Hot On The Trail Of The Cinnamon Snail

General Tso's Haberno Apricot Glazed Seitan Sandwich with Arugula

Overheard Somewhere Near Midtown New York City:

Guy: What's this Cinnamon Snail? (looking at the line to order)

Girl: Do they really serve snails?

Guy: Oh, not if it's vegan.

 Now picture that conversation in a thick Staten Island accent. Yes, there is a difference. 

      I'm not sure what it is with food from a truck, maybe it's the quintessential american meal, trucks and fast food. Or maybe it's the garage band theory when the most passionate chefs are working to prove their worth. No matter what it is, I can't get enough. Seabirds was my first truck love, which inspired Salt Lake City's best restaurant (wheeled or not) Union Street Eats, and now the famed and great Cinnamon Snail, hands down the best food I ate in the city! I know I have a tendency to use the superlatives, but, look, I'm not alone. Mobile Cuisine just nominated the truck as the top influential vegan food truck in the country. See, I have back up! Plus, how cool of a name for a restaurant is Cinnamon Snail! (Spoiler: It's what they call a cinnamon roll. Oh, those creative, East Coasters!) 

The Cinnamon Snail in Action

Look At That Dessert Window!

     On a recent visit to the big apple Cinnamon Snail was on my mind  after a VegNews article on Food Trucks, but I thought Hoboken was a little too far to travel given the cornucopia of food choices. Luckily, my great hosts had a Cinnamon Snail calendar that lead me to the journey. Not only did they tell me, they come to New York City, but one of the calendar photos had a picture of a donut. This was just an ordinary donut but a creme brulee donut! Needless to say, we got some shut eye and a late start to the day and then headed to midtown to stalk Cinnamon Snail. Well, I didn't have to work to hard to pick up it's scent, my great host Brett @ Veganbrew gave me perfect directions that lead right to the truck. 

Creme Brulee Donut

After Some Warming In The Oven!

    With menu items like ancho chili seitan burger, maple mustard tempeh sandwich, the hardest part was what to choose. Well, the entrees anyway. I was nervously watching the stack of creme brulee donuts shrink to just two! A cold sweat ensued and then the lady in front order of me order one! Oh, not I might not get the famed donut! But alas, I got the last one (and a box of other donuts)! Perfect timing if you ask me. In other news, I decided to go with the special of the day General Tso's special and the special one got a Lemongrass Five Spiced Seitan sandwich, which looked just like mine. I paired mine with some Artisan Passionfruit ginger ale from Bruce Cost. This guy literally wrote the book on ginger. My hero. Swoon! 

Cinnamon Snail in Action

Box O' Donuts

Creme Brulee, Smores and Boston Creme!

     Ordering food from a truck isn't a bad deal when you can go back to your home or office, but new york city is lacking in benches. Luckily, we walked a block and found half a street that was converted into an outdoor area, complete with table and chairs. Pretty cool, though it was a bit weird eating with cars driving so close by. The second thing I learned is how hard it is to photograph a sandwich, especially with rain drops percolating from the sky. The third thing I learned is how delicious Cinnamon Snail is. Wow, this was an awesome sandwich and organic, too. I just wish I could have went for breakfast or another stop. Hopefully, they get picked up by the Food Network so we'll get another visit in Salt Lake! If you're headed to the Big Apple, make Cinnamon Snail one of your must visits. Just be sure to follow on twitter or facebook to get their current location. Oh, and it's cash only so hit the ATM before following the snail trail. If you're not convinced just gander at one of last week's special: Panang curry grilled tofu with marinated greens and Thai chili roasted coconut and peanuts served open face on a chili butter grilled tortilla. Now will someone overnight me one? Please? I would settle for some recipes.

    Smores Donut

Like A Campfire, Only In Donut Form

     The donuts were dense and packed with flavor. Like children, I can't admit to my favorite, but if you twisted my arm enough I could be forced to squeal creme brulee. It's not my fought you forced me!    

