking, the first item I ate was a bag of grapes. I will give the grapes a solid 8/10. They were cold and not too mushy. However, they didn't have that grape crunch/snap that I love oh so much. Overall not a bad start to the day.
Next up we had another non-holiday item, however I had never had them before so I am going to review it. We tried the QuesaBirria tacos and I am 100% not qualified to critique these because I had never had any birria tacos before. I thought they were good but, I know they could have been better. My friend described them as "mid" and I agree but also we are two judgemental people with high standards so take this review with a grain of salt 8/10.
I then proceeded to pretty much only eat dessert for the rest of the day because I could. First I tried the pumpkin cheesecake from one of the holiday festival booths. I liked it but the description for it was inaccurate. It was described as having a layer of "pumpkin gooey cake" on top of a layer of "New York cheesecake." I strongly disagree with this description because there was no "pumpkin gooey cake" it was just pumpkin pie filling. It was still pretty good, just don't listen to the description. The cheesecake was definitely one of the best items I tried. I would give it a 9/10. The next dessert was the peppermint bark sundae from Ghiradelli. I love ghiradelli but this sundae was not my favorite (I had a better one at Disneyland I'll talk about later.) It was basically a hot fudge sundae with candy cane pieces instead of nuts. I needed more peppermint and more hot fudge. I think if the ice cream had been peppermint I would have liked it more but, as it stands I'll give it a 7.5/10.
My tummy hurt after this (not lactose related at all shut up). The next time we ate was around 8pm and I got a kid's mac and cheese in Radiator Springs. It was essentially KFC mac and cheese. It was a little mushed up which was weird, and it was room temperature when I got it which I did not like. I gave it a 6/10. After my 4th dairy meal of the day I needed something different. We had a pomegranate limeade with vodka while we were in Radiator Springs. It was right up my mom's alley. After every non-alcoholic drink she tastes without fail, she says "This would be better with vodka." I couldn't taste the vodka and I'm sure that it would have been delicious without it as well but its a good uption if you want to get crunk with Lightening McQueen 8/10.
After we rode Guardians of the Galaxy 3 times I decided I had screamed all the lactose out of my body and now I needed to eat more ice cream! Oh no! We headed back to Ghiradelli and Vanessa watched me go ham on a Nob Hob Chill while she made several dirty jokes. That was delicious and it now haunts my dreams. I wake up in a cold sweat yearning for that Nob Hob Chill (Vanessa if you make any jokes you're homophobic.) It was like a milkshake with hot fudge and mini chocolate chips, it gets a full 10/10.
We left DCA and headed to our hotel where we planned to get a pizza however we both knocked out as soon as we touched the bed so that plan failed. We made up for it the next morning by chugging a strawberry milk and getting a pizza for breakfast when we got to Disneyland. Our day started at the Red Rose Tavern where we ordered a pepperoni flatbread, some loaded tater tots, the Holiday Punch, and the Mocha Peppermint Taverne Cold Brew. I'll review them in order of best to worst. The flatbread was good, not mindblowing, it did give me heartburn but of course it did 7/10. I liked the Holiday Punch itself but, it had a weird cold foam on top of it that I did not like. It wasn't very special and it didn't taste like Christmas 7/10. The loaded tater tots were decent but the cheese sauce was so heavy and it tasted like movie theater nacho cheese. They also gave me heartburn and it was definitely a mistake to eat them at 11am 6/10. We saved the worst for last, the Mocha Peppermint Taverne was despicable. It was excessively sweet and artificial tasting. It left a horrible taste in both of our mouths and almost ruined our day. Vanessa said, "It tastes like someone ate peppermint and shat it into a cup." I would say that is an accurate description. We couldn't even save it with more creamer and for that it gets a 1/10.
That cold brew burned a hole in our mouths and stomachs but we had reservations for lunch at Cafe Orleans so we fought through it. God gives her hurtiest tummies to her hottest girls. For lunch we got the Cafe Orleans Pre-Fix menu, it was pretty basic and incredibly overpriced. I ordered it just to try the dessert which I recommend you avoid.
For our first course we had the gumbo which was actually really good. It was spiced very well and was definitely the best food we ate at the parks. My only issue with it was the rice was very dry and chewy, I think it had been sitting out a while 8.5/10. Our second course was the Monte Cristo Sandwich with Pommes Frites and it was meh. I loved the Pomme Frites but, I think the Monte Cristo was defnitely overhyped. It definitely gave me a tummy ache 6/10. The dessert was the most disappointing thing. I was so stoked for the Christmas Yule Log but it was really weird and kind of gross. It had some sort of mousse on the outside which was honestly the best part of it. However, the cake was dry, the filling was too sweet, and had a taste that I could not figure out. There was also some weird orange sauce under in that just tasted like sweet 4/10. I also tried something called the Bayou Punch, for a reason unbeknownst to me, it was way too sweet 5/10. That drink was so disappointing, I went next door to the Mint Julep Bar and got a Huckleberry Mint Julep. It was amazing and by far the best fun little drink I had at the park. The only con is its packed and even to mobile order it I had to wait an hour 9/10.
