Here are some quick tips for fun food events this week at EPCOT, SeaWorld, Disney Springs and beyond.
Wild-caught Florida shrimp are available year-round, but we’re in peak season right now. Check out the new print issue of Edible Orlando for a shrimp linguine recipe from Chef Andy Bates, one of the emerging faces of Central Florida cuisine featured in the issue. That’s his recipe at the top of the page with coconut milk, ginger, and fresh greens.
Edible Orlando writer John Graham is always on the hunt for the best bits of fun food around Orlando. John scoured the calendar, narrowed it down to just “the musts,” and has the scoop for the next couple weeks.
Ongoing
wing photo by Matt Stroshane
The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival is back at Walt Disney World through Nov. 18 with 25 food marketplaces serving up small-plate portions of unique food and drink from around the world with six more to come as the festival continues. New this year is the Brew-Wing Lab with flavors including “unnecessarily spicy, yet extremely tasty” Scotch bonnet pepper-curry wings with cucumber yogurt as well as peanut butter and jelly sticky wings. In the American Adventure pavilion, Flavors of America will be dishing up Italian beef sandwiches, cioppino (Italian seafood stew), and chilaquiles (the Mexican breakfast with corn tortilla chips and chicken in salsa, topped with a poached egg). In-park dining requires a park reservation and valid admission for the same park on the same date for each person in your party ages 3 and up.
SeaWorld Orlando’s Craft Beer Festival continues, Fridays through Sundays, until Sept. 4. The weekend festival features more than 100 beers, wines, seltzers, and cocktails plus 20 food items paired to your beer(s) of choice. New foods include fried cheese curds, short rib poutine, michelada shrimp ceviche, and churro cheesecake. The festival is included with park admission, but, of course, you buy your food and beverages.
Saturday, August 5
National Oyster Day is always August 5, which is a Saturday this year. Check your local favorite seafood spots (The Boathouse, Lee & Rick’s, Wine 4 Oysters, High Tide Harry’s) for specials; The Wharf at Sunset Walk in Kissimmee will be doing BOGO raw oysters all day.
Monday, August 7
Orlando Master Sommelier George Miliotes is teaching a wine tasting class at his Wine Bar George at Disney Springs, Mondays and Tuesdays in August, 12 – 1:30 p.m. Students will blind taste six wines selected by Miliotes and learn what it takes to become a master sommelier. The class also includes cheese and charcuterie. Tickets are $110 per person before taxes and fees.
Saturday, August 12
The Longwood location of Hourglass Brewing is celebrating its 11th anniversary with the Against All Odds Beer Festival, 12 – 4 p.m. The party covers all 25 taps of Hourglass beers, including anniversary offerings, plus 20 taps featuring brewers from around the southeast. General admission tickets are $65, or $100 for VIP early access. After the festival ends, Hourglass Brewing will reopen to regular customers at 5 p.m.
Sunday, August 13
Sure, you can pair beer and liquor with a hamburger or fried chicken, but RockPit Brewing is pairing adult bevvies with ice cream. The $30 beer and cocktail class, 7 – 8 p.m., is led by certified cicerone Ken Frye. The menu is still being written but we know it will include four pairings of RockPit beer or moonshine cocktails with four scoops of ice cream from What the Fudge Ice Cream & Cookies.
Tuesday, August 15
Looking for shrimp gumbo and okra fried rice? Truffles & Trifles is teaching a class on the cuisine of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, North Carolina, 6:30 – 10 p.m. The class is $85 per person. Other dishes on the menu include a low country boil, tomato pie, catfish stew, and the sesame seed cookie called a benne wafer.
Wednesday, August 16 
Celebrity chef Roberto Treviño (Iron Chef, Beat Bobby Flay) will host and cook a special ticketed dinner at his Chicharron Grill inside Marketplace at Avalon Park, 6 – 9 p.m. Chicharron Grill is casual food, but for this dinner, Treviño will pull from the menus of two restaurants he has in Puerto Rico. Planned items include chicken chicharron, pork dumplings, churrasco (grilled beef), pork belly, and tembleque (coconut pudding). Individual tickets for the night are $195 with vino or $175 without. There’s also a discount for couples’ tickets.
Friday, August 18
Orlando Magical Dining starts tonight, six weeks to visit some of Central Florida’s most popular restaurants and try special three-course, prix fixe dinners. Several Michelin Guide honorees are participating including BACÁN, Kabooki Sushi, Z Asian, The Pinery, The Ravenous Pig, AVA MediterrAegean, and Ravello. New this year, restaurants are charging either $40 or $60 per person (plus tax and gratuity) with up to two dollars per meal supporting local charities including The Lifeboat Project, an organization that raises awareness of human trafficking.
Taste! Central Florida returns, 6 – 10 p.m., for one of Orlando’s big charity food and beverage tasting events, or, as organizers like to say, “partying with a purpose.” For each $200 ticket, you can sample food from 40 local restaurants and 16 beverage companies gathered at the Orlando World Center Marriott. The night raises funds to support Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida.
For more inspiration, visit our archives.