     While we were eating, we got word that we scored tickets to David Letterman. I've been a fan since I was a wee lad so it was awesome to see the shows in person. Not only was that great, but Florence and The Machine were the musical guest. Our lucky stars were aligned. I was feeling so lucky, I played the lottery, but sadly I didn't win.

     With bellies full, we headed to the 9/11 memorial. It's really a beautiful memorial and didn't require any advanced tickets,unlike the plethora of signs that indicate otherwise. This was awesome, because we're the fly by the seat of our pants people.

9/11 Memorial

Freedom Tower

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Enter The Brotherhood!

Seitan Bacon Ranch And Margarita Pizza

The Best Of Both Worlds!

     I'm sure he's not English, but we should be looking into knighting or whatever the Long Island equivalent would be (maybe a parade?) for Jay Astafovic. He designed a menu that has quite possibly that best Italian restaurant that I've been too, even the New York Times have noticed. Italian vegan food is one of the most under served cuisine in the vegan world and Three Brothers Pizza Cafe comes out swinging. I've never seen a menu quite like it, pizzas, pastas, entrées and appetizing appetizers! It's like Philly's Blackbird Pizza but on steroids! 

 Mozzarella Sticks

My First Vegan Mozzarella Stick!

    And good thing, too! The special one and I arrived in the big apple to see Florence and the Machine at Radio City Music Hall with stomachs grumbling and luckily our gracious hosts heard our gurgling stomaches (the kale chips on the plane can only get you so far!) and suggested Three Brothers being that we were already close. They didn't need to say much more than vegan pizza, but we had no idea what we were getting into. Our server didn't either, she stopped taking our order after the pizza, but we keep going! I wanted the Dr Cow aged cheese plate, but unfortunately, they were out. Unless you order it online, Dr Cow doesn't make it out to my neck of the woods so I wanted to give it a try after Vegan Brew's awesome review. I settled for my first mozzarella stick, which usually are more melty inside but were still amazing. As you can see from above, they didn't last long! I had to guard this one just to get a picture!

Baby Spinach Salad    

The Grilled Portobello Makes This Salad

    Of course, we wanted to try everything so we split up to to sample as much as possible and we passed around our plates like communion offerings. Plus, Leftovers, aren't such a bad thing, right? I normally don't like portobellos. Maybe, it's years of crappy restaurants thinking vegans only eat hummus and portobello sandwiches, but this was awesome. The grill marks give it away, but it had this wonderful smoky flavor as well and looks like it was just picked that afternoon. I'm a mushroom believer again! Oh, and it came with a cashew cheese from Dr Cow's. It was a little grainy, but it had a nice funk to it. Now follow me as we march to the pizza! The seitan bacon ranch pizza jumped out at me, but our hosts suggested the Margarita pizza so we did halfsies! Wow, the seitan bacon ranch pizza came out with,maybe an inch or two high piled with toppings. You almost needed a spotter just to lift a slice! Taste wise it had this delicious sweet smokey flavor. The Margarita was the perfect companion with a clean and crisp taste of garlic, tomatoes and mozzarella. I definitely recommend this combination because more tastes are better than one.

Penne Alla Vodka

This Ain't No Ordinary Red Sauce!

     I know you're thinking that's all we ordered, but we kept going. With a bunch of  names like puttanesca, bolognese, scampi and marsala, I had to taste one of the entrees, too. The vodka and pasta as I called it spoke to me so I answered back and ordered it. While it might look like a regular sauce, this was a creamy delicious sauce that's hard to describe. I've never had anything like it, but I know yummy when I taste it! To top things off, you can even add grilled seitan, tofu or bacon to any of the pasta dishes for only $2. I mean how awesome is that. After all that it's hard to get excited for a seitan cheese burger, but it was home made and the french fries were perfect. I'm not sure if they offer dessert or not because we were stuffed and armed with doggie bags. I know you're disappointed in my sweet tooth, but we did manage to hit up Lula's several hours later for a some cake batter ice cream! 

