I was recently contacted by De Dutch Pannekoek House about a Facebook promotion they were running in December to have people choose between savoury and sweet items. The incentive for people to participate is that if you like the De Dutch Facebook page and vote, you get a 25% off code to use at De Dutch. In addition, each vote will give you an entry to win a $500 gift card to De Dutch, to be awarded on December 24. I was asked if I’d be interested in checking out De Dutch and blog about their December promotion and since it has been many years since I last dined there, I thought it would be a good idea. I was sent a gift card for $50 and since that was definitely too much for just Jenkins and me to use up for breakfast, we also invited Grick and Snoopy to come along. We decided to meet up at the New Westminster location since it was close by to where we were going later that day.

Snoopy used to be a regular at De Dutch so while we were perusing what to order, she pointed out some of her favourite items to order. Jenkins ordered an orange juice and Snoopy and Grick had coffees (free refills) while we looked at the menu.

To maximize the variety of our brunch, Snoopy and I decided to split a couple of items. I wanted something with meat but wasn’t overly hungry that day (surprisingly) so I decided on the Abby Perogie pannekoek. This pannekoek came with DeBacon, which is like a thinly sliced Canadian bacon, potato, and onion. It was topped with some cheddar cheese and served with sour cream. I’m not a huge perogie fan but I actually liked this pannekoek quite a bit. The potato added some “meatiness” and the bacon added a hint of saltiness. I was afraid initially that there would be too much cheese but the amount here was just right. My pannekoek got cold quite quickly but I think that was due to the fact that it was so thin more than anything else.

Snoopy chose a sweet pannekoek, which worked out really well with my savoury choice. She decided on the pear and maple syrup pannekoek. The pear wasn’t very sweet and I would have liked for it to be a little softer but combined with the maple syrup, it wasn’t too bad. I preferred the Abby Perogie more though.

Jenkins and Grick were a little on the boring side and decided to order the same thing. Their only difference in the Boer’s pannekoek were their eggs and choice of toast. They were originally going to get the Boer’s option on the main pannekoek menu but then saw there was a slightly smaller option which had a smaller pannekoek and sausage slices instead of links so they decided to order this smaller version instead. Jenkins’ eggs were slightly overcooked and he noted that the hash browns were a bit bland but he liked the pannekoek after he added some maple syrup to it. I sampled one of the sausage slices and I found it to be pretty juicy and flavourful.

We had a pretty good time at De Dutch Pannekoek House. The service got a bit slow at times when the restaurant started to fill up but in general, they were quite good about keeping our drinks topped up and making sure we had everything we needed. I asked Krista today what she thought of De Dutch since she had lived in Holland for a few years. Although it sounds like De Dutch is nowhere near authentic according to what she tells me, I still enjoyed what we ordered there.  Krista did note that she had not been back to De Dutch for several years so perhaps they improved over her previous experience.

Details:
102-1035 Columbia Street, New Westminster
Tel: 604-521-2288

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Note from Gigi: Samantha had asked me if I was interested in doing a review on the KFC Double Down a few weeks ago but I’m currently trying not to eat any fried food until Christmas so I declined. Samantha thought that doing a post on the Double Down would be so worthwhile to do that she enlisted Julio to take one for the team and give the Double Down a try! So Samantha and Julio…on my behalf and that of Ho Yummy’s readers: Thanks!

Note that this monstrosity is only available until Nov 14 in Canada so if you want to try it out, you better hurry!

———————————————

Hi Everyone, I’m Julio, Samantha’s husband, here to write a guest post!

Four months ago an American colleague informed me that in the southern United States, KFC released a sandwich that no one should eat without a defibrillator nearby.  The sandwich is called the Double Down, and according to the KFC website, has 560 Calories, 32g of fat and 1300 mg of sodium which is approximately half of the recommended daily intake of fat and sodium based on a 2000 calories daily intake. When KFC Canada announced that the Double Down would be available in Canada for a limited time, naturally I had to try it.  For my own safety I enlisted the help of a group of coworkers with first aid experience.  Interestingly, the general sentiment of the group was that hopefully the sandwich would not be good so that there would be no follow-up cravings.

It seems the publicity hype surrounding the sandwich has worked, as nearly every customer in the place was there to try the Double Down.

Let’s dissect the components:

Two pieces of skinless chicken breast breaded in the Colonel’s original recipe, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and a piece of thinly sliced bacon,  all seasoned with some chipotle mayo. The cost of a KFC Double Down meal is $10.10 with fries and a drink.

Out of the group of taste testers:

First comment: “It’s a lot smaller then I thought it would be.”

Second comment after tasting it: “It is very salty.”

Comment after eating the sandwich: “When will they bring out the extra crispy and hot and spicy versions?”

Although the sandwich was tasty, the excessive salt and price would discourage me from repeating the experience. Although the 1300mg of sodium should have served as proper warning, it was still surprising just how evident the salty taste was.  It would appear that they tried to offset this with the addition of a little spice in the chipotle mayo and Pepper Jack cheese, however the heat was so low, I would have gotten frostbite if it wasn’t for all that salt.

My friend Samantha is getting married this year so she has been diligently trying to find a wedding dress. Her search led her to New Westminster, where there are quite a few bridal shops along 6th Avenue, known to people in the know as “Bridal Row”. I had the pleasure of helping her with her hunt one weekend morning and as a reward to ourselves for an intense morning of shopping, we had lunch at IHOP.

We actually wandered around looking for a good place to have lunch when I spied the unmistakable house-like structure of IHOP. I love breakfast so IHOP seemed like a good place to satiate my craving. Luckily for me, Samantha complied with me.

It was around 2 or 2:30 by the time we arrived at the restaurant so even though it was quite busy for that time of day, we did not have to wait. Since it was quite cold that day, I warmed up with a tea. To spice up my somewhat boring Red Rose tea, I asked the server for some lemon and honey.

Even though IHOP has a regular lunch and dinner menu, I quickly zeroed in on the breakfast items. I decided to go for the Smokehouse Combo, which was 2 smoked sausages with eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. The sausages were very juicy and had a nice grilled flavour to them although I was hard pressed to taste the smoked flavour. I ordered my eggs over medium and it had just the right amount of runny-ness to the yolks. My hashbrowns had a nice crispiness to them without being too oily, which I appreciated.

One of the reasons I ordered this item was because it also came with pancakes.

I quickly scraped the scoop of butter on top before it could melt into my pancakes and then decided which type of syrup I should use. There was quite an array of syrups including blueberry, strawberry, boysenberry, and maple syrup. The boysenberry sounded the most interesting but I sampled all the other syrups and the boysenberry definitely went the best with the pancakes. The pancakes themselves were light and fluffy and the 2 that came with my meal were just enough to fill me up for lunch.

Samantha decided to have strawberry and chocolate crepes for her lunch. Although we both lamented that the strawberries likely weren’t fresh, the crepes were actually quite tasty. They were a bit on the sweet side due to the generous helping of strawberry and sauce but the dish turned out to be very filling and better than I expected.

If you’re on the lookout for a reliable and fairly fast breakfast place, IHOP is a pretty good choice. There are quite a few locations scattered throughout the Lower Mainland and although I do find the prices to be a bit high for what you get, their selection of North American breakfast items is pretty extensive.

Details:
514 8th Ave, New Westminster
Tel: 604-521-3212

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$