Around Disney California Adventure, open-air vending carts serve up seasonal treats, including Gingerbread Cake, Bean & Cheese Pupusa and Quality Spiked Sparkling Agua Fresca.
Menu for outdoor vending carts at Disney California Adventure Festival of Holidays 2022
Food:
- 🆕 Gingerbread Cake – $8.00
- 🆕 Beans and Cheese Pupusa – $8.00
Beverages:
- 🆕 Quality Spiked Fresh Water – $10.50
Photos of outdoor vending cart menu items at Disney California Adventure Festival of Holidays 2022
*NEW* Gingerbread Cake – $8.00
with a molasses glaze, a gingerbread man and sprinkles
This was the surprise hit of the Festival of Holidays. Mickey’s gingerbread man has garnered a lot of attention online, garnering a cult following from last year to this year. But while that gingerbread cookie is nothing to write home about, this gingerbread cake is truly stellar.
This one deserves all the attention, and it hasn’t been discovered yet. The cake is light and fluffy on the inside, with enough body to hold its own on the spoon. It’s not very sweet, which is good for a gingerbread cake like that. The sweetness comes from the molasses glaze on top, which imparts a delicious dark flavor that pairs well with the spiced gingerbread cake.
Overall we really enjoyed it and if you’re only going to try one sweet from the whole festival, do it with this cake. What it lacks in Mickey Mouse cuteness, it makes up for in every other category.
*NEW* Beans and Cheese Pupusa – $8.00
with a garnish of curtido and tomato sauce
There was a lot of flavor in this dish, but not because of the pupusa. The pupusa itself is thin and hard, harder than we would expect and much more than we would like. It may have been cool and light earlier in the day, but after being reheated and transported to a cart for sale under a heat lamp, it’s not great.
The curtido brings a hint of vinegar from the vegetables, and the tomato sauce was simple but very satisfying, with strong notes of cumin and fresh tomatoes.
So it’s not necessarily that the overall dish was tasteless, but rather that the pupusa itself simply became a very sturdy delivery device for the nice toppings. We recommend skipping this in favor of any number of other, more delicious items.
*NEW* Quality Spiked Sparkling Fresh Water – $10.50
Sweet flavors of prickly pear and sour pomegranate
This spiked mineral water tastes a bit less intense than we’d like. It’s a mineral water, so it’s more like water than beer, but the moniker of enriched fresh water made us expect some more robust fruit flavors.
The pomegranate registers, but the prickly pear flavor is lost in the mix, as it’s such a delicate flavor to begin with. It’s not unpleasant, but we were hoping with this combination of fruits and the mention of agua fresca that it would be closer to an actual agua fresca than a mineral water.
That being said, it’s not unpleasant, although we’re not sure we’ll visit again.
The drink comes in a can, but they pour it into a cup first.
The Festival of Holidays takes place from November 11 to January 8 at Disney California Adventure.
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