WDW 2011 Day 3 – Part Two

We limped out of Animal Kingdom (that place is a lot more walking than it looks!) and headed off to the Polynesian Resort for Kona Cafe’.

I will apologize now – quite a number of the pictures came out a bit fuzzy. The restaurant had deceptive lighting, and I didn’t realize immediately that the focus was slipping on the camera when doing closeups.

First the Hawaiian bread with whipped macadamia nut butter:

This thing DESERVES it’s reputation. Chris and I attacked the first one, and sheepishly had to get a second so mom could get a few bites.

Dad decided on the Mussels in Thai Curry Broth for his starter. Mom got the Kona Salad. Chris chose the shrimp and coconut curry soup. After looking over the selection of appetizers – I nixed the mussels and the crab cakes (c’mon – after Wolfgang?) and settled on trying the duck pot stickers.

The soup Chris thought was fair. A bit too much curry taste for me (yellow curry isn’t my favorite, but red is). The wontons were tasty, but felt they could have been punched up a bit. I don’t know that they were any better than the frozen gyoza I get at the japanese store.

Dinner:
Me: Shrimp and Scallops – Panko-breaded Shrimp and Pan-seared Scallops with Sticky Rice, Roasted Pepper Sauce, and spicy Passion Fruit-Orange-Guava Sauce
Chris and Dad: Tuna Oscar – served with Fried Green Tomatoes, Tempura-fried Jumbo Lump Crab, and Wasabi Hollandaise
Mom: Kona Coffee-rubbed Pork Chop

Mom’s

Mine

Chris’s

Dad’s

First off – Dad and Chris got the same thing, and Dad’s was MUCH nicer looking. The chef had a lovely presentation setup for his. Chris’ was dropped on the plate.

The tuna was flavorful though, but some of the asparagus was bitter. The fried green tomatoes (a first for both of us) were interesting. A pretty good dish.

Mine was quite good (though I skimmed around the fruit sauce again). The scallops were cooked perfectly (so easy to get that wrong) and the shrimp was definitely freshly made. The menu doesn’t mention, but there was a julienned veggie stir-fry served with it that was very tasty.

Desserts:

Chris got the Kilauea Torte (basically a lava cake) – which is supposed to be a chocolate cookie dough instead of cake for the outside. Chris said it definitely had a cookie-er taste / texture to it, but the rest of us couldn’t tell.

Dad got pineapple upsidedown cake.

Mom got a cheesecake.

As soon as I looked over the sample items they have on display, I knew what I wanted. The one thing at Kona that is too ridiculous NOT to get. The one thing that will make every child in the place stare at you in envy. The Kona Kone. There is no description for this on the menu online, and I don’t know if it is so they can change it as needed or it just must be seen to believe but….

You take a waffle cone. Set it in a cast-iron looking spiral-shaped cone-holder on a plate. Place 2 scoops of ice cream in the cone. Add chocolate syrup. Add mickey sprinkles. Take a solid chocolate spike, paste a chocolate printed mickey head on it, and stick it in the ice cream. Then proceed to put chocolate candies (like m&m’s) on the plate. Then, THEN, take an entire serving of cotton candy and wrap it around the base of the cone holder! The sugar monstrosity you will have is this:

I will not lie – I got about 4 bites of this thing and my body screamed “you can NOT handle all that sugar!”. I ate most of the cotton candy (I’m a sucker for it) and kicked out the vanilla for some of the chocolate ice cream below. I was far too full for more though.