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| Photo credit: Christopher Ernst |
Two years ago, while lamenting Hoboken's lack of healthy dining options, I happened upon a psychedelic pink and red food truck on the waterfront. Painted on its side was The Cinnamon Snail: Vegan Organic Food to Inspire Peace and Bliss.
I couldn't resist learning more about this anomaly among the Thai and taco trucks that lined Frank Sinatra Drive. The staff seemed to radiate warmth and inclusivity, and their menu stated that anyone on the spiritual path without funds would be fed. Instead of a tip jar, there was a canister accepting donations for Farm Sanctuary, an organization which restores abused animals to wellness.
After tasting my first sensational meal (blue corn pancakes with pine nut butter and blood orange maple syrup), I was hooked, returning every time the truck found itself in my 'hood. From Ancho Chile Seitan Burgers to Smoked Portobella Mushroom Carpaccio, I felt moved to share this culinary (and I daresay, spiritual) gem with as many friends who were willing to try it.
I wasn't alone in my admiration; out of some 16,000 dining options on New York City's Yelp site, The Snail was voted number one. They've been voted one of the top ten food trucks in the country, have over 10,000 Facebook followers - and are soon publishing a cookbook.
I spent a few minutes with The Snail's spirited founder, Adam Sobel, a 30 year old dynamo who grew up eating meat, but whose life turned around during the birth of his first daughter.
What inspired you to go vegan?
I became vegetarian shortly after meeting my wife, maybe 12 years ago. We conceived our first daughter when I was 18 and when she was born, we had a natural home birth. The whole time my wife was in labor, I was thinking about how important breastfeeding would be for our child, both physically and spiritually. Ethically, I felt it was important for me to respect and nurture that same right for other living creatures. I really wanted to raise our children with deep ethical awareness, and I felt [going vegan] was the right way for us to incite that sort of compassionate consciousness in them.
Veganism works on a lot of levels: spiritually, ethically, environmentally. What resonates most with you?
First and foremost, the non-violence aspect of it - and I think the environmentalist aspect is part of that. You're extending your awareness of the reaches of non-violence from living creatures on the other side of the planet to tiny microorganisms in the ocean. It's all some aspect of non-violence.
There is a book called The Secret Life of Plants. How do you feel about the living spirit of plants that we end up eating as vegans?
It's a very interesting question; I think about it a lot. My perspective is that plants embody a kind of enlightened consciousness. They appear to me to be totally detached from the spiritual condition that human beings often inhabit, where we're really emotionally strung out on what we're getting from others and what we're giving to them... Plants seem perfectly happy to be of service to all things around them. There's so much I think we can learn from plants, in observing how they're very giving, and also very detached.
Do you ever miss the taste of meat, and do you try to create dishes that replicate the same kind of chew and, for lack of a better word, satisfaction? I notice that in a lot of your dishes - for someone who's never eaten vegan, for instance - you definitely provide something hearty. That's a conscious choice, isn't it?
Well, I know what you're talking about, and I am largely trying to appeal to non-vegetarians in the food I serve. At the same time, though, I don't miss the taste of meat, nor the experience of eating it. It's kind of horrific. The idea of trying to emulate the experience of eating somebody's corpse is kind of morbid to me, and not exactly what I'm going for! Some vegetarian cooks try to do that to an extreme - trying to make it exactly like you're eating a drumstick or something - there's even something in the middle to simulate the presence of a bone, and very highly processed soy-based proteins that are designed in a laboratory with millions of dollars of industrial equipment to simulate that strandiness in meat... I like our food to be nourishing, and I like there to be a lot of diverse and satisfying textures in the food, but I don't really ever try to consciously simulate the experience of eating meat.
You used the word "horrific." If I approach a piece of meat - and I don't eat meat any more - it impacts me on many levels. I feel like I almost take on the spirit of the animal. Can you talk to me about what the effect is when you eat meat?
It's been over ten years since I've done that, but when I did, I wasn't really aware of what I was doing. I think some people become aware of what they're doing and go on for years eating animals. That's got to be very difficult. But when you're sort of blind to what you're doing, and it's just some miscellaneous food matter you're ingesting - someone's decaying leg that's been prepared for you - you know, it's much easier to just indulge blindly.
I live right behind a McDonalds. I pass it every time I come home. It's always very disturbing to me to see young people lining up and in the window, and feeling like I don't even know how to begin to explain to them what they're supporting when they eat there. So I'm curious - because you seem very loving - what's your process when you see people who appear to be on the other end of the spectrum in terms of eating? Is there even an inlet there to support an awakening?
