Poutine @ Anny's Dairy Bar (New Westminster BC)

I've written about Anny's Dairy Bar before - M and I stopped by in the summer for burgers, frieds, and their creamy soft serve (with caramel ripple!).

Since I wrote that post though, there has been a number of posts about poutine - from Phyllis' poutine marathon (12 poutines in 12 days) to Mijunes posts (and vlog) on David Street. Since I had noticed that Anny's Dairy Bar served poutine (and also sold the cheese curds) in the Royal City, I'd mentioned it in a comment on Phyllis' entry.

I have a confession. I am a poutine newbie! Growing up, cheese simply disgusted me. I would watch a highschool friend of mine (all 90lbs of her) order a large poutine from NY fries and she'd down it all herself. She had just moved from Montreal and she said it reminded her of home. I'd pretty much gag a little as I watched her consumer her meal/snack.

Years later, it wasn't until M started forcing me to try cheese that I started to give in. Shortly thereafter, M realized that he'd created a monster - I was buying a new cheese every week, and while I was living in Victoria for a short time, me and one of my roomates would make cheese, fruit and crackers (and the occasional pate) our dinner. (I miss those days!) Surprisingly, I was probably the thinnest in my life during that period.

Fast forward to today. I love cheese, but have still not conquered poutine. I don't know - something about cheese curds and gravy. I'd much rather have the fries on their own, or topped with chili or accompanying stew.

So as I read more and more of Phyllis and Mijunes' posts on poutine, I figured I'd have to make a foray into the world of poutine. And so I did...keep in mind that every journey begins with a single step! :p

Last weekend, I found myself back at Anny's Dairy Bar, craving something warm, comforting, and filling. Poutine would do the trick!

There was a single attendant in the establishment but the steady patrons kept her busy while I was there. Some were finishing up their soft serve cones; others were picking at their burgers or poutines. How was it? Did it pop my poutine cherry? (Theoretically, it did, as I've never had a poutine to myself nor have I ever finished more than a couple bites.)

I'll just say that it was a comfortable foray into the poutine world. The fries were slightly crisp and seasoned well, however there was too much gravy in my portion and some fries actually got left behind of this. The curds were not "squeaky" like Phyllis has mentioned, and had been added cold onto the hot fries. Despite being some curds being lukewarm and no squeaky texture, the cures were yummy! Some curds melted; others remained intact. The gravy was not too salty (thank goodness) and had a nice texture.

The meal was what I wanted it to be; satisfying and comforting, however I'd like to try other poutines (like Brado Pizza's!) to see how they stack up.

Anny's Dairy Bar
722 Sixth Street
New Westminster BC
P: 604-515-1410

Anny's Dairy Bar (New Westminster, BC) + a Total Tangent...

One sunny weekend brought me to New Westminster for some antiquing. We had decided beforehand that we were going to pay a visit to The Orange Room as well, but they closed early on Sundays and so we just meandered on.

I remembered Anny's Dairy Bar from when I did work in New West, and was also hankering for their deliciously rich Maple Twist cone. M was hungry, so we ordered a cheeseburger combo (substituted a milkshake for the drink), an extra burger, and a Maple Twist Cone.



The cashier was clever enough to suggest we order the cone "for later" to avoid melting while the burgers were prepared to order. There was a little bit of a wait as we encountered an annoying occurrence on this strip of Sixth Street: a lack of washrooms. No, I do not mean that the washrooms were busy, I mean literally, there were no customer washrooms in either Anny's Dairy Bar or in KFC next door. There wasn't even a hand sink for us to wash our hands!

Since we had finished looking at antiques nearby, we felt the need to wash (what we felt was) 50-year-old grime off our hands before eating food that needed to be handled. We wound up using the washroom across the street at Wendy's.

If I may digress, people often ask me why, after going through the training for Public Health Inspection, that I never followed through with it. Partly, it was laziness. Mostly, it was the work experience that allowed me to see what a fallacy it could all be. The Food Service Establishment Guidelines (which are not readily available to the public, might I add) states that there must be washrooms for customers if there are more than a certain number of customer seats available (ie mostly take out orders = less or no need for washrooms). This is, at most, a lenient guideline and this is evident in smaller, older establishments which seem to have been "grandfathered" for this clause.

What isn't taken into effect is that establishment operators change and/or the restaurant is changed and modified to accommodate more seats and yet, no adjustment is made in terms of the number or the availability of washrooms for customers to use.

