Sunday Brunch: Ticket to
Mexico, Ticket to Dine, Ticket to "A Whole New
Adventure in Eating"
1 April 2012
'Hola, mis
amigos! Hoy vamos a ir a comer al Pepper Market,
localizado en Coronado Springs, 'hogar de los
Tres Caballeros!
(Muchas Gracias to our very own Pedro Hernandez
for this translation!)

With the playful,
yet soulful sound of the Mariachi Band in the
background coupled with the crunch, bite, and
spice of the tacos and nachos at La Cantina de
San Angel, guests at Epcot's Mexico pavilion
feel fully immersed in the culture of Central
America as soon as you walk by. But, I always
felt, in such a small area of World Showcase,
the Mexico Pavilion manages to capture a lot of
the country in such a small space. True, once
one enters the ancient Aztec temple, guests are
thrust headfirst into a bustling open air market
despite being inside. This makes one wonder, if
given a bigger space like some of the other
World Showcase pavilions like France and
America, what other wonders of Mexico can the
Imagineers recreate and dream up?
This question can easily be
answered by taking a hop, skip, and a leap over
to the Animal Kingdom Resort Area at Disney's
Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center.
While I am no expert on Mexican architecture and
art styles, I know enough to see that the resort
is simply saturated in the Mexican culture. It
is truly a fiesta for the eyes!






As with Disney's other resorts,
this Moderate Resort features the expected
amenities such as an extensive, themed gift
shop, a classy lounge, a full table-service
restaurant, a counter service market, and what
makes Coronado Springs especially unique: a
hybrid table/counter service restaurant. Weeks
ago, my friend and now frequent dining companion
Aaron told me about the somewhat odd, but unique
dining experience found at Coronado Springs'
Pepper Market. As he described it, I tried very
hard to ascertain what exactly it was until this
week I decided I needed to venture there and see
it for myself.
Located right by the lobby in
the resort's main building, the Pepper Market is
an extremely festive marketplace offering an
All-You-Can-Eat buffet for breakfast and lunch,
with the hybrid table/counter service available
for dinner.

The Three Caballeros in topiary form greet you
at the outdoor entrance

The main dining room is
decorated with strings of lights strewn across
the ceiling, great white pillars, and even hand
painted signs advertising a seller's fresh
produce. Though inside, much like Mexico
Pavillion's market, the Pepper Market is made to
look like you are dining outside (with the
comforts of air conditioning).


Individual food stands offer
different menus and categories of dining much
like the other counter service like food courts
at the moderate and value resorts. With a food
court style dining venue, guests expect a
complete self-serve experience, but the Pepper
Market puts a Mexican spin on your dining
experience.





Right outside the entrance is a window for
ordering coffee, soft drinks, and alcoholic
beverages
Upon entering the Pepper Market
for dinner, Aaron and I were greeted by a
hostess, just like at a Table Service
restaurant. Rather odd considering this looked a
lot like a food court. We were seated at a
colorful wooden table where the place settings
wrapped in a colorful cloth napkin looked like
they came straight out of Abuelita's kitchen. A
server, Maria-Fernanda from the University of
Mexico, greeted us with menus and a large ticket
with an empty grid and instructions. I've dined
out numerous times, but this is the first time I
received paperwork before venturing for a meal.
It was sort of like a game! But most
importantly, I was beginning to finally
understand what Aaron had tried to explain weeks
before.

You're only allowed to order 12 things. Don't go
crazy!

Yes, that does read 'A whole new adventure in
eating'
Basically, the way this works is
that you are writing your own check as your
order and receive your meal. Guests browse the
market and order what they want at each food
stand. The cast member will then stamp your
ticket with what you ordered and give you your
food. Maria-Fernanda also said she can go up and
bring you food too, though given the set-up it
seemed a bit odd to have two methods to getting
your meal. You can go back up to the market as
many times as you want, but don't forget your
ticket or there's no eating here tonight!

The main shop, the Chef's
Station, in the center of the market is where
you can find Mexican-American cuisine such as
burritos, quesadillas, burittos, and even fish
tacos! The latter is very popular in Mexico and
the West and Southwest regions of the US, so I
decided this is what I had to try.

