Signature Dish: Sip and Sliders Little Big Dill & Nanaimo Bar Milkshake

“I was researching all these flavours I wanted to try out and I knew I wanted to have chips on a burger at some point, so I went with dill pickle chips. Everything that I have on my menu, it was in my images first. I wanted ‘this’ on a slider and I was going to pair it with ‘this’ and it really came to my mind in my dreams and imagination before we built it.”

The buns come fresh from Cobs Bread every morning, while the meat is provided by local butcher Meat Craft Island Butchery.

Creating sliders instead of full-sized burgers was a deliberate choice for Turner who said it gives the opportunity for people to try something different every time.

“Rather than one burger you can try two, or three. Some people will get one of each and I just wanted that out there so people could try different flavours.”

Six sliders feature on the regular menu with vegan and gluten free options available.

Their fries are crispy, light and fluffy thanks to a twice-cooked technique and are lightly seasoned with a secret blend of salt and spices.

The truck will go through 1,200 pounds of potatoes, which come from Qualicum, during a busy summer weekend.

“Each potato is hand punched on the truck the day we’ll serve them, so they were literally potatoes the morning we are serving them,” Turner said.

Sip and Sliders lives up to the first part of their name with around 40 different flavours of milkshakes, made to order in around 30 seconds.

“We serve about 150 a day at the beach so we have to be fast. I also have the struggle of freezer space, so I fill my freezer with as much vanilla ice cream as I can then we use premium syrups, purees and powders. Our Nanaimo Bar milkshake actually has the Nanaimo bar custard in it.”

Turner has operated Sip and Sliders for since 2019 after a long career in the food industry. The opportunity to own a food truck came after running a restaurant with friends for two years prior.

The evolution of the menu came from countless hours of trial and error, learning how to be more efficient and serve a top quality product at lightning speeds.

“The first market we were at I’d planned to put whipped cream and sprinkles on each shake and we opened up the window and there was so many people there, the whipped cream kept running out so we unfortunately had to drop the whipped cream…you can’t have everything on a food truck.”

Turner said she gets a lot of satisfaction from watching kids faces when they get their slider or milkshake and also said people will flag her down while she drives the truck around town.

There is also a key focus on local.

In addition to the potatoes sourced from Qualicum and beef coming from a Nanaimo butcher, Turner gets her packaging, which is all compostable, from a small company in Victoria.

Sip and Sliders offers catering services, provided the truck can be parked on site. When not at events and markets across the mid-Island, it’s stationed at Departure Bay beach Friday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.

You can check out their full menu, updated hours and locations on their Facebook page.

Signature Dish is brought to you by Island Savings – A Division of First West Credit Union, learn more at https://www.islandsavings.ca/.

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Signature Dish: Sip and Sliders Little Big Dill & Nanaimo Bar Milkshake

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