Camberville Cuisine

We didn’t start out 2010 in particularly great health; our recent trip to Florida left us both down for the count (yes, even the Korean who doesn’t get sick) for almost two weeks. But last Friday, Hyoun and I were both finally feeling well enough to go out and socialize. Take that, 2010! We started off the night with a small group at Oishii, where we always eat very, very well – primarily ordered family style:

- coho salmon with Japanese strawberries
- “treasure box” – came in a three-drawer box. The top drawer had maguro (lean tuna) and mackerel sashimi; the middle drawer had oysters; the bottom drawer had a truffle risotto and seared black cod. Om nom nom.
- tuna tempura maki – deep-fried on the outside, fresh on the inside
- alligator maki – shrimp tempura inside; eel, roe, avo, scallion outside
- pear maki with kobe beef and pears marinated in sweet red wine on the outside
- white tiger maki: tuna, tobiko, avo, and cucumber rolled in white seaweed with a wasabi lemon sauce
- benytate maki: unagi, avo covered with mutzu, momijioroshi, benytate (a bitter microgreen)
- sudachi and seared hamachi maki: cucumber, spicy mayo, tobiko covered with hamachi, black tobiko, sweet miso sauce and sudachi (Japanese lime)
- rock shrimp explosion maki: tempura rock shrimp and avo rolled in white seaweed with brown rice chip and wasabi lemon sauce, along with enough popcorn shrimp to overflow the plate.
- tuna and mango with baby ginger on crispy seaweed squares (my favorite “dessert” there.)

I, being the gigantic geek that I am, tweeted about this, and then Joanne Chang (of Myers and Chang fame) tweeted me back about how Chef Ting was a master, and I had a mini geekout because I get way more excited talking food with food people than any other subject with other celebrities these days; especially those embracing the same communication mediums I use. HELLO FUTURE, I AM STILL A BIT OF A FANGIRL AT AGE 32.)

So Hyoun and I went to Disney World for Christmas, and my foodie expectations were given a swift kick in the pants.

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was the best choice we could possibly have made for at least two reasons. The first: I would wake up every morning and open the curtains, and there were gazelles and elands grazing on the savanna grass outside our balcony, and then a giraffe family would come along, including the requisite gawky teenager, and once an errant jackrabbit wandered in, and there were cattle with horns as thick as their head and as wide as their bodies were long, and seriously, probably 95% of the pictures I took were of the animals.

The second: We ate way better than I expected to over the course of the week.

Before this trip, my experiences with Disney “cuisine” warranted the quote marks; because of this, my expectations were set fairly low, and I’d decided going in that I’d be content if we managed to eat some food that didn’t qualify as Americanized chain food. Our meals at Boma and Jiko changed my mindset – completely blew it away.

Almost every morning, I’d go downstairs for the Boma breakfast buffet. Pap with chakalaka and sambal and a side of creamy scrambled eggs; pineapple and assorted melons; quinoa made into a porridge with toasted sweetened quinoa and raisins sprinkled on top. Om nom nom. The dinners we took at Jiko were amazing – the braised beet salad that I’m determined to make part of our dinner rotation at home; the cauliflower soup amuse bouche (MUST REPLICATE); the lamb loin and the curry shrimp and perfectly seared tuna – you guys, I didn’t know Disney knew how to cook anything below medium, and I admit it, I WAS WRONG. You just apparently have to know where to eat. (And make reservations.)

Boma and Jiko. 2901 Osceola Parkway, Bay Lake, FL. 407.938.3000.