Camberville Cuisine

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.

Just got back from yummy Ethiopian food with visiting friends (who live on a boat!). Fasika, in East Somerville, is one of several Ethiopian restaurants in the Camberville area; it marked a good halfway point between us and where said friends were staying. Mmm, fiery, buttery kitfo. Mmm, mopping up delicious sauces with injera (Ethiopian bread), and eating your table, and feeding morsels of food to someone you love. (I went on a date back in ’05, pre-Hyoun, with a guy who found the whole “your bread is your table, and you eat it too” thing intimidating. We didn’t date for very long.)

Afterwards, we swung by one of our favorite ice cream places, Christina’s, where I had cinnamon banana and Mexican chocolate ice creams topped with marshmallow creme and that was the best combo I’ve had there yet. It may have been -17F with the windchill, but we Bostonians have our priorities straight, and good ice cream tops the list, no matter what the weather!

Fasika Ethiopian Restaurant. 145-147 Broadway, Somerville. 617.628.9300. Open M-Th 5:30-10, F 5:30-11, SSu 2-11. Christina’s Ice Cream. 1255 Cambridge St, Cambridge. 617.492.7021. Open Su-Th 11:30-11, FS 11:30-midnight.