Quick: when you think of Walt Disney
World Resort, what do you picture? A
castle, right? Gnawing on turkey legs,
maybe kids crying, fireworks, corndogs,
corndog nuggets...
But this place, Jungle Cruise Skipper Canteen,
has brought a very aggressive menu to the
park. As the story goes,
Skipper Canteen is a restaurant
associated with one of the parks oldest
rides, the Jungle Cruise. On it, a boat
takes riders through a comical journey down
the Nile, Amazon, and Congo Rivers. I know
it's not real, but it's fun and it's
kitschy. Remember: we're in a theme park.
In absolutely no shape, way, or form are
these flavors and ingredients things
served anywhere in the Magic Kingdom. This
park was not a good food scene, and now,
while yes, Skipper Canteen is a themed
restaurant, the cuisine succeeds in its
attempt to stay true to the ride's journey —of
course, in its own Disney-ifed, nuanced way.
I think what stands out most for me is
that before you guys opened about a year
ago, you couldn't get food like this in the Magic Kingdom.
"No, you have so many different
cultures and different nationalities that
come here. We have a Brazilian steak on our
menu, we have something from
Thailand, we put our little spin on it."
I'd love to know from your perspective the
whole process behind some of my favorite
dishes here. Can you tell me about the
lamb? "The Baa Baa Berber Lamb?
That is one of our newest dishes. The lamb
itself is rubbed ahead of time in a
mixture of different spices. It's pan0
seared, roasted off in the oven, and
finished with a sort of couscous.
The couscous has some carrots in it,
and has some green beans and some fresh
mint tossed in it, Jerusalem artichokes, and
then the sauce around it is a roasted lamb
sauce, just reduced down and finished with a
little butter and a little roux in the
sauce itself. And then the lamb on
top is finished with a little micro cilantro."
And how about the chau siu pork?
"The chau siu pork is actually a three-day process
for us, so we cut it down and brine it and
then it set overnight for 24 hours. The
next morning it's run out and it's cooked for
a 12-hour process of 250 degrees. It's
sliced the next day, and then grilled to
order." That's not typical of Magic
Kingdom restaurants. "No no, we do this
over three-day process just because it's very
tender and very juicy
once it's done.
It's an amazing dish our guests enjoy very much.
It's sweet, it's tangy, it has a barbecue essence to it. You can bite right through it.
It's so soft and buttery. When you eat
chau siu, sometimes it can be greasy, but it's definitely not.
It's balance very well, just fatty
enough, just crisp enough on the edges.
I could eat all three of these and keep going for
more. Here we have the berber lamb chops.
The flavor is very rich. It has a pepperiness to it,
and when you mix the flavors of
the dish together, especially with the
sauce, it really brings out the crust on that
lamb.
It all really complements each other.
So this Nile Nelly noodle bowl, it
comes with either duck or chicken, and it's
essentially a bowl of pho but the ratio
of noodles and broth is a bit opposite.
It's interesting because usually when you get a bowl of pho
there's so much broth, I like that this is a
hearty meal. There's so many noodles in
it and the mix of vegetables within it —
jalapeno, there's carrots, there's onions
in here, really flavorful.
Fantastic, wow. The crispy bits on it from
a little bit of grease, it just brings a
lot to the table. This is the most
popular dish, the sea shumai. They make these
in-house form an assembly line and they
make these by hand every single day. This
is the thing that people keep coming
back for, myself included.
I love that it's a whole blend. The mix of pork,
and shrimp and arugula really comes
through. The meat is also very tender and
there's a lot happening in it. I'm going to
keep eating and hop on a few
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