5 most interesting things we ate at the Disney California Adventure's Food & Wine Festival

Carly Mallenbaum | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Disney's Food and Wine Festival is back and has plant-based options Impossible burgers and cold brews are just some items featured at Disney California Adventure's Food and Wine Festival.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — When you think of amusement park food, corn dogs and cotton candy might come to mind. Though Disney’s California Adventure certainly offers carnival cuisine (Corn Dog Castle is iconic), it’s spending the next month serving more sophisticated fare. For example: black garlic soy-braised pork belly banh mi and seared salmon with lemon relish.

From now through April 21, the park is offering those dishes and dozens more as part of its tenth annual Food & Wine Festival (and fifth year with kiosks). Guests can purchase a “Sip and Savor” pass for $56 ($51 for annual passholders) to try eight shareable snacks that include desserts, and vegetarian and gluten-free options.

The setup is a typical food-festival display, but with a little Disney flair: Macarons are shaped like Mickey’s head, whimsical kiosks have punny names, servers are so darn friendly and even animated characters get in on the action. Chef Goofy hosts an interactive cooking experience and celebrity chefs lead events on the Backlot Stage in Hollywood Land.

And here’s good news: The food is actually delish. So tasty, that you can sample the items with your figurative foodie hat on (or literal: kids can make their own chef hats), and determine whether the items’ California flavors are balanced, temperatures are right and textures are pleasing enough for your mature palate (though there are plenty of kid-friendly options, too).

We did plenty of taste-testing and determined these five foods are the most interesting ones in the festival.

Petite Impossible burger with guac and cheese

Is this slider, from the Avocado Time stand, completely plant-based? No, it has pepper jack cheese. But is it potentially the healthiest and best theme park food we’ve ever had? Yes.

California Adventure’s partnership with meat-free free brand Impossible Foods has brought this juicy, savory delight back to the festival. The vegetarian item is one of the few holdovers from last year (because it was the most popular order at the park), and we hope it returns year after year.

Carbonara garlic mac & cheese with bacon

This is the greasy eat you’re looking for. The dish from the Garlic Kissed kiosk mixes craveable flavors (including Nueske’s Bacon, another food partner) with breadcrumbs for an extra crunch and flavor punch.

Considering we loved this snack and the aforementioned Impossible Burger, you might assume that the Impossible cheeseburger mac & cheese was also a hit, as it seemingly combined all of this goodness. It turns out, not so much.

Compressed watermelon with ricotta

You can’t really go wrong at the Once in a Melon stand, but the watermelon square with whipped ricotta, pesto and tomato is a delightful sweet-and-salty mix. It gives the classic warm-weather food an elegant edge.

Note: Unlike the typical handheld wedge, eating this watermelon dish requires a fork and knife

California berries summer pudding

This solid-pink pudding bowl, with berries on top, is one of the most Instagrammable confections of the festival. Stick your fork into the item from the Berry Patch booth, and red raspberry puree oozes out of the dessert that also includes Oikos yogurt and Grand Marnier-infused berries.

Mini chicken chimis

These bites of chicken, chimichurri pico de gallo and chipotle crema are the perfect grab-and-go goodies for eaters of any age. You can treat yourself to the tangy tastes at “Off the Cob."

As for the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, we’ll leave those to you – we weren’t able to effectively rank those before our long drive home.

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