A Memory is like a Candle Allowing Time to be its Flame.

Banana Cabana

For our first restaurant, my dad, mum, and I decided to eat lunch at the restaurant just outside the main lobby of the Disney resort hotel while we waited for our room to be ready. This was a pleasant poolside Caribbean bar with many tropical-themed menu items. I saw that the Jerk Chicken Sandwich had grilled pineapple and that was my IMMEDIATE choice for lunch. They also had a drink called “Fever-Tree Ginger Beer” (non-alcoholic btw) and that was probably the most ginger-tasting ginger beer I ever had. The straw wrapper was lame though. No design or anything. It was just a white straw. To make it identifiable for this project, I wrote the name of the restaurant on the straw.

Banana Cabana Journal Entry and Straw

It was raining in waves this day and the wind was not kind either. To capture this image, my dad and I waited till the rain was light enough to not pose a problem to my Bronica. As soon as the opportunity arose, we dashed to the beach, set up the tripod, threw a stick into the wrapper to prevent the heavy wind from screwing with the wrapper, lit it on fire, and took the picture. Clearly, nature beat us and blew out the flame before it could be captured but the remnant of a burnt straw remained. Due to the stick’s brave work in combating the nasty winds, he is forever entwined with this project and so I thought he was worthy of straw-ship. This brave warrior now sits alongside his fellow straw.

House of Blues

For our next restaurant later that evening, we went to House of Blues at Disney Springs. There, we were welcomed initially welcomed with a live band outside. I remember that they were playing a song from Nirvana’s Nevermind album and I wondered if it was because of the new Batman movie repopularizing Nirvana or just a coincidence.

When we actually got inside, we were told that we were just a tad bit early so we all bought time by walking around the restaurant and looking at art that my mum describes as “Voodoo Art.” We end up getting a table. I order the Jambalaya which was really good and honestly not too spicy. We also saw a table waiter carry out a MASSIVE brownie with a glob of vanilla ice cream and what was described to us as peanut sauce drizzled atop the mountain of iced cream. After viewing that, we decided to split one of those between the three of us. It was a VERY rich brownie and this was when I realized Disney is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their desserts.

House of Blues Straws and Journal Entry

The straws were more unique than the ones at Banana Cabana. They had an Avacodo logo and fancy-looking letters that spelled ‘AVOLUTIONS.’

Two straws were needed to comfort me on these pictures. I was very worried that these images would not turn out right because of how dark it was and the fact that I needed to utilize long exposure. I decided to take the first picture at the 1-second shutter speed and the second one at 2-seconds. Fortunately, they both ended up really cool so I decided to use both pictures along with both straws. They twinsies :).

Chefs de France

Chefs de France is the first of the rest of the Epcot restaurants that will fill the remainder of these entries. It was on the France side of Epcot (surprise!). Can you guess what kind of food they served too? Anyway, it was a very pretty restaurant. The biggest takeaway in terms of visuals for me was the massive windows that let you watch all the people walking past. I had Ratatoullie to see if they could make it better than I do. . . They did. They had this extremely creamy tomato sauce that definitely beats the Ragu I use. Well played chefs. My family decided to split the creme brulee to see if the dessert still holds up here. It did. It was a fantastic mix of a hard caramel shell with smooth custard underneath. Well done Chefs de France.

Chefs de France Journal Entry and Straws

These straws were also unique and had a blue logo. I don’t remember what the word says though. In terms of shooting, this was the worst. It does not help that the pictures came out horrible upon developing. The bright daylight made it easy for exposure, but things started going south when I realized the screw was missing on the tripod shoe. I told my dad to hold the camera as still as possible from now on because of this. I chose to do two pictures for this as well just in case things go wrong.

Upon burning the second straw, a staff member at Epcot runs up to us and says “Hey Friend! Let’s not do that!” but it was too late anyway. I had gotten both pictures. I decided to not include the pictures in the physical piece because they are just too far gone, unfortunately. However, both straws will remain presented for their sacrifice.

Coral Reef Restaurant

The Coral Reef Restaurant is just that. A restaurant by a coral reef. We happened to have showed up early for this like the House of Blues reservation but there were enough open seats that they just seated us early. I had been told by the waiter that this aquarium is the second largest aquarium in the United States. Second to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia.

It felt weird to eat fish with fish swimming next to you; your only barrier being a wall of glass, but it was definitely a unique experience. I had the Mahi Mahi and felt pleased that there was no dolphins next to us. The mahi was tough but covered in this sweet mango sauce that made up for it. Whatever sauce missed the mahi was soaked in by the rice. We decided for this restaurant that we couldn’t handle a dessert and skipped it.

Coral Reef Restaurant Journal Entry and Straws

To start, I’d like to say that I don’t know why my hand is purple but it adds to the image for sure. I decided I wanted the background in focus this time since the Coral Reef logo was pretty cool. This also makes the fire look MASSIVE and I love it. I was a little worried about this pic too since it was night again, but the only thing poorly lit is my hand and it low key works. Straw was boring though. Plain white. had to write the restaurant name again to make it identifiable.

Rose and Crown

This was the first restaurant we went to on my mummy’s birthday! HAPPY 46 MUM! It is the restaurant in the Great Britain section of Epcot. Very fitting for a British lady missing home. We actually were seated outside the restaurant by the water. If it wasn’t so hot there, it would of been almost exactly like eating at a restaurant at Southend Seaside in England. They even had seagulls!

I almost had the fish ‘n chips due to the settings but I decided to have Bangers ‘n Mash instead. For birthday lunch my mum DID order the fish n chips. Mum was very pleased that the fish was phenomenal and that the chips were ‘Proper British Wedges.” For my meal, they had actual English sausage and a very rich gravy. It was wonderful. We all had a little bit of the English Trifle for dessert. It was like a parfait but instead of yogurt, think fruit with custard. It was very delectable. Good Mum-Themed lunch. :)

Rose and Crown Journal Entry and Straw

This was another difficult shot to take. There were a lot of people walking and sitting around the curbs and I had to make sure I wasn’t going to set anyone on fire. I got my mum to stand in the direction of where the flame would blow it’s ashes so if it got on anyone, it would be her. On her birthday too? I’m such an amazing son. As far as I know, she did not get any ashes on her though.

*No mums were harmed in the making of this image.*

Mitsukoshi

Mitsukoshi is the restaurant to the right in the Tokyo Dining’s pagoda-looking building. Go up the towering steps and then make a right and you’ll be there. It was nice to be so high up off the ground. Looking out the window you could see everyone walking about the Japan section of Epcot.

I chose to go with the Hako Rainbow sushi rolls. They only gave me four pieces but they were satisfying nonetheless. The tuna was probably my favorite part of the rolls. I had a waiter compliment my Bronica and we had a nice chat about medium format cameras. The food did take a little while to come out and after a long day, we were tired. We ended up skipping dessert and going home for the evening. Little did I know, I would be puking my guts out the next morning to Pirates of the Caribbean.

Mitsukoshi Journal Entry and “Straw”

Taking this shot had me a little worried. Something I did not mention at the Rose and Crown was that the shutter dial broke loose and I was not sure if the camera’s shutter speed was the same as what the dial was showing. Post-development, obviously that was no issue. Due to my worry though, there were two attempts. I also took a picture of the lamp before burning the straw because the lamp looked really pretty.

Mitsukoshi did have straws, but I decided it would be more unique to use the chopsticks wrappers. Everything went well here and it was an awesome way to end my mum’s birthday.