While visiting Milan, the World Expo happened to be going on. The Milan World Expo was also being called the World Fair or World Food Expo. The theme was “Feed the Planet, Energy for Life”, and focused on sustainable development and showcased each country’s cuisine.

After having read reviews and talking to some people who went, they told us not to expect to have a lot of food to eat even though it’s called a food fair. There were tickets available for 5 Euro when entering after 6PM, so we decided to check it out.

The expo was really large, with a lot of people still entering the park at 6PM (the expo closed at 11PM).

I would describe the experience like going to Epcot at Disneyworld but without the rides. Each country had an exhibit showcasing a little about their country and cuisine, with really long lines to check it out. To top it off, there were extremely long lines to buy expensive food.

The line for “China”

The biggest featured country, of course, was Italy.

We only managed to check out a few of them as we wanted to explore the entire Expo before it closed, and lines were really long for certain countries.

This was made completely out of chocolate (including the train)!

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Being from Los Angeles and having regular access to delicious and authentic Mexican food back home, Minh and I had wishful thinking of getting some authentic Mexican food at the expo.  Once we saw the prices of the Al Pastor tacos, our hopes of getting tacos that night came to a screeching halt.

10 Tacos for 30 Euros!?

Surprisingly, there was still a long line for those ridiculously expensive tacos!

We were also curious to see what was being showcased for American food.  It was an array of food trucks with items like barbecue, burgers, and sandwiches.  Even that area was extremely packed with long lines at each vendor!

We may have chanted, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” while passing through this area…hehe

Apple Pie seemed to be the favorite of the American food items, as it was completely sold out!

The busiest food area, was unsurprisingly, the McDonalds.  It even had automated self-service kiosks you could order from to expedite the wait times!

Self-Service kiosks to place your order. Pretty cool!

To round out the Epcot/Disneyworld experience, there was a show at the Tree of Life complete with cheesy music and exciting fireworks and water!

The World Fair happens every few years in different countries, so it was great timing for us to be in Milan a few weeks before it ended. It was a fun experience to check it out, but I’m glad we didn’t pay full price (30 Euros) and wait in endless lines all day long.