Seitan Cheese Burger

Now That's A Burger!

     There now, can we start to the plans for a ticker tape parade for Mr  Astafovic. I just need another excuse to come back to sample the rest of the menu! Whose with me? 

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An Ode To My Mom: The Beer Can Tofurky!

The Beer Can Tofurky: Texas BBQ Style

Isn't Everything Better With Barbecue Sauce? This Isn't Rhetorical.

     I've heard plenty of horror stories of parents' reaction to them going vegetarian and vegan. Not me, I simply told my mom that I didn't want to eat animals anymore. And poof that was that. Then, a few months later she joined me in going vegetarian and vegan. I had a partner in crime or cuisine, rather! Times were tough. My mom made the best crock pot hot wings, lasagna, mac and cheese and her world famous banana bread. It was a tough life, I know. She inspired my love for cooking, but in an ironic twist she said my recent posts and pictures inspired her to start cooking again. Funny how everything comes around full circle!

     As if her culinary skills weren't enough, my mom has the heart of a giant. Growing up, we also had a house brimming with dogs, cats and other furry friends that my mom took in. My mom even bottle fed a puppy that was rescued from a dog fighting ring. Pretty rad, right? It gets even better as I write this she is helping to dig a well in Ethiopia with Water to Thrive. I know, right? She's a pretty amazing woman! Oh, and she raised me! Thanks for everything, mom!  I Love you! 

     Beer Can Tofurky: Basting

Keeping It Local: Using a Local Beer For The Beer Can Tofurky.

     Not only did she take me on a tour of the finest restaurants in San Antonio (see the posts on Vegeria and Green Vegetarian Cuisine) but she planned on making the beer can tofurky for Easter dinner. The amazing site (and soon to be cookbook "Betty Goes Vegan"), Meet The Shannons blazed the trail first with awesome pictures and directions on how to make this magical classic recipe. So I won't repost the recipe here, but you can find it HERE.

       Ever since Tofurky was sold, I celebrated with the roast every holiday. It made holidays bearable again and blazed a trail of other products to follow. Tofurky/Turtle Island is one of my favorite companies, committed to using non-gmo ingredients, as well as using U.S. grown organic soybeans (from a co-op in texas, no less!), supporting HSUS and being an entirely vegetarian company. Oh, and family owned and operated! Needless to say, I have a soft spot for the company. One of these days, I'll do a post on just their products. However over the years, I've strayed from using the Tofurky roast for holidays and instead tried new items like the Field Roast Hazelnut Cranberry Roast En Croute, which was awesome. Mainly, because it just sounds fancy, but honestly because it had ginger inside! Ginger wins every time, people! Tofurky is the original though, so I was excited for a new way to jazz up the roast.

 Beer Can Tofurky: After Grilling

Yum! I'm still salivating at this deliciousness! 

          Together, my mom and I started by hollowing it out and then shaping it to the beer can (including a repair job with some tooth picks). Then, we made the marinade and put it on the grill and continued basting every few minutes. I basted the hell out of the thing. I wanted some spice on it! 

Ready For Eating

Chunks O' Tofurky!

     I can only say this: wow! I'm not sure if it was the beer, the grill or the marinade, but it changed the entire texture, like the way steamed seitan tastes different than boiled seitan. The only changed I would've done was to make my own barbeque sauce rather than using the stuff in the bottle. With memorial day coming up, everyone should gives this a whirl. Trust me on this one! Have I let you down before? 

Swiss Chard Frittata

You Say Frittata. I Say Frittato...

     If you weren't convinced from the above information, my mom made this for me for breakfast. She was overwhelmed with the swiss chard coming from her CSA. Something I learned to overcome from last year's summer share with Bell Organic. So I suggested making this gem from Vegan Brunch. Oh, and she made daiya omelets from Vegan Brunch as well, but they were consumed long before someone could grab a camera. Read between the lines, I was stuffing my face, folks. Sorry to let, you down. But I'll make them for another post. So there, it's official, I have an amazing mom! 

