Midtown Lunch

The 2012 People’s Choice Vendy Winner The Cinnamon Snail Truck is back on the road after a couple weeks off for repairs. Among other things the truck got a new engine and transmission. Besides the lost days on the road, those fixes add up to a whole lot of doughnuts. For their second day back they’ll be hitting their Friday midtown spot on 47th and Park and will be bringing some super special treats (homemade Peppermint Patties, maple pecan Rice Krispie Treats, white chocolate cream filled twinkies, and espresso chocolate twinkies) along with their winter menu which has some seasonal items totally worth checking out.

If either of those twinkies sound good to you (and for those of you that attended the Vendys you’ll remember that their vegan twinkies were part of what brought them the People’s Choice crown), I suggest getting to the truck EARLY. I’ve tried a few times rather unsuccessfully to get twinkies at their Friday spot and their midtown coalition is strong. People come out to get boxes for the office. One way of ensuring your afternoon treat is to get into the office then duck out for breakfast. I’m a huge fan of their pancakes. The blue corn pancakes and pine nut butter recipes are actually in our forthcoming book, New York a la Cart: Recipes and Stories from the Big Apple’s Best Food Trucks and right now in addition to the blue corn pancakes they’re also serving Hazelnut bourbon pancakes with pine nut butter, orange cranberry sauce, and dark beer syrup ($10). The pancakes in the photo above aren’t exactly the Hazelnut pancakes–I’m allergic to nuts and there are nuts in the actual pancake mix, so I got the blue corn pancakes with the Hazelnut bourbon fixins. The dark beer syrup is nice and beer-y. For whole berry cranberry sauce lovers like me, the sauce was my jam. Not too sweet and just the right amount of tart. As I’ve mentioned before, there aren’t many places to get good pancakes in midtown and the ones from the Snail are hearty and filling. You won’t be hungry immediately after getting an order of these.

Speaking of cranberries, they can also be found on their Thanksgiving Sandoo, a porchini mushroom simmered seitan, grilled fennel stuffing, marinated kale, cranberry orange relish, and garlic aioli on grilled baguette ($9). If you’re longing for Thanksgiving this is the sandwich for you. I’m not the biggest seitan fan, but the porchini mushrooms lend a meatiness to the seitan. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this sandwich, there’s a lot going on from the tartness of the sauce to the crunchy tang of the kale and the savory stuffing and seitan. I’ve gone back and had this sandwich a couple times since it debuted in December. Not sure how much longer it will be on the menu as whole cranberries become more scarce, so if this sounds good, go and get it stat.

Lastly there’s the Rosemary hempseed grilled tofu with caramelized onions, fried sage leaves, pickled radish, arugula, and white wine whole grain mustard on grilled focaccia ($9). I’ll admit that I have a ridiculous love for anything with mustard and I really like tofu, add in the pickled radish and greens and this sandwich has my name all over it. What can I say, if you like tofu, too, this is a great sandwich with a lot of flavor (never would have thought of frying sage leaves, but it works), but if you’re already an anti-tofu-ist, I don’t think it will change your mind. Tofu is after all tofu…which leads me to this. For those considering a visit to the Snail for the first time check out my full +/- review of the truck. I still standby the smoked portobello mushroom carpaccio, as a great pick for any lunch’rs feeling timid about seitan or tofu. This sandwich consists of smoked portabello mushrooms that have been thinly sliced and layered on a sandwich with fried caper berries, caramelized onions, truffled kalamata olive tapenade, and arugula on grilled herb focaccia ($9). Vegan or not vegan it’s just a damn good sandwich.

Today they are parked on 47th & Park, but for exact locations and specials, follow them on twitter @VeganLunchTruck. or check out their Facebook page where they post their weekly schedule and any specials news.