Jersey Shore Food Truck Wars: Our Winner: Cinnamon Snail

Today was day 1 of the Jersey Shore Food Truck Wars at Monmouth Racetrack. We battled wind, rain, and sub-par Memorial Day Weekend temperatures. But, we had a blast.

Cheese curds from The Cow and the Curd were amazing. Seriously delicious, with an impressive Youtube video explaining what cheese curds are. Definitely recommend!

Had a lobster empanada from Empanada Guy which may sound gross, but actually had a lot of lobster meat and was quite delicious!

Had the pork and chicken dumplings from Rickshaw Dumplings. Enjoyed the chicken and Thai basil with the spicy peanut sate dipping sauce more than the pork and Chinese chive with the soy sesame dip. Not greasy, which impressed me the most.

Had some $2.50 Yuenglings.

But, at the end of the day, we stopped at the vegan organic truck: Cinnamon Snail which apparently has its Sunday home only 2 towns over (THANK GOD!) in Red Bank, NJ. When it's not in Red Bank, it meanders its way around NYC, my hometown. Now, I am not a vegan, but, I am a lover of delicious food. I ordered a salted caramel coffee with soy milk that was delectable. My first response was, "I want this coffee in my house every morning for the rest of my life." Yes, that good.

And it was put in a compostable cup with a compostable lid. Love it.

Then, I had the raw chocolate pudding made with cacao and cashews and sweetened with agave syrup. Seriously tastes like chocolate ganache. Extremely rich.



Then, because everything was blowing away, the very kind people running the truck were forced to pack up early. Wind kept blowing their food truck window, and apparently wrecked their awning, so they had to close early. But, they did serve out of the back of their truck for a little while, and we were lucky enough to place an order before they closed down shop completely. They offered us free donuts, which was so magnanimous. Yes, I needed that big of a word to explain their kindness. I expected that my friend Laura and I would get a donut each, but instead, they gave us an entire box! An entire box of the most delicious donuts I have ever had, Vegan or not. I'm usually not much of a donut eater, but they may have converted me. The fact that these fluffy circles of joy were made without butter, cow milk, or eggs flabbergasts me. They were so light, so tasty, and... well, you MUST go to Red Bank on Sundays or stalk this truck via their facebook page Cinnamon Snail Facebook and buy one! (or two, or three, or a dozen!). The berry icing was tangy, which perfectly complimented the light dough. The chocolate filled was rich and creamy, but not overbearing. My friend Ursula, who picked the coconut donut, loved it so much we all felt it would be wrong to ask her for a bite! Even her husband Kevin, who normally wouldn't eat anything that doesn't involve meat, bolstered up the courage to try one (mostly because our eyes were bugging out and we all stopped talking because we were in some elevated state of taste bud heaven) and devoured his glazed cinnamon donut in about three bits. Thank you Cinnamon Snail! So kind of you to share with us! So now we're sharing them with all our friends and family. Go to the Cinnamon Snail! You won't regret it. I cannot wait to go back and try their sandwiches. I see updates in my future...

Plus, according to their website, they provided free meals to the victims of Hurricane Sandy (as many our our fine restaurants down here at the Jersey Shore did.) Pay it forward people, everyone could use some good karma.

*I tried to take a better picture of the donuts, but when I went to the box, I discovered there were only two and a half left... Seriously amazing.