I think a lot of people have a different approach to this. My approach as a food activist, if you want to call it that, is - I might not be able to reach the person today who's already in line at Burger King or McDonald's. I have to keep doing what I'm doing to indirectly reach them through all the other people they know. I need to turn on as many people who are just open-minded enough to eat something at my truck. That's why I don't do a vegetarian restaurant, where most of the people who come in are already going to be vegetarians or vegans. Part of the reason I do a food truck is that it provides this kind of food to people aren't necessarily looking for it, and who aren't aware of the suffering of animals for food production. They're just eating it because it's exciting and delicious, and convenient for them, and it makes them feel good. And, once you start breaking down the excuses for people of why they haven't become vegan yet - "It's not delicious enough," "It costs more" and "There's not enough options out there," people realize, "Wow, it's actually really pleasant to be eating this way. It's not a burden at all!" And you know, those people turn on the people they know, and it creates a ripple effect.
I'm not a person to tell others how to eat and to judge them for the choices they make. A lot of people's lifestyle choices in this civilization are very much programmed into them - passed down from generation to generation. It's not the person's fault who's in line at McDonald's - they've been engineered to make that choice. It's not like a malicious decision on their behalf that they're trying to cause harm to animals - and other than animals. There's about a billion victims of that kind of fast food culture - everyone from the microorganisms in the soil that are heavily treated with pesticides in order to grow genetically-modified potatoes - to the people who are working in slaughterhouses in under-minimum wage conditions, with no insurance, who get laid off when their hand gets cut off. The whole system is unethical, and that's how you're able to provide a bacon-double cheeseburger for a dollar. It's not that ethical or organic food is more expensive - it's that that food is made inexpensive through such far-reaching, unethical means - and through subsidization.
So, your antidote is The Cinnamon Snail. What's the vision behind it?
I don't know if it's going to happen through The Cinnamon Snail alone, but the ultimate goal that this works at is trying to create a world that's completely free of unnecessary suffering and pain. I know it's kind of a broad thing to say, and it's kind of a difficult thing to imagine, but that's really my only objective concern in this worldly existence. There's really no more important goal that I could hope to reach.
That's both a vision and a legacy. Tell me just a bit more about how having children has changed your life and increased your sense of responsibility for what the next generation has in store on the planet.
It kind of worked a little bit backwards for me. Having children made me understand my relationship to my parents a lot more - and made me very grateful for the way I was raised. I'm not really concerned about what I can teach my children; they are already enlightened. It's like I live with my gurus now, and it's very humbling. Having children is the ultimate extremes of wonderfully blissful and excruciatingly difficult stuff, all at the same time! It's a huge spiritual lesson for anyone.
I've seen so many people have children and it's looks to me like they're doing it because they don't know what else to do with their creative energy - and I find the way they treat their children in public very disturbing. I don't know why they have the child if they're going to treat them in the ways I've seen them being treated.
Yes, the same can be said for people who adopt an animal then keep it caged up for its entire life.
Sometimes it seems that people are just looking for something to own, or lord over, to work out that desire to tug at a leash and tell them what to do.
I've got a couple pets, myself - but I'm probably going to end up marrying my dog one of these days!
Learn more about The Cinnamon Snail on their website, and follow their whereabouts on Facebook.
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| Raspberry Chocolate Ganache Donuts. Photo credit: Christopher Ernst |
Do you ever miss the taste of meat, and do you try to create dishes that replicate the same kind of chew and, for lack of a better word, satisfaction? I notice that in a lot of your dishes - for someone who's never eaten vegan, for instance - you definitely provide something hearty. That's a conscious choice, isn't it?
Well, I know what you're talking about, and I am largely trying to appeal to non-vegetarians in the food I serve. At the same time, though, I don't miss the taste of meat, nor the experience of eating it. It's kind of horrific. The idea of trying to emulate the experience of eating somebody's corpse is kind of morbid to me, and not exactly what I'm going for! Some vegetarian cooks try to do that to an extreme - trying to make it exactly like you're eating a drumstick or something - there's even something in the middle to simulate the presence of a bone, and very highly processed soy-based proteins that are designed in a laboratory with millions of dollars of industrial equipment to simulate that strandiness in meat... I like our food to be nourishing, and I like there to be a lot of diverse and satisfying textures in the food, but I don't really ever try to consciously simulate the experience of eating meat.
