Yes, It IS About the Food OR Two Foodies Do WDW From Table To Table--TR - Page 21 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Monsieur Paul was a delight but also a disappointment to some extent. Even though we expected the food to be quite rich as classic French cuisine invariably is, I didn’t anticipate how "too much of a muchness" it would leave me feeling.
Despite having that apprehension fulfilled and then some, I must say that Monsieur Paul does not disappoint in either atmosphere or service. That gorgeous winding staircase with Art Nouveau railing and photos of Paul Bocuse’s life lining the wall alongside it makes for a dramatic entry to a beautiful dining room. Well, I should say the staircase did for me as His Drewness was enclosed in solitary confinement in that extremely cramped and veeeeery slow elevator since he was in his scooter. (Excuuuse me. ”In his electric wheelchair,” which he insists is the proper term for his conveyance ) I suppose that’s part of the Parisian charm of the building. The elevator is cunningly concealed behind a wall panel which when opened seems to reveal it magically.
Naturally, we indulged too much in those fabulous baguette slices with excellent butter while waiting for our appetizers to arrive. When they did, we looked at each other in dismay and discussed whether or not to bother photographing two soup plates appearing to be nothing but a solid-looking expanse of creamy white foam which would have made pretty boring photos. The flavor, however, more than made up for the lack of visual appeal.
Drew had Maine lobster with sautéed mushrooms, a softboiled quail egg, and black truffle-flavored bouillon which he oohed and ahhed over immediately. As much as he loves lobster I wasn't surprised, but when he gave me a taste I could see why he was exclaiming. It really was a marvelous dish.
My appetizer was less satisfying as I chose the escargot cassolette and found the escargot overcooked and rather chewy. The white wine-flavored broth enhanced by bits of excellent smoked bacon and shallots was fantastic and nearly compensated for the disappointing escargot. Once I got past all that foam, that is. I guess I just don't get the foam fad. Give me flavor instead of faddish touches like that.
Drew chose the beef tenderloin with mushroom crust which he said was a bit much although flavorful. I thought it looked too crusty myself on a piece of tenderloin that was so wonderfully cooked and tender that all it really needed was the magnificent Bordelaise sauce surrounding it. Unfortunately, we seem not to have gotten a photo of it either.
I went with a classic duck breast l'orange which was very well cooked and pleasantly contrasted by a bit of braised oxtail wrapped in cabbage and looking rather like a piece of sushi. That along with the apple fondant, the diagonal rectangle at the edge of the plate, contrasted beautifully with the duck and sauce. It made an interesting presentation as you can see.
Truthfully though, I think the duck l'orange I've made from Julia Child's French Chef Cookbook recipe is better although not a dish I care to do often as laborious as it is to assemble. Child's sauce is slightly sweeter which I think enhances the oily richness of duck more. Nevertheless, I polished it all off which inclined me to choose a meringue and sorbet dessert, hoping that would be light enough I could manage to eat it and still waddle out.
The white coil was a beautifully crisp, light vanilla meringue with an intensely flavored raspberry sorbet atop it and to the side a piped bit of whipped cream topped with a tube of white chocolate. The brilliantly red dots of raspberry coulis provided a slight sourness that set off the rest of the dessert perfectly. Gorgeous presentation and exactly the light dessert I wanted.
Edit to correct failed memory error:Okay, now I know why my description of Drew's dessert didn't seem right. It wasn't flourless chocolate cake at all! We'd long since reached the point where I'd tired of making detailed notes while waiting for the credits tally, so mea culpa, I cheated by means of the All Ears menu because neither of us recalled just what his dessert was. While cruising for a photo of the white chocolate sphere dessert, I encountered one of his dessert, actually an apple tart! The following original description represents reality at least: Sadly, neither of us recalls what flavor the piped-on cream topping it was. Suffice it to say it was lots better than Be Our Guest's fabled grey stuff. Nor can we recall what flavor the greenish oval of ice cream was. I suggested pistachio, but Drew said no, he didn't think so. He'd have recalled that for sure as much as he likes pistachio.
Fortunately for our digestions, it's likely to be a few years till we can get back to Disney World. We may try Les Chefs de France next time as Monsieur Paul was pleasurable but really more than a bit overwhelming.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Last edited by Her Dotness; 01-22-2015 at 07:10 AM..
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Oh. My. Gosh. I just got done reading your Tea report. I'm now very into this TR.
Golly, another fan club member. Welcome, Kimmy Ann. There are more super-yummies ahead for you.
Speaking of which, we have only Restaurant Marrakesh lunch and Be Our Guest dinner to review before the grand finale, Victoria & Albert's Chef's Table.
We were talking about what an encyclopedia that last one will be since we are uploading photos to PassPorter which limits us to a maximum of five per post. Just didn't want to mess with a third-party site, and besides, you may have to grab a snack or two before reaching the tenth course of that fantastic meal. Reading it by installments may prevent drooling onto your keyboard. Honestly, I have only to think of the assortment of two ground peppers and four flavored salts presented with one course to start doing that, and I don't actually like salt or pepper that much.
So, the review of the best meal of our lives is coming very soon. Stay tuned....
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
The photos are coming through fine now! I ate only once at Bistro and haven't tried it since it changed to Monsieur Paul's. I love the decor of the place, but the food is just too rich for me these days. I'm not a fan of Les Chefs at all, so I skip France for dining. Brioche ice cream sandwich, though--that I'll stop for!
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Our meal was definitely rich when we ate at Monsieur Paul's - I'm so glad you enjoyed your meal there and had better service than we did, as our meal was so rushed, which was such a shame.
Update: Oh, yeah, about that White Chocolate Sphere dessert at Monsieur Paul
I just remembered I promised way back when to describe the preparation of the white chocolate sphere dessert which was so dramatic.
I can beat that somewhat with a borrowed photo from this trip report although looking at their gorgeous photos of F&WF souvenirs only made me want desperately to do the Premium package as they did. That and go back to Monsieur Paul even after all my moaning about the food being too rich.
Shortly after this photo shows, the sphere melts about halfway to reveal vivid red raspberry sorbet inside the sphere. The brownish pedestal the sphere sits upon was cake.
It was a feast for my eyes, and the man seated near us who ordered it said it was absolutely delectable.
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Last edited by Her Dotness; 01-22-2015 at 07:29 AM..
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
I dreamed about a 14 course tea last night...This report may not be good for me!
One benefit to reading about all this yummy food is that you won't gain any weight.
I have to brag that despite eating like a complete oinker, I walk so much at WDW that I've never come home more than a pound heavier. This last trip, I actually broke even despite overindulging at the fantastic Atlanta diner I mentioned earlier as well as at a wonderful bistro my in-laws took us to for lunch after we arrived in NJ for Thanksgiving with them.
Now, if only I could manage to walk off my dining excesses at home like that! I just like good food far too much. < sigh! >
__________________
“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Sounds like I might have to give the upstairs a try... Just not with a three course meal indulgence excited to hear about restaurant marakkesh as that's where I booked my first night dinner!
About This Page: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
) I suppose that’s part of the Parisian charm of the building. The elevator is cunningly concealed behind a wall panel which when opened seems to reveal it magically.
Linear Mode
