Thursday, April 28, 2011

Do Disney World foods reflect what North American palates want?


If so, we're all doomed.

I just came back from a week in Disney World, and while I'd been warned about the food, I don't think anything could have prepared me for just how bad it was.

And while yes, I do mean bad in the sense of how awful everything tasted, I mainly mean bad in the sense of how there was barely a healthy option to be found.

One morning we had a character breakfast with the princesses in the Norwegian pavilion at Epcot. They served breakfast "family" style, which meant for our family of 7 (my 5, which includes a baby, along with my parent in-laws), they brought out two heaping mounds of food (a photo of the remains of one such mound up above). In total they served us 26 strips of bacon (yes, I counted), a bunch of sausages, two piles of the saltiest scrambled eggs I've ever tasted, and this cloyingly rich potato dish with cheese and cream. Oh, and we were also meant to eat from the all you can eat buffet of pastries, cereals, cheeses, meats etc. When we asked the server about the salty eggs, his answer was, "yeah, they make them with a lot of salt", and when I looked around the room, most of the plates were empty.

Now I realize people don't go to Disney World for the food, but my thinking is that Disney of all companies, has a pretty darn good idea of what people want. They've been in this business for a long time, and Disney World alone hosts 17 million visitors a year. If this is what the North American palate wants, insane portions, mounds of salt, creamy everything, and no healthy choices, we're in big trouble.

[So why go to Disney? Well yes they serve awful food, and yes they contribute to the culture of consumerism, and also to the objectification of women. Of course they also contribute to very happy little kids (the 3 in this video are mine), and it's difficult not to love them for providing experiences like this: (email subscribers will need to hit the blog to see the video)]