Mobile Cuisine Magazine is proud to provide our readers with another article designed to inform them about a multifaceted program that is spreading throughout the country. We have designated our Monday features to help promote the Meatless Monday’s program which not only do we support on the website, but our staff actually has adopted in our Monday dietary lifestyle.
The MCM newsroom was buzzing with excitement all weekend. We love to promote Meatless Mondays, the food truck industry, and stories intended to share inspiration with our readers. Today’s article lets us cover all of those topics at once.
Stanley Chase III is a vegan with a dream. His dream is to open a food truck in Louisville, KY which will allow him to share vegan cuisine with an area not well known for its vegan restaurant scene. For the last three years, Stanley has run a blog titled Ate-Bit Vegan. His blog does what he calls the “veganizing” of popular non-vegan recipes and shares them with his readers.
Outside of his blog, Stanley is a musician and a freelance graphic designer and video editor. works in a pizzeria. He has spent time working in a pizzeria and the kitchen of a Philadelphia vegan restaurant. His father is a chef and his mentor who has helped Stanley over the years, by giving him examples of the food he prepares, which is then reformulated by Stanley into something completely vegan. As with many of the truck owners we profile, nothing makes him a happier than cooking food for people. He added, “I often end up cooking for a get together, rather than being part of the get together.” And he is thrilled when he can do that.
Stanley has spent a lot of time working on his concept. Originally planned as a Vegan café, the first time he witnessed a food truck in action, he knew he had to adjust his plans and since then has modified his café concept into one of a food truck. Aptly named after his favorite mushroom, his truck will be titled “Morels”. The truck will carry four staple items:
Buffalo Seitan Wings: These are made completely from scratch. Whole wheat flour and water are the main two ingredients. The wings are fried in 100% peanut oil, tossed in a creamy buffalo sauce and served with vegan ranch.
Chicken Salad Sandwich: The sandwich to be named “Marty McFly’s Chicken Salad Sandwich” (because he is not chicken) has sautéed shitake mushrooms, chickpeas, and tofu diced up in a food processor with amazing seasonings and FYH veganaise. This is a perfect high protein, low fat selection.
Vietnamese Banh Mi Style Hot Dogs: According to Stanley, “This hot dog will absolutely blow your mind. It’s the strangest thing I try to get people to try on a daily basis, but also seems to have the biggest returns for seconds, and thirds.” It has a pickled Asian slaw on top of a vegan dog, served with a sriracha based sauce.
Garlic Gourmet Fries: Crispy fries tossed in fresh herbs, garlic and a little vegan butter and then topped with vegan Parmesan.
The Morel Truck will also carry a new special each week which may be a seasonal vegetable dish or some other recipe they have “veganized.” One thing Stanly likes to point out is that he plans to keep everything he serves as local as possible including everything from the coffee to the bread.
Stanley’s big plan “is to really just show people what vegan food is. I know a lot of people are familiar, but there are still a lot of people to reach.” During our research for this article, he took the time to tell us a story about how he has had to explain to some that potatoes are vegan. We agree with this point and we do our part as well by sharing stories like this with you.
If you do help Stanley, your donation (donate here) would go towards:
- Buying the truck
- Painting the truck
- Vendors/health permits
- Necessary licenses
- Food start up
Should his Kickstarter plan succeed, the truck has a planned opening date sometime in early spring of 2011. As his January 21 deadline on Kickstarter gets closer, MCM will provide status updates on this project. We hope you will help the Morels food truck become a reality.
The Morels Food Truck can be followed at Twitter, or their website.
About Kickstarter:
Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. – Every month, tens of thousands of amazing people pledge millions of dollars to projects from the worlds of music, film, art, technology, design, food, publishing and other creative fields.
A new form of commerce and patronage – This is not about investment or lending. Project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Instead, they offer products and experiences that are unique to each project.
All or nothing funding – On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands. Why? It protects everyone involved. Creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.
Each and every project is the independent creation of someone like you – Projects are big and small, serious and whimsical, traditional and experimental. They’re inspiring, entertaining and unbelievably diverse.
Please do your part today and join the Meatless Monday movement? Signing up is fast and easy! Follow them on Twittter.
Mobile Cuisine Magazine looks forward to continued coverage of Meatless Monday for our readers!