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Green With Envy With Green Restaurant!

Chicken Fried Steak With Kale Salad And Mashed Potatoes

Brown Gravy Is The Key!

     Green is the first restaurant that I got to visit in San Antonio a few years ago so I feel like an expert now.  They've grown since I saw them, too! They have another location in the burbs called Green at Alon as well as one downtown. I didn't make it to the new location this time, but there is always a next time. The first time I visited the downtown location was without a camera, so I returned to document the goodness. The first tip, is make sure to order the kale salad (or something that comes with it). I'm not sure what they put in it, but it might be the best kale I've ever ate. I would eat kale every day if it tasted this good! Apparently, my mom fangled the recipe so hopefully, I'll get to try my hand at making this, especially since my CSA with Bell Organic started back up again.
     My second advice is: get the chicken fried steak. I consider myself a connoisseur of the chicken fried steak. New Jersey's long departed Veggie Works' Singing Cowboy set the bar awfully high and Green's comes the closes. The only thing missing is the all you can eat salad bar! Just to give you an idea of how good it is, my dad who isn't a vegetarian said it's the BEST chicken fried steak in Texas. Not that's a pretty resounding endorsement, right? Unfortunately, my brother ordered it and not me. Good call, brotha! So don't be a rookie like me and try something new. Just get it, even if everyone at the table orders it. Trust me! 

Flautas

AKA Taquito! The Special Of The Day! 

    What makes Green so special besides the food of course is the friendly staff and owners. While we were perusing the menu, co-owner Mike came up to our table and brought us a taste of the special of the day. Every time I've been there Mike always goes out of his way to make each table feel special. To top it off, while we were leaving Mike gave my mom a $5 off coupon. Thanks, Mike! 

Flautas Plate With Smokey Refried Beans, Mexican Rice And A Side Salad

     I'm a fake meat and potatoes man, so you don't hear this very often, but you have to taste these beans! It might be a bit of liquid smoke but these beans were on fire!

Crispy Fried Pickles

Panko Coated And Deep Fried Goodness! 

     While I was tempted to order the Buffalo wings, I wanted to venture out into the deep uncharted waters so I went for the fried pickles. Something that I've never seen on a menu before. While everyone else at the table gave me the evil eye for considering it, everyone loved them! The panko coating provided a nice crunch and the pickles had a nice vinegary bite that was amazing, especially when dipped into the special poblano sauce that was provided. I even ate the spinach bedding that came with them! Apparently, deep fried pickles is a Texas thing, so this out of stater schooled the locals in some Texas culture! 

CeCe's Stir Fry

Kale And Popcorn Tofu!

     Like I said make sure you get the kale salad, here I didn't make a rookie mistake. The stir fry had an excellent mix of broccoli, peppers and popcorn tofu slathered in a delectable sauce. However, I couldn't stop eying my brother's chicken fried steak. Luckily, I made an arrangement to "sample" some of his, just in case. You know, just to minimize my losses. It's about risk management people. Though, I should've just followed my instincts and just ordered the chicken fried steak as well, but I needed to sample more of the menu. What I won't do for my loyal readers. 

Cupcakes A Plenty!

No, I Didn't Eat Three Cupcakes, But I Wished I Did!

     Another cool thing about Green is that when they ask you if you want dessert, they say would you like to hear about them or should I bring the dessert tray! Ummm, it's pretty awesome when someone comes up to your table with a silver tray filled with desserts. Pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The three flavors are peanut butter cup, lemon ginger and the raspberry almond. I forgot who got what cause I sampled them all. mwwwwhahaha! In a shocking upset, the raspberry almond won. I thought for sure lemon ginger would've but it needed more ginger! 

Kale Healer Smoothie

Cause You Can Never Have Enough Kale!

Green Inside

A Vibrant Atmosphere Inside What Used To Be An Abandoned Bakery!

Green Outside

They Even Have An Herb Garden That They Use!

Out Front

One Of the Many Reasons Why I LOVE This
Place. This Banner Out Front!

