Welcome to an Outdoor Kitchen review for the 2018 International Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot. This review will focus on Taste of Marrakesh outdoor kitchen. Taste of Marrakesh is located outside of the Morocco pavilion.
Taste of Marrakesh
Food
- Harissa Chicken Kebab with Dried Fruit Couscous Salad $6.00
- Fried Cauliflower with Capers, Garlic Parsley and Chili Ranch Sauce $5.00
- Walnut Honey Baklava $4.00
Beverages
- Desert Rose: Sparkling Wine topped with Pomegranate Liqueur $8.00
- White Sangria $6.00
- Casa Beer $4.00
Harissa Chicken Kebab with Dried Fruit Couscous Salad – $6.00
With the France and China booths bringing out pre-made items, seeing Morocco use their kitchen equipment to cook food on stage is a nice change. Harissa is a hot chili pepper paste, and make no mistake the sauce on both sides of the skewer was very spicy yet flavorful. The chicken was excellently cooked with a slight char on the sides. Bringing all the items together with the couscous makes for one of the best items at a Morocco festival booth in quite some time.
Fried Cauliflower with Capers, Garlic Parsley and Chili Ranch Sauce – $5.00
No, those aren’t chicken nuggets. For five dollars we received a generous portion of deep-fried cauliflower served on a bed of capers and parsley. Morocco is using the outdoor kitchen to their advantage and frying these up fresh, making for one VERY hot bite if you’re not careful (learn from our mistakes). The chili ranch sauce didn’t quite work on it’s own, but together with the breading was just right. While nobody in our group is a huge fan of cauliflower, we see the potential for someone who would enjoy it.
Walnut Honey Baklava – $4.00
Baklava is difficult and time consuming to make so when we see it offered somewhere we typically jump at the occasion. Fortunately Morocco has a fantastic dessert on their hands. The complex pastry is topped with a light honey and sprinklings of cinnamon and powdered sugar. The inside is flaky and soft with a good walnut flavor that’s not overpowering. The baklava is worth stopping here for.
While we didn’t try any of the beverages at this booth it’s good to note a few things. Casa Beer is readily available at Spice Road Table bar, the juice window, and Tangerine Cafe which are all just a few steps away. If you really want the beer, we recommend going over to one of these locations and spending a few dollars more for the entire bottle. Spending the $4.00 here gets you half of someone else’s beer that could have been sitting out for quite some time. Further, the White Sangria is the same house-made sangria served at Spice Road Table restaurant and bar. It’s a really good sangria that’s available year-round and a much better value if you get a glass at the bar instead of the festival booth.