The way I see it, establishments should be reviewed on an annual basis (currently they are, but they aren't) before their health license (and subsequently the business licence, even!) may be renewed. For major (and much-needed) changes like washrooms, a grace period could be given - I'd even say three to five years if it would help! But as far as I know, places remain "grandfathered", and as far as Anny's Dairy Bar / KFC on Sixth Street / Dairy Queen on Sixth Avenue go, they haven't had (what I feel is) a mandatory washroom / hand sink installed for customer use.

The problem is that, with so much variability and inspector discrepancy, combined with lenient guidelines and regulations, you could have something allowed in one jurisdiction and fervently frowned upon in another.

And that's just one of the issues. Let's not get started on the others.

Ahem. Let's get back to the food. I'd visited Anny's before - I remembered their creamy Island Farms soft serve, and that yummy ribbon of maple butter that swirled around with each twist of ice cream.

The burgers were not good, and not bad. The meat was fresh like they claimed, but a touch on the small side. If I can finish the burger, it's small! Look, the tomato is almost bigger than the burger!



It was a really simple burger with clean flavours. I would order it again, although for size it was a little pricey. The fries had only been fried once, so they were cooked through, but varied in texture. M liked them, while I had a mixed reaction. They were different, and slightly crispy in one bite, to slightly soggy the next.



The maple twist cone? Tasty and excellently rich as always. In fact, after the burger and some fries, it was almost *too* rich, if there is such a thing. Still, I enjoyed it - buttery texture and all. The twists of maple butter were a nice touch.

For a cheeseburger combo, extra burger, substituted milkshake and a maple twist cone (I think she gave us a large cone, but we only paid for a regular cone) we paid about $16. Not bad in the scheme of things, but I would have anticipated a larger burger.

There were a lot of poutine fries being made and consumed while we were at Anny's Dairy Bar - they also sold fresh cheese curds by the bag. I'll have to make another trip out there to try the poutine!

Anny's Dairy Bar

722 Sixth Street [map]

New Westminster BC

Phone: 604-515-1410

Weekday Dinners: Moules Mariniere, Chickpea Frites, and Dukkah!

We love our freezer. It holds such goodies like black cod, back ribs, homemade spring rolls, and on this particular occasion, frozen New Zealand mussels!

I know that fresh mussels are always better, but M and I are usually too busy on the weekdays to shop for an assortment of food other than fresh vegetables or such, so this was handy to have around.



I also had been looking for an excuse to prepare Sara's Chickpea Fries. What else goes with mussels? Fries of course!

I had prepared the mixture for the chickpea fries ahead of time, and fried them prior to preparing the mussels.

For the mussels, I simply sauteed shallots and garlic in a pan, deglaised with white wine, deglaised with a small amount of seafood stock, added the thawed mussels and some diced bell pepper, covered with a lid, and allowed to cook for another 3-5 minutes. I then removed from the heat, stired to bring up all the juices and cooking liquid, garnished with chopped parsley, and plated.

The cooking rich liquid was later added to a seafood soup. Yum!



The dukkah recipe I used was from Allrecipes. It actually tasted a little bland the first day, but after storing in a jar in the fridge for a day, the flavours developed and tasted really good with leftover chickpea fries, in meatballs, and on tortilla chips dipped in a little bit of olive oil!

Photos can be found at my flickr photo set.

Related Sources:
Allrecipes Dukkah Recipe.
Sara's Chickpea Fries.

His and Hers Bentos

Another lunchtime favourite: bentos!

Although I don't have the skill or the craft to make elaborate, tasty and healthy bentos, I couldn't help but snap a photo of the lunches I packed for today for the beau and myself.



We have some lovely spicy, sweet and fragrant Carribean chicken drumsticks, herb-buttered mushrooms sauteed with onions and garlic, russet and red potato frites, topped with some creamy avocado. His and hers bentos? Well obviously the man has the triple helping of drumsticks on the left, while I have the two smaller boxes of food on the right.

This was a fairly cheap meal, considering we picked up the drumsticks at $0.99 / lb at Sunrise Market this weekend. We also picked up a pair of lovely avocados for $0.69/each. I snatched them up as I'd read that the price of avocadoes was going to soar this year. I'd also seen them advertised at chain supermarkets at the "sale" price of upwards of $1.25 each! So when I saw them at only 69 cents at Sunrise, I had to get them.

Have a good day everyone! It is the dawn of a new era - Obama was sworn in this morning and I listened to it at work.

Change is good.

More foodie photos at my flickr photoset, Food Glorious Food!