Le Rendez-vous Gourmand at Disneyland Paris | #ThisGirlEats

There are many, many reasons to visit Disneyland Paris – unfortunately, for the most part, the food isn’t one of them.

Aside from the occasional treat that pops up, the culinary fare on offer in the parks isn’t anywhere near as imaginative or exciting as we’d expect. When it comes to food and drink, Disneyland Paris falls short compared to its American counterparts.

But there has been one seasonal event cropping up at Disneyland Paris these past few years that has become a mecca for us Disney fans who don’t want to compromise their inner foodie on every visit. If you need something other than counter service hamburgers and popcorn buckets to make your trip complete, there’s only one thing for it: Le Rendez-vous Gourmand.

Le Rendez-vous Gourmand at La Place de Rémy

Le Rendez-vous Gourmand is the Walt Disney Studios Park annual pop-up food and drink festival, with rows of wooden huts serving an awesome range of European delights.

Starting off in La Place de Rémy – the Parisian mini-land that houses Ratatouille: The Adventure – with stalls from various regions of France, serving traditional treats like pastries and wines as well as more interesting offerings like tartiflette (gooey, cheesy sliced potatoes – bloomin’ delicious) and accras de morue (cod fritters).

Tartiflette (cheesy potatoes)

This year, the festival has grown to see the rest of Europe sprawling out across the park. On the outskirts of Toy Story Playland and just past the Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic ride (not familiar with the Walt Disney Studios Park? Check out my walkthrough video to get yourself up to speed!), you’ll journey through the continent visiting the likes of Italy, Spain and Belgium.

Stop off to grab a slice of pizza and a glass of prosecco, quench your thirst with a pint from the craft beer bar, queue up with the masses for waffles and fries (the Belgium hut was always busy!), try the controversial chorizo paella, fill up on some hearty moussaka, and there’s even something for us veggies at the brand new vegan stand!

The Italian stand at Le Rendez-vous Gourmand

The portions are decent, but not too big, and quite affordable when compared with most food in the parks, which allows gluttons like us to munch on several snacks from different stands.

From what our group managed to squeeze in over one weekend – and believe me, we would’ve eaten the lot if we could! – we’d recommend starting off with a Nutella crepe for a sweet breakfast treat, reloading with some cheesy potatoes and onions for lunch, warming up with a veggie feast of lentil dahl and falafels for dinner and a decadent eclair for dessert, and, finally, grabbing a slice of three-cheese pizza for the road on your way out.

Nutella crepes

Lentil dahl

Three-cheese pizza

But, of course, there are loads things to try, so definitely make some room in your budget and get adventurous! For once, we can safely say Disneyland Paris is really delivering good eats that has something for everyone.

Le Rendez-vous Gourmand is at Disneyland Paris from 10th July to 13th October 2019.

Eclairs at the patisserie stand

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Since When Did Festival Food Become So Fancy?! | #ThisGirlEats

Festival food used to be questionable, at best. Smelly, grubby food trucks selling your bog standard burgers, chips and, if you’re lucky, a bacon roll in the mornings – more often than not, food poisoning was just a chance you’d have to take if you wanted to eat. Salmonella and chips, as Del Boy would say.

It was all about convenience; if it soaked up the beer, it did the job. But now, that’s all changed. Festival food is all part of the experience – everything has got to look the part, picture perfect and ready for online exposure. You can’t upload greasy food in a floppy polystyrene carton to the ‘gram. It’s this social media demand, I think, that has led to the new crazy-good quality of festival food.

King of the Yorky: all the best bits of your Sunday roast served in a giant Yorkshire pudding bowl. 

For a start, the sheer variety has come on leaps and bounds. Gone are the days of chips, chips and more chips – at a decent sized festival, you can chow down on just about anything. From ostrich burgers to vegan buddha bowls, oven-baked mac ‘n’ cheese to Mexican burritos, we really are spoilt for choice.

Even your most basic options have upped their game and evolved from their classic foodie forefathers. A quarter pounder becomes a double beefburger dipped in gooey cheese sauce and topped with onion rings. Hot dogs become gourmet German sausages smothered with anything from fried onions to chilli con carne. A plain ol’ portion of chips becomes a plate of crispy sweet potato fries. We’re not in Kansas anymore, folks.

