Anducci’s – Go-To Gluten Free Pasta

I had dinner tonight at Anducci’s in Burnaby. I realized that even though I probably eat there once a month, and they are my go to restaurant for gluten free pasta, I’ve never written about them. So here we go!

Anducci’s is (was) a chain Italian restaurant. At one point there were locations in Coquitlam, Burnaby (2), Surrey and Vancouver. They are now down to two restaurants; both of the Burnaby locations, but through my internet sleuthing I have deduced that they are no longer connected. The two locations are on Hastings and Cameron, and the Coquitlam location was on Barnet. I’ll start with an overview, and then break down each location!

Anducci’s is generally known for good pasta, large portions, good drinks and not great service. They have a large menu and offer different options of noodles (cheese, meat or seafood filled, gnocchi, spaghetti, penne, whole grain, gluten free, etc…), different sauces, a few meat entrees, paninis, pizzas, soups, salads and appetizers. The restaurants have dim lighting, kind of random decorating and pictures of half naked men and women in the washrooms. Their drink menu is extensive, and the wine list is pretty good. I’ve never had a bad wine at any of the locations, although my parents have. The service is definitely lacking. If you are in a rush and need an attentive server, you generally aren’t going to get one at an Anducci’s location.

My family used to often eat at the Coquitlam Anducci’s, as it is pretty close to home. We started going there because they carry gluten free pasta, and are pretty knowledgeable about different allergies. The location was a pretty large space, with a good sized bar and an upstairs generally used for private parties. The Coquitlam store went through a few owners/managers and even closed down once before it was brought back and finally closed for good. The food at this store was consistent with the others, and was probably my favourite location. The servers here were all right and generally very accommodating, although they all seemed to have a bit of an attitude.

When they closed this location we were pretty bummed because it was so close to home and the food was good. So we started going to the location in Burnaby on Cameron (it’s kind of tucked in next to Lougheed Mall on the Wal-Mart side). I had been to this location before and wasn’t impressed; really loud music, very dim lighting and bad service, but it has definitely improved. The music is mellow, the lights have gone up (they’re still a little dim, but at least now you can read the menu!), and the service has improved a little, but it’s still really hit or miss.

My boyfriend and I now eat at this location about once a month and we always seem to have one of two servers. One of them, a girl, always seems really bored and uninterested in being at work. She’ll be talking to us and walk away still talking, kind of trailing off, and never really seems to care about how everything is. She is good however, when I request gluten free pasta. She always asks if it’s an allergy and lets us know that it will be a little bit longer than normal because they have to boil fresh water. I appreciate this because I found out that at the Coquitlam location they would cook the gluten free pasta in the regular water, which is a big no no!

My sister, brother-in-law and I had this server tonight, and she was actually better than normal. We went for an early dinner, around 4:45pm, and she seemed to be the only front of house staff member on. She was a little slow, which I just figured to be because she was by herself. She was more talkative than normal and seemed to be in an overall better mood. She did take awhile to take our order, and drink refills were few and far between. I asked for a drink menu, and on her second or third trip back to the table she finally asked if I wanted to order a beverage. The food was prompt, and lived up to expectations.

My brother-in-law and I shared the Flaming Prawns to start, which is a mini wok dish of sauteed prawns with bruschetta salsa and Sambuca. It is served with a side of garlic bread, which I gave to my bro in exchange for an extra prawn! They pour the Sambuca in table-side, which is where the flaming comes in. This is a really nice dish, and with the bread would actually be a good meal on its own.

My sister started with a caesar salad and said it wasn’t great. I’ve had their caesar salad before, and find it lacking. When you’re craving a good caesar salad this one definitely does not satisfy.

For our mains my sisters ordered the Seafood Risotto, which she orders every time she is there. The risotto has clams, scallops and prawns in it, and is in a dill sauce. My sister loves this dish and I don’t think she’s ever going to try anything else! She also loves that she usually gets two more meals out of her portion for the next day or two.

My bro ordered penne pasta with The Hulk sauce. The hulk has goat cheese, avocado, mushrooms, spinach, almonds and garlic and is tossed in a simple olive oil sauce. This dish is also my brother-in-laws favourite. His only complaint today was that he wanted to order the seafood filled pasta, but they were out.

I ordered the Tammy Teez on gluten free fusilli. This dish is chicken, mushrooms and bruschetta salsa with an alfredo sauce. Today I changed it and asked for a spicy tomato sauce instead. And did I get spicy! I think I went through about two or three glasses of water while I was eating! It was great though. I have had this dish with the original alfredo sauce as well, and that is also fabulous. My only complaint with the alfredo is that the cook always has a heavy hand with the pepper.

I’ve only been to the other Burnaby location, on Hastings, once, and once was enough. I quickly figured out while I was there that this location was different from the others, as the menu was completely different. They only offered one type of gluten free pasta, the menu was smaller and the signature pasta sauces were gone. When I was there my friend and I were the only table in the store and the server was awful. So slow, mixed up our drinks and generally uninterested in being there. And with only two people in your whole restaurant, how do you mix up the drinks?! I won’t be going back to this location.

The Anducci’s company seems to have had its ups and downs over the past few years. To go from five locations to two, and then have them part ways, the company has gone through some changes. I am very glad that the location on Cameron has survived, and is hopefully here to stay.

Check out the Cameron location of Anducci’s at http://www.anduccisitaliankitchen.com/

Note- I actually had dinner at Anducci’s on Sunday (Father’s Day), but published this post today (Tuesday).