     Japanese Tea Garden

     Now if you're still with me, I know it's a rather long post. Here is my final tip. Go visit the Japanese Tea Garden. It's a short five-ten minute drive from Green, but it's worth it. Hands down it's the coolest attraction that I've been to. It blows away the River Walk and the Allamo. I've never been to anything quite like it and it's the gem of San Antonio. So without saying much more, I'll just post some pictures. 

Koi

More Koi

A Stone Tent

Trickling Water Fall

THE Coolest Bridge

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Don't Mess With Vegeria!

Where The Stars Are Bright: Vegeria San Antonio's First All-Vegan Restaurant



One Of The Coolest Logos For A Resturant That I've Been To!

      Nestled next to a religious book store is San Antonio's newest gem, Vegeria. I bet you're wondering how to pronounce their name? While the gringo in me can't roll my "r"s enough for a proper pronouncation or replacing the "G" sound for an "H", I go for the "Veg" followed by "eria". Feel free to be more authentic than me. The name is derived from a spanish designation, Ie panderia, would mean a place where bread is made or a bakery. So Vegeria litterally means a place where vegetables are made, which just make the place cooler in my book, extra points for a creative name!

      Serving Tex-Mex and American cusisine, along with delectable desserts and raw food items, Vegeria has just a small sign outside to indicate it's presence, but don't be fooled into overlooking this resturant. Luckily, I had my mom guide me, who has being a regular since it's opening in August. Thanks, Mom!
     On this visit, we decided to try out the burnch because of a magic word: donuts! Yup, that's right Vegeria makes homemade donuts just on Saturdays. This donuts might be the best since going to Las Vegas's Ronald's Donuts! While we were eating, someone came in just to order a couple!

Boston Cream Donuts!

Move Over Dunkin' Donuts! This was pure perfection!



      While I was hoping for a more brunchy menu, I was happy to see the donuts fully stocked when we arrvied! My mom said she never got there early enough to get one so this was a big deal. We actually ordered the donuts and cinnamon rolls first. That's just how you roll in Texas! With that out of the way, we focued on the entrees. I had to go with the portbello cheese steak, on the recommendation of my mom.

Portobello Cheese Steak

One Of The Most Reasonable Resturants I've Been To. This Was $7.75!



       While I generally prefer a more seitan or tempeh cheese steak, the portobellos were perfect with char grilled onions and pepers. Yup, the usually onion averse even enjoyed the onions! The best part, minus the donuts, is that you get to pick your side from a list of about five that included coconut cilantro rice, chips and others I forgot. Being in Texas, I went for the Mexican brown rice, which was decent but needed some more spiciness. Keeping true to their name, Vegeria serves all the sandwiches with a side salad. Oh, and they make their own cheese sauce which was divine, but not nearly as good as that barbeque sauce on the portobello sub, which might be the best that I ever tasted. Yup, it's that good.

BBQ Portobello Sandwich

You Have To Taste This BBQ Sauce!

      The spinach queso nachos were the special of the day and woah man was it special. The spinach added the perfect balanace to the cheese. My own complaint is that we only got to go once! I still need to try the tamales and the smoked mushroom sandwich. Yes, I make a mental checklist of things I want to try! At least we took some dessert sampling to try later, we walked away with a cinnimon rolsl and fiesta cookies, which were chocolate chip cookies with what I think were corn chips inside, an interesting combination! Another mental note: make sure to go back for dinner since it's BYOB! And let me tell you, some good beers make it to Texas!

Spinach Queso Nachos

Almost Too Pretty To Eat!

Cinnamon Roll

Raisen And Nut Filled, Too!

Fiesta Cookies

Spot The Corn Chips?!

Taking A Bite Outta A Donut

Perhaps, The Best Donut I've Had Since Ronald's!

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Oh Baby, I Like It Slow!

Mojito Black Beans Over Jasmine Brown Rice With Fresh Mint

Move Over Rum And Coke, Say Hello To Rum And Beans!

