Commissioner's Academic Challenge - 2008

April 10-12, 2008

Saturday, April 12, 2008
The 23rd Commissioner's Academic Challenge, Tom's 12th, was at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. This annual event is a competition among the school districts of Florida and affords us another opportunity to enjoy the fine WDW cuisine. To learn more about the tournament, click here. We secured the convention room rate and drove down to WDW on Saturday, April 5, for a few days of frolic before the tournament.
Today was the last day of the tournament. Duval County failed to get past the semi-finals. Division 3 was won by Hardee; Division 2 by Martin and Division 1 by Pinellas. After the competition, we went to Citricos for our last dinner "on property."
Citricos
We took the monorail from the Contemporary to the Grand Floridian. There, we learned that Malik was off for the evening and that Larry would be with us.
Menu | Desserts
We started, of course, with drinks. Lyd had a gin martini (7.25) and Tom had a pair of Maker's Mark Manhattans (8) Lyd also had a glass of BR Cohn Cabernet Savignon, North Coast '06 (11.50) Chef De Cuisine, Phil Ponticelli, was out of town. Sous Chef, Eddie Mendoza, visited with us, as he has done before. Lyd enjoyed the Sauteed Shrimp with stracinati pasta, lemon, white wine, tomatoes and feta cheese (12) Tom opted for the Salad of Romaine Lettuce with fresh hearts of palm, maytag blue cheese and late harvest Riesling Viniagrette (8). This is great. Lyd selected Goat Cheese "Truffles" with tomato, cracked pepper, and sesame truffles with arugula, frisee, Nueske Applewood smoked bacon and roasted beets (9) Lyd's main course was the Filet Giardiniere of Oak grilled filet of beef with house-cured vegetables, Quattro Formaggi crushed potatoes and veal glace (38) Tom finished with the Braised Boneless Black Angus Short Ribs with creamy polenta and a blood orange demi-glace (39) In Malik's absence, Larry took good care of us. David, an old friend, stopped by, even though it was not one of his tables. David is working in radio in Orlando. We'll be in touch with him.