The last 3 things I ate were all sweet items, the first 2 were from Galactic Grill.
I tried the Galactic Holiday Punch not to be confused with the other Holiday Punch from the Red Rose. I liked this one less than the one I had earlier in the day. It was too sweet, half carbonated, and had a vanilla taste that did not belong 6/10. Next
I tried the Cranberry Orange Parfait. It had a cranberry orange cake with cream cheese icing topped with a cream puff. The cake itself was delicious and I could have eaten a whole slice of that. The cream puff is where they went wrong. It was soggy and the cream inside had an overpowering bitter aftertaste that was very unpleasant. Disney please just give us the cake sometimes less is more 7/10. The final thing I ate was the Peppermint Sundae at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor. This was better than the sundae I had the day before. It had peppermint ice cream, whipped cream, and oreos. I think if it had had hot fudge it would have been perfect 9/10.
Overall, I had a great time and ate some decent food. I highly recommend the Nob Hob Chill and you don't even have to go to Disneyland to try it! I love when places have themed foods and I always think they are worth a try. The food at Disneyland is not fantastic and I don't think it ever will be but, I appreciate the thought they put into all of their food. My advice for if you have plans to go to Disneyland during the holidays are go with a friend so you can try all the seasonal foods and please for the love of god avoid that Mocha Peppermint Taverne Cold Brew.
TRIGGER WARNING
The following is a small breakdown of the Israel-Palestine conflict, more resources, and how you can support the people of Palestine.
If you are on any form of social media at all, I am sure you have received some type of information about the current conflict in Israel and Palestine. As it stands, this current “war” is the most recent event in a conflict spanning 75 years, (if you’d like to look more into it I will be linking more resources at the end of this) however today I will only be discussing the current events. A simple breakdown of the current situation in Palestine is this; Israel has one of the largest militaries in the world, is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance in the world (with a $105 billion funding plan being petitioned for by Biden currently to help them indiscriminately slaughter Palestinians), and therefore has an incredible amount of support and ability to continue a horrible attack on the people of Palestine in which the majority are civilians. Whereas Palestine is internationally classified as a “terrorist country” meaning they are legally not allowed to have a standing military, meaning they have no real way to defend themselves. It is being severely misrepresented in the mass media (especially if you’re in America, you’re getting a biased viewpoint because Biden supports Israel) as a war. In order to be literally categorized/considered a war, there have to be two sides with the ability to attack and defend. Israel has that ability, Palestine doesn’t have a standing military, it’s not a war, it’s a genocide. There is the mention of Hamas, a terrorist group which originated with Israel’s own funding (though that’s not of a huge amount of importance), which is Israel’s supposed reason for bombing Palestine, but most of the bombings have been purposely dropped onto schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods where innocent people and a disproportionate amount of children are. Israel has publicly stated that they wish to “destroy Hamas”, but actively choose to kill people who have nothing to do with the terrorist group. This is a genocide, they are murdering civilians in the name of “destroying Hamas”. On October 7th, Israel officially cut off Gaza’s electricity and blocked fuel deliveries and therefore people in Gaza are unable to communicate with the outside world and are starving to death amongst the airstrikes and other attacks that are leading many to a horribly violent and early death. To be pro-Israel at this time is to be pro-genocide. It is important to state that being Pro-Palestine is not being anti-Semitic. Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism.
Okay, now here is where I am going to briefly push my “agenda” onto you. Currently Disney is among one of the many companies that is donating money to the Israeli government while they continue to kill thousands of innocent Palestinian children. I don't have much of a platform, but it is important that the people who do follow me are aware of what is going on in the world. This is not a "both sides are wrong" issue. One side has one of the most advanced militaries in the world and one does not even have an army. Hamas is a horrible organization and terrorist group, but it's important to know that Israel has been killing Palestinians long before October 7th and the world is only now deciding to pay attention. In addition, because Hamas is ruling Palestine, does it make it okay to take out the entire country of innocents and justify the genocide of a whole people, of which, in case you’re unaware, there is a large amount of Jewish people as well? People are being killed for stepping outside, there is no power, food, or water; this is unacceptable. Please, if you are reading this, call or write to your representatives and demand a ceasefire. This should be a no-brainer. Supporting Palestine is being a decent human being. There is a genocide going on and we can't stand by and watch. This is a call to action, if you are reading this pay attention to what is going on and do your own research. There are so many ways to support Palestine whether you have the money to donate or not. Please don't just stand by and watch people get slaughtered. I'll put some links below to different resources where you can donate and educate yourself on what is happening.
RESOURCES
Masterdocs of resources to learn and help Palestine:
Contact your representatives and demand ceasefire:
Opportunities to donate:
Donate to Palestine’s Children’s Relief fund: https://www.pcrf.net/
Free way to donate!: https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/thank-you/
More:
Places to boycott (pro-Israel organizations and companies):
Additional Resources
To read more about Palestine and support Palestinian authors: https://soniasulaiman.com/readpalestinianspecfic-reading-list/
To learn more about Palestine and its history in general: https://decolonizepalestine.com/
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