Shaken Udder Milkshakes: choose your favourite chocolate bar or biscuit and turn it into a delicious milkshake

The downside of this is, of course, the price. The more pretentious – sorry, I mean delicious -, the more expensive. We all know these things are overpriced, we know we’ll pay a fiver for a warm pint and have sadly made our peace with that. But when it starts creeping up to near a tenner every meal, that’s a serious chunk of your hard-earned cash. We’ll be at Reading Festival in a couple of weeks for four days, so we’re spending at least £40 a day on food (!!!) with just one meal a day, and I’m not a ‘one meal a day’ kinda gal. So it better be bloody good!

Price tag aside, I think it’s awesome that festivals have integrated food to become such an integral part of the event. We want a whole experience from a festival, especially when we’re forking out so much for weekend tickets. It’s not just about watching a few bands anymore, it’s about everything in between – and these days, you can’t have a bangin’ festival without some bangin’ food.

All About the Sausage: over ten flavours of foot long sausages and endless topping combos.

 

Chatham Maritime Food & Drink Festival | #ThisGirlEats

I’m so happy summer is finally here ☀️ We’re still getting the odd thunderstorm but, c’mon, this is England, what do you expect?! The fact that the weather is staying warm and the sun is showing its face is enough for me!

This time of year makes us want to get out there (especially when, like me, you haven’t got a garden!). Sitting indoors watching telly seems a waste, but “doing stuff” often costs money and the summer can leave you really strapped for cash. When something free pops up on your doorstep you should make the most of it, and that’s what we did with this local food festival!

The Chatham Maritime Food & Drink Festival, held on the waterfront, welcomed visitors across the May bank holiday weekend. From fairground rides to old-timey bands, there really was something for everyone, but the real heart of the festival was, of course, the food. For a free – yes, free – festival, it definitely didn’t disappoint! It was, for a foodie like myself, a haven of unique stalls, “try before you buy” tasters and plenty of places to stop for lunch. We tried a few different stands that I’d love to give a little shout-out to (but I really could’ve tried a little bit of everything!).

The Cosy Eskimo
We liked this one so much we visited twice! Our first pitstop was a milkshake which my partner’s son had his eye on, and when we asked what he wanted for lunch an hour later, he wanted more of The Cosy Eskimo – this time, for their mouth-watering bubble waffles stuffed with Nutella and fresh banana. The women working the stand were so friendly and chatty, despite the hot weather, and I’d definitely recommend visiting The Cosy Eskimo if you’ve got a sweet tooth – but get there quick, because this was one of the busiest stalls of the day!

The Larder
Don’t get me wrong, everything smelt and looked divine, but I wanted something different, something I wouldn’t usually choose. I don’t eat steak, like literally never, ever, but there was just something about the Philly cheesesteaks on offer from The Larder that tempted me. Perhaps it was the ginormous gherkin on top, who knows?! Tender steak, gooey cheese and sharp pickle, with loads of extra toppings on the menu – although I got messy enough with what I had! Totally delicious, a real hands-on affair.

Spanish Homemade Paella
My boyfriend was torn between Greek souvlaki and Spanish paella for AGES, both reminding him of holidays far, far away from Chatham! Eventually, after some pain-staking decision-making, he opted for the Spanish Homemade Paella – and what a choice! Affordable for a festival, they served up a huge dish of paella with succulent chicken, a crazy variety of seafood stirred through smooth rice. Not only was it really, truly yummy, but filling too – a brilliant choice as something that tastes authentic and won’t break the bank.

The Kent Cider Company
Let’s be honest, you had me at cider. The Kent Cider Company was, for me, the stand-out bar of the festival. It was vibrant, friendly and energetic, and had a huge list of ciders to choose from with some weird, wacky, wonderful flavours. We tried a few between us, including pear, mango and rhubarb (the mango was my favourite, zingy and sweet like fruit juice!). They accepted card too – which turned out to be a little dangerous, actually!

We had a really lovely afternoon checking out these stalls and chatting to local businesses about what they do; their passion for food and drink was wonderful. Please, go support small, local businesses if you can – your community always has something to offer!