You used the word "horrific." If I approach a piece of meat - and I don't eat meat any more - it impacts me on many levels. I feel like I almost take on the spirit of the animal. Can you talk to me about what the effect is when you eat meat?
It's been over ten years since I've done that, but when I did, I wasn't really aware of what I was doing. I think some people become aware of what they're doing and go on for years eating animals. That's got to be very difficult. But when you're sort of blind to what you're doing, and it's just some miscellaneous food matter you're ingesting - someone's decaying leg that's been prepared for you - you know, it's much easier to just indulge blindly.
I live right behind a McDonalds. I pass it every time I come home. It's always very disturbing to me to see young people lining up and in the window, and feeling like I don't even know how to begin to explain to them what they're supporting when they eat there. So I'm curious - because you seem very loving - what's your process when you see people who appear to be on the other end of the spectrum in terms of eating? Is there even an inlet there to support an awakening?
I think a lot of people have a different approach to this. My approach as a food activist, if you want to call it that, is - I might not be able to reach the person today who's already in line at Burger King or McDonald's. I have to keep doing what I'm doing to indirectly reach them through all the other people they know. I need to turn on as many people who are just open-minded enough to eat something at my truck. That's why I don't do a vegetarian restaurant, where most of the people who come in are already going to be vegetarians or vegans. Part of the reason I do a food truck is that it provides this kind of food to people aren't necessarily looking for it, and who aren't aware of the suffering of animals for food production. They're just eating it because it's exciting and delicious, and convenient for them, and it makes them feel good. And, once you start breaking down the excuses for people of why they haven't become vegan yet - "It's not delicious enough," "It costs more" and "There's not enough options out there," people realize, "Wow, it's actually really pleasant to be eating this way. It's not a burden at all!" And you know, those people turn on the people they know, and it creates a ripple effect.
I'm not a person to tell others how to eat and to judge them for the choices they make. A lot of people's lifestyle choices in this civilization are very much programmed into them - passed down from generation to generation. It's not the person's fault who's in line at McDonald's - they've been engineered to make that choice. It's not like a malicious decision on their behalf that they're trying to cause harm to animals - and other than animals. There's about a billion victims of that kind of fast food culture - everyone from the microorganisms in the soil that are heavily treated with pesticides in order to grow genetically-modified potatoes - to the people who are working in slaughterhouses in under-minimum wage conditions, with no insurance, who get laid off when their hand gets cut off. The whole system is unethical, and that's how you're able to provide a bacon-double cheeseburger for a dollar. It's not that ethical or organic food is more expensive - it's that that food is made inexpensive through such far-reaching, unethical means - and through subsidization.
 |
| Gochujang Burger Deluxe. Photo credit: Shawn Carny |
So, your antidote is The Cinnamon Snail. What's the vision behind it?
I don't know if it's going to happen through The Cinnamon Snail alone, but the ultimate goal that this works at is trying to create a world that's completely free of unnecessary suffering and pain. I know it's kind of a broad thing to say, and it's kind of a difficult thing to imagine, but that's really my only objective concern in this worldly existence. There's really no more important goal that I could hope to reach.
That's both a vision and a legacy. Tell me just a bit more about how having children has changed your life and increased your sense of responsibility for what the next generation has in store on the planet.
It kind of worked a little bit backwards for me. Having children made me understand my relationship to my parents a lot more - and made me very grateful for the way I was raised. I'm not really concerned about what I can teach my children; they are already enlightened. It's like I live with my gurus now, and it's very humbling. Having children is the ultimate extremes of wonderfully blissful and excruciatingly difficult stuff, all at the same time! It's a huge spiritual lesson for anyone.
I've seen so many people have children and it's looks to me like they're doing it because they don't know what else to do with their creative energy - and I find the way they treat their children in public very disturbing. I don't know why they have the child if they're going to treat them in the ways I've seen them being treated.
Yes, the same can be said for people who adopt an animal then keep it caged up for its entire life.
Sometimes it seems that people are just looking for something to own, or lord over, to work out that desire to tug at a leash and tell them what to do.
I've got a couple pets, myself - but I'm probably going to end up marrying my dog one of these days!
 |
| Photo credit: Shawn Carny |
Learn more about The Cinnamon Snail on their website, and follow their whereabouts on Facebook.
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