     Well, you thought that you were safe from the redundancy. I thought so, too. I had my computer crash and lost all my pictures of what I've been cooking. Months and months of cooking with nothing to show or prove except in my belly! And my belly tells no lies!
     So now I'm jumping back on my metaphorical horse and getting back on with the redundancy! Over the holidays, the special one bought me a slow cooker so I've been slowly cooking through some of the recipes found in  The Vegan Slow Cooker. I can't believe it took me this long to get one. You put some ingredients in before you leave for work or the mountain and viola! you have a hot home cooked meal waiting for you at home. Well, I guess the slow cooker does must of the work, but still. Now, I just wish my rice cooker operated in a similar fashion. Any inexpensive rice cookers with timers out there?

Mango Black Beans Over Brown Basamti Rice

Yum: Black Beans And Mango!

     Ever since visiting Casa de Luz in Austin with my parents, I've been wanting to cook more with just beans. It's one of my weaknesses. I generally reach for tofu, seitan or tempeh for the protein of the dish. But Casa de Luz showed me just how simple a meal could be. Both of these took, maybe 10 minutes to assemble and put into the crock pot. After a long commute and a hard day of work, you come home to a piping hot meal. Both of these were simple and cheap meals.If you use dried beans, the meal would be even cheaper. Unfortunatetly, I choose to use canned beans to save some time. If using canned beans, I would recommend Eden Organic or Fig Foods, since they are the only two companies using BPA free packaging. I had lots of leftovers to bring to lunch further making them winners. I especially liked the mango black beans.  I'll be slowly cooking my way through the cookbook and continue to post the results. I also bought lots of new cookbooks that I can't wait to dive into. Please stay tuned! I promise to post faster!

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Pumpkin For My Punkin!!!

Pumpkin French Toast And Pumpkin Tofu Scramble

   With O.J. & French Pressed Cafe Ibis Kona Coffee 

  

     It's sad. I realized that complete with work, commuting and sleep that I'm left with only 4 hours left in the day. So I've been slacking on the posting, especially for the vegan month of food. I only made two posts in October. Oh wells. However, I haven't stopped cooking! Instead, I just have a backlog of posts to get through. Not to mention the plethora of cookbooks and the donut pan that I bought. Most of my best cooking comes on weekends when my only enemy is how long I can sleep in. When the special one had a late night, I decided to sneak out to the store and surprise her with breakfast. She's not called the special one for nothing, so I decided to demonstrate my affection through cooking. How do I love thee, let me cut and caramelize an onion for me...or something like that.

Pumpkin Tofu Scramble

Nothing Says Fall Like Pumpkin

     Although, I failed at the vegan month of food. I have been following the posts and have a mounting list of recipes to try. This was one from AstroNOMZ was one of them that I finally got to. I was expecting a stronger pumpkin flavor, but in all honesty, I didn't have all the spices so I'll still give it another try. It's the first time, I added greens to the scramble so I was nervous, but it was a hit with the special one! The greens I added were arugula and parsley that I had leftover from my CSA with Bell Organic. Did I mention that this has ginger in it? Yup, everything is better with ginger.

Pumpkin French Toast aka Freedom Toast!

Freedom Toast > Freedom Fries, Just Saying!

     I've gushed like a Bieber fan enough about Isa's Vegan Brunch already so I won't subject you to my admiration. Hands down the best cookbook that I own. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I haven't checked in a while but I believe that I'm just a few recipes from cooking everything in it, though most I have documented. This recipe is no exception. it's kinda like the Banana Rabanada, but with pumpkin instead of bananas. I didn't get pictures, but I used the seeded baguette from Crumb Brothers, an organic bakery in Logan (and maybe the best name for a bakery period!). I think next time I'll add a bit of sweeter so to make the flavors pop a little more.I paired everything with French Pressed Kona organic coffee from Logan's Caffe Ibis and Apple Sage Sausage from Field Roast because you can't cook everything.

Vegan Brunch

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