Recently Disney premiered a brand new Mermaid Donut at Prince Eric’s Village Market. The donut was pretty good but left us pondering when would they finally add seafood to this stand that’s themed to the sea. Well it seems that Uncle Walt heard our cries and brought forth a new poached shrimp snack for us to enjoy. No, we’re not even joking.
Sweet Thai Chili Shrimp – $6.99
The menu reads “Vegetable slaw with ginger vinaigrette and poached shrimp with salt and lemon tossed in chili mango and garnished with black sesame seeds”. That’s a mouthful of sea water if you ask me. What we received was five carefully placed shrimp around a pile of vegetable slaw. There’s a huge amount of the ginger vinaigrette and it seems to the bottom of the dish, any movement alters the beast and pushes it to one side, so we recommend eating from a balanced table. Anyway, this dish feels like the answer to everyone walking through Fantasyland in 100 degree weather thinking to themselves “man I could really use a cold shrimp cocktail right now”. In the grand scheme of things $7 for a few shrimp isn’t horrible, let alone from a Disney quick service location. These are coated lightly in the white chili mango sauce giving them a nice kick that’s not overly spicy, the sesame seeds adding to the crunch of the plumpness of the shrimp. We didn’t get much joy from the vegetable slaw due to it being drowned in the ginger vinaigrette, but you may have better luck. It’s a weird, unique, and interesting snack for Magic Kingdom.
Witch’s Frozen Brew – $6.49
It’s themed to Ursula, the sea witch, and not Halloween. We confirmed with the Cast Members working that lumpia wasn’t being served here and that it’s not a Halloween item. Listed as frozen lemonade topped with frozen Coke swirled with every flavored syrup imaginable. Well, Cherry, Granny Smith Apple, Watermelon, and Red Passion Fruit. These are four of the five flavored syrups available to ‘spice up’ your frozen beverage, so why not just add the Vanilla too and we’ll call it a day? Anyway, this sugar rush of a drink belongs in Wreck-it Ralph. Served frozen it quickly thaws and turns into a deliciously thick and sweet cup of sugar. Maybe we’re missing something but just adding more syrups to something doesn’t mean it’s going to taste great, it just means it’s going to be a crazy mix. Kind of like when ordering at Blaze Pizza and your “I’m just gonna get pepperoni and white sauce not going crazy this time” turns into “yeah all six of the cheeses, meatballs bacon sausage extra pepperoni banana peppers olives yeah go ahead sea salt argula…” for the third time this month and you wonder why you don’t have any self control. Gain some self control, save yourself nearly seven dollars, and walk away from this drink. Or just get the frozen Coke.
I’m fascinated by the radical change in flavor profiles indicated here. Has a new Chef provided new input or is the marketing department looking to lure in guest from other regions/countries?