Pizza Pizza-Gluten Free Pizza!

This Wednesday I was online looking for reviews on the new Boston Pizza gluten free crusts when I came across a blog that mentioned the pizza chain “Pizza Pizza”. The blogger mentioned that they had recently discovered that Pizza Pizza carried gluten free crusts. I, of course, read that and got super excited! Gluten free pizza!

So I googled Pizza Pizza and saw that it is an Ontario chain. But I checked out the website anyway and found that they have a couple stores in the Lower Mainland. Not only that, but their stores out here also carry the gluten free crusts! I was so happy I almost didn’t want to believe it until I knew for sure. So I called the store and asked if all of their stores carry the gluten free crusts. “Yes we do.” So excited!

Last night we ordered from the Pizza Pizza in Port Coquitlam. We ordered a regular crust for the rest of the family, and the gluten free crust for myself. The gluten free crust is only available in a medium size, and there is an extra $3.50 charge for the crust. So it’s a bit more money for the gluten free pizza, but I wanted to see if it was worth it! I was just so excited to actually be able to order pizza!

I ordered the Canadian (pepperoni, bacon and mushrooms) with easy cheese. I’d read in the comments of the blog I came across that the regular pepperoni has wheat in it, so I ordered the “New York Style” pepperoni instead.

The pizza was good! There were a lot of toppings on it, and they listened to the easy cheese request. But the crust was obviously gluten free. It was very dense and not very thick. The crust under the toppings was good, it was moist, but the outer crust was really dry and almost hard to bite through.

But even with that, it was good. And it was just so nice to be able to order pizza along with the rest of the family!

I don’t know if Pizza Pizza makes their crusts themselves, or if they are brought in. From the way the outer crust was so hard it makes me wonder if the crusts are baked from frozen. I’m not sure, but I’d love to find out how they make them!

Now when I am craving pizza I know where to order from! And they even deliver!

Check out Pizza Pizza online at www.pizzapizza.ca

Split Pea and Ham Soup-With Fake Roux!

My dad’s specialty in the kitchen is soups. Soups of all kinds: split pea and ham, lentil, vegetable, you name it. If there’s vegetables in the fridge and some kind of lentil, pea or other legume lying around, he’ll turn it into a soup. Well, my dad’s been away on business since the beginning of April, so the family has gone with no soup for a while now. I decided to change this.

On Tuesday this past week I was making dinner and using a pork roast that I was cutting up into strips for pork stroganoff. In the middle of the roast was a large bone that I had to cut out. I decided that instead of throwing it out, I would try making pork stock out of it. I’ve never made a pork stock before, but figured, “why not?” Off I went, stock simmering away and thought about what I could do with it. Well, my boyfriend had been asking for split pea and ham soup (his favourite) for awhile, so I figured I could use the stock for the base of the soup.

A few months back my dad had found a deal on a ham hock at the grocery store and cut it all up into chunks and froze them in bags ready for soup. I thawed one of these out and was good to go!

I started out by starting the cooking process on the split peas. My dad buys bags of dried split peas, and he had told me  to start them by boiling them for about ten minutes, and then they should be good to go in the soup. In another pot I was heating up my pork stock, so then when I started ladling it into the mirepoix (onions and celery) it wouldn’t lower the heat in the pan.

Split peas simmering away.

Mirepoix of onions and celery cooking in margarine.

Heating up the pork stock.

As I have problems with dairy I decided to sweat the onions, celery and garlic in margarine. I know some people really don’t like margarine (my dad included), but I frequently use it as a butter substitute. Once the mirepoix was soft I singed (pronounced san-jay) with rice flour. This is a technique I learned in school that you can use when making soups or stews. It’s kind of like making a roux, but you put the flour in when there are other ingredients already in the pan. It’s almost like making a roux after the fact. And as I would be eating this soup, I had to make it gluten free! The rice flour worked really well, and I didn’t notice any flavour difference with it. The typical grittiness that comes with rice flour was not apparent in the soup.

Rice flour mixed in.

When the mirepoix is soft you mix in the flour until the moisture (oil, butter, etc…) is absorbed. From this step the hot stock can be ladled in. I ladled it in one spoonful at a time for the first few, once the previous ladle was incorporated.

While I was doing this I started cooking the ham in a separate pot from the soup. When my dad makes the soup it’s a one pot deal. Everything goes together. I didn’t want to cook the ham in the same pot as the rest of the soup because there was a lot of fat on the ham that I wanted to render off first. I knew that by doing this I might be losing some of the flavourful bits from the bottom of the pan, but figured I could forgo those for less fat in the soup. I also added the carrots in around this time. I didn’t put them in earlier because I didn’t want them to get too soft; I wanted them to keep a bit of crunch for texture in the soup.

When my dad makes this soup he puts in a ton of other vegetables. He leaves out the carrots, but puts in tomatoes, potatoes and bok choy. I decided to do the potatoes, but leave out the other two. I cut the potatoes into about a medium dice size (6mm cubes) and tossed them into the soup with the ham and carrots.

Finished soup simmering away.

I let the soup simmer away to cook the potatoes through, as well as to thicken up the soup a bit. I finished it with just some salt and pepper. I was racking my brain trying to decide what other spices to put into the soup, but just couldn’t think of any! I know somewhere in my notes from school I have written “ham/pork loves ____” but just couldn’t remember!

The finished product was great. It was a very comforting, flavourful, homey soup. My dad would be proud!