Surprise!
This month is a two-part adventure. While we were enjoying our wonderful Halloweekend at Cedar Point and Hotel Breakers, I had to participate in the Tricks and Treats Fall Fest. This event started in 2020 and they brought it back this year. There is a menu of food and drinks called the Delicious Fall Tastes (found here) that show all of the options you can get. You can buy a lanyard that features a card at any participating food location for 6 tastes at $54.99 or 9 tastes at $79.99. *These are in-park prices. If you buy online, you save $5* If you don't want the tasting card, each food item was $9.99. We had a group of 3 with 2 other people who would be joining us the next day, so we went with the 9 tastes card. I'm a big fan of go big or go home.
One of the things I was most excited to try was the O-H-I-O Hand Pie. The pie crust had good flavor and we LOVED the vanilla glaze. We were scraping it off the plate. However, we were disappointed in the lack of apple filling. There were only two slices of apple inside. It was also served cold. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be cold or not, but it didn't satisfy my gooey apple pie craving.
Another one we were looking forward to was the Autumn Squash Mac & Cheese. Once again, it was served to us cold. They also took one of the most flavorless cheeses (mascarpone) to use in this dish and used a lot of pepper. The only thing that had any flavor were the tiny pieces of autumn squash. I wish they would've used a creamy cheese like gouda and had bigger pieces of the squash.
Next we tried the Pork Belly Poutine. This wasn't served cold, but it was a lukewarm. The waffle fries were nice and crispy. I loved the maple gravy. It was a good sweet balance to the salty waffle fries and fatty pork belly. I actually have never had pork belly, so this was my first time. The pieces were not chewy at all, but tender and I enjoyed the sauce on them. The cheese curds were just kinda there. They didn't benefit nor hinder the dish at all.
I had high hopes for the Pumpkin Bread Pudding. We already had 2 cold and 1 lukewarm dish. We were yet again, disappointed. The bread pudding was also served lukewarm. We ended up just taking it to go back to the hotel and heated it up in the microwave. It was served with a pine nut brittle on the side. My group said that is what had the most salty and sweet flavor, and was there favorite part. (I have a nut allergy so I couldn't try it.) There wasn't enough sauce to absorb into the bread, so it didn't have that gooey and satisfying component. I liked the pumpkin seeds on top though, it added a nice crunch since I couldn't have the pine nut brittle.
Disclaimer: These 4 dishes were from Friday night. I will admit that I was beginning to feel skeptical about the next day's food that we were going to try. But stay tuned. I promise it got much, much better.
The Burnt Ends & Tot Hash. Easily everyone in the group's favorite of all that we ordered two. Guess what? It was served hot! I am hardcore brisket lover so I didn't even need to look past that ingredient. The tater tots were so crispy and hot. Then you add pickled onions which always pack a flavor punch. The brisket was so tender and the BBQ sauce wasn't too sweet. The entire dish was perfection.
I was ready for the Day of the Dead Fries. These were a fan favorite from 2020 that they brought back We hadn't had anything spicy yet and I was on the hunt. Bonus: These were made to order. I didn't even care that it was a 10 minute wait. It was worth it. The toppings were plentiful, which made it a little messy. Chorizo was cooked well and didn't overpower. The cilantro lime crema was so creamy and you could taste each ingredient. I could've eaten that by the spoonful. I ended up eating the majority of the pickled jalapenos and couldn't taste anything else. Don't do that. Even with some anti-spicy food people in our group, this was a top 3 dish for us.
Lastly, we ordered the Fried Cookie Dough. Also made to order, yay! I think the chocolate lovers anticipated chocolate chip cookie dough. Plot twist: It's oatmeal raisin cookie dough. I was thrilled. It was so unexpected to taste the warm heaven of fried dough, but then a cinnamon and raisin flavor jumps in. Not oily at all. We ended up ordering 2 of these because they are small. This was easily another top 3, but probably just for me. The chocolate lovers in the group were bitter.
I had to try a couple of the Specialty Brews and Booze Bars. (These are not valid with your food tasting card.) The Blood Bag was such a fun concept. I was making such a show of holding it up where people could see it. I got the A Positive Blood Bag. It wasn't heavy on the alcohol flavor. It was super sweet from the grenadine, cranberry and pineapple juices. I could only take a few sips at a time. I also tried the I Vant to Drink Your Blood. This also wasn't heavy on the alcohol, but not nearly as sweet as the Blood Bag. This is one of those drinks that you'll drink a few and it'll suddenly hit you. It goes down easily and tastes great. The fact that you get to "inject the blood" into your drink was just delightful, as you can see from my face in the photo below. Both drinks let me live my best inner vampire life.
This tasting was fun. I've actually never done a food lanyard activity like in some of the bigger amusement parks such as Busch Gardens and Universal. We definitely got off to a rough start the first night. The next day was redemption. This was the second Halloweekends weekend (wow that sounds strange to say) so maybe they were still working out some kinks. We did learn some tips for our future selves. The 9 tastes card was too much food for our group of 5, only because we enjoy eating meals at other places in the park (like Johnny Rockets). If we were to do this again, we would only eat the tastings and probably 6 of them. On the plus side, the "half-sized" portions were big enough to say we had too much food. I wish there were more of a variety of food tastings. I eat very clean at home and these foods were very heavy on my stomach. It would be nice to have some lighter options or vegetable/fruit dishes. The themed drinks were so enjoyable and it made the experience much more immersive. I would be willing to do this again because it makes you order things you normally wouldn't go out of your way for (like pork belly).
Have you tried the Delicious Fall Tastes and drinks? Let me know your favorite and no-so-favorite items!
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