The taste of expectations exceeded (Boma, Animal Kingdom Resort)

Boma is one of our favorite restaurants at Walt Disney world. I had forgotten just how exceptional it is and tonight Boma was firing on all cylinders.
For starters (and because it is a family restaurant) it serves up all its meats totally plain. Beef, chicken, and turkey sliced off the bone and perfectly cooked. Then it seduces you with a dozen varieties of African sauces and stews (pap, sweet potato mash, sausage stew, spicy tomato stew), and throws in  a few Indian specialties (excellent mint chutney). Then as a foil (and for the kids), plain pasta, mashed potatoes, plain rice. And then a table full of desserts including Oreo Cheesecakes, coffee tarts, zebra domes, and chocolate chip cookies. It might sound a tad boring but everything is so well executed and well spiced that it can satisfy every palate from bland to super spicy.

Maybe it was the chocolate martini talking

but I was crying inside from the very first bite. It is not often that something can live up to your memory of it, especially when in your mind, over time, you have built it up into its platonic ideal.

It reminded me of the fried rice I had for the second time at Sam Choys on the Big Island. It completely knocked the socks off my memory of it, which was already pretty exalted. The folks I was with thought I was nuts. But it was just what happens when the second time around is even better than the first.