Blackened Fish Tacos
My sister had lived in
California for a few years and whenever she
spoke of the food, fish tacos always came up
with glowing reviews. I'm not a big fan of
seafood, but there are a few types of fish I'll
eat. I was a little wary of what kind of fish
would be used in the Pepper Market's fish tacos,
but I was relieved and excited to hear that they
used a seasoned Salmon. This also explained the
price! The platter came with three soft shell
tacos with a heaping amount of warm, seasoned
Salmon, a nest of fresh cabbage slaw, hearty
dollop of avocado, and a spoonful of chipotle
ranch dressing. I was pleasantly surprised at
how delicious this was. Though the avocado was a
bit excessive in my opinion, the dish was
overall a winner. I felt there could've been a
bit more of the chipotle dressing. This also
depends on how much the cook gives you, though
I'm sure they have some system of consistency in
portion control.

Beef Fajitas
Aaron's plate matched the d'cor
of the restaurant, with the colorful ingredients
found in fajitas. The fajitas were presented as
a do it yourself platter, making for an
interactive meal and personal portion control.
The plate was complete with a stack of warmed
tortillas, strips of beef and peppers, shredded
lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, fresh tomato
salsa, and cheese. Aaron stated '[The fajitas
were] really good, but the pieces of meat were a
bit small. I can see people expecting more, but
then again portion sizes are out of control in
this country.' Certainly true, and there's no
harm in a little politics over dinner! Other
than that, Aaron was glad there were ample
amounts of sour cream and liked that there was
an option for a side of rice and beans. The rice
was a bit hard, but lightly seasoned and a fine
accompaniment to the fajitas.
After filling up on the Mexican
goodness, what better way to complete the meal
with Mexican desserts? The bakery at the Pepper
Market had the expected muffins, cookies,
danishes, and other pastries one finds at all
resort bakeries, but there were a few
specialties such as flan and the inevitable:
churros!


Flan, cheesecake, Strawberry Shortcake, Fruit
Tarts, Oreo Chocolate Cake
"
So many churros!

With a tear drop shaped look,
these churros were almost unrecognizable
compared to the long fried dough tubes found in
the parks. They tasted a little fresher than the
obvious frozen and warmed churros you find at
the churro wagons, but still I could see these
churros as coming in already made as well. They
were a bit soft from sitting in the warming dish
for who knows how long, but still they were
good. Aaron also got a cup of ice cream which
was amazingly lactose free, so I was able to
have a few spoonfuls with my churros. Our one
disappointment with the ice cream is that it did
not have a stamp, so the cast member had to
write it on the ticket.
With the meal coming to a close,
Maria-Fernanda came by one last time if we
needed any refills or anything else, then
instructed us where to pay. The exit was blocked
with a row of cash registers, though this
particular evening there was only one cashier,
making check out a longer process. It's one
thing to wait for a check while sitting at your
table, but since we essentially already had our
check in our hands, we were a bit confused that
we had to wait in a long line to leave. This is
done at other restaurants, specifically diners,
but I felt this process would be more efficient
given the write your own check task. With as
many servers that they had to hand out drinks
and instructions, it was puzzling there was only
one cashier taking care of the exiting dinner
crowd.

Overall, in a sense this hybrid
restaurant can be seen in two ways. One view is
that it adds an unnecessary extra step to
counter service dining. But I like to see it as
a way of a more efficient table service meal
despite some of the puzzling logistical setbacks
we had that evening. The make the check as you
go concept is pretty cool and definitely a new
way of dining. I'm assuming this is a common way
of doing things in Mexico, otherwise why else
would they have this system in only this
resort's restaurant? The experience took a bit
of getting used to since Americans have gone
their whole lives knowing the difference between
counter service dining and table service dining,
so it was quite an interesting experience to see
the two styles blended together.

The greatest part about dining
at Coronado Springs was that for the first time
in a long time while living by Walt Disney
World, I actually felt like I was on vacation.
With the world class theme parks to distract
those who visit Disney and those that live
there, it's easy to forget how much the resorts
can take you away to somewhere totally
different. The Mexican Pavilion at Epcot does an
excellent job with thrusting you in a different
country without leaving the US borders. Coronado
Springs takes this a step further not only in
the theming of the resort, but by a method of
dining. Who would've thought something as simple
and novel as having a stamped ticket during your
meal can make all the difference in a dining
experience?