It was a grueling day of tasting desserts at this Saturday’s Vendy Awards. I was told 600 street-meat and food cart fans were in attendance. For excellent coverage of the street food competition check out Blondie and Brownie.
This was the first year the awards included the sweet or dessert category so of course DessertBuzz was there. The decidedly upscale DessertTruck took on the self-described “not-fancy” Treats Truck, while the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Truck battled the cold for attendees’ affections with their gourmet ice cream and the Waffles and Dinges truck broke down on the morning of the competition and was not able to attend.
The Treats Truck arrived to the Vendys with their full compliment of menu items. Some observers thought this gave them an edge in the competition. They also allowed you to order as many items as you like. Their competition also allowed for multiple items but they didn’t have as many choices.
The Treats Truck, brought tons of product including this cran almond crispy square with whole wheat cereal and flax seeds. For those frightened by whole wheat or flax seeds in their desserts, they also had regular rice crispy treats. The also had a whole shelf of peanut butter offerings including: peanut butter brownies, peanut butter sandwich cookies and peanut butter and jelly sandwich cookies. They also had 2 other kinds of brownies and an assortment of oatmeal jammies. It’s possible that the mountain of peanut butter sandwich cookies (which most attendees seem to eat at least a few of) were the tipping point in the competition. My friend who attended the Vendys with me and is the editor at a national publication said that the peanut butter cookies from the Treats Truck were the best he has eaten.
The Van Leeuwen ice cream truck were definitely at a disadvantage at an outdoor competition held in October. If it had been a hot sticky July day I think they would have fared better. In truth, though I run a dessert website, I am really not a huge ice cream fan. I like the really rich custards and Gelatos but don’t usually get soft serve or regular hard ice cream.
That said, I had a job to do so I paced myself through three rounds of Van Leeuwen artisan ice cream. The mini-banana split was first. It had been a long time since I had a banana split and I forgot how well a perfectly ripe banana goes with hot chocolate sauce, nuts and vanilla ice cream. The Espresso was next an hour later followed by chocolate a little while after that. I went with cocoa nibs and chocolate sauce on both. Despite my earlier qualification about my ability to judge ice cream, I feel confident in saying this ice cream was a huge cut above the average high end stuff you get elsewhere in NYC. But would it be enough to take home the Vendy?
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The Dessert Truck came with a seasonal menu that included their signature hot chocolate which was perfectly suited to the sunny, but chilly day here at the tobacco warehouse. They also brought tasting portions of their bread pudding, pumpkin custard, goat cheese cheesecake and their slow baked apples over puff pastry with whipped cream. To me, these guys really had desserts that matched the time of year (fall) and the cold weather. Everyone was macking on their superb hot chocolate (even hipster dads- see picture) and I thought they would win just because at the end of the day the Dessert Truck offerings are unique and original. It would be hard to make their stuff at home unless you have serious Top Chef skills whereas as good as the competition was, they just don’t have 100% original desserts.
And the winner is…
At the end of the Day the Treat’s Truck just charmed the hell out of everyone and won the first ever People’s Choice Award for best dessert truck. See below for a snap of the winning street food vendor, Calexico Carne Asada. More pictures from the show:
[…] Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? Your feature on Oms/B is the how I first discovered ML. I had a mad craving for a good rice ball and I think I Googled something like “Rice Ball midtown New York” and then I walked there the same day. It’s about a mile round trip. I thought I was the only jackass who walked all over this island in search of palatable food, but then I read that ML is geared for people who were willing to walk to get good value or for a specific craving. I knew I had found a blog I would go to every day. The most important thing I discovered from ML is the Vendys. I was unaware of the event prior to this year and really enjoyed attending and reviewing the dessert trucks so - thanks Zach. […]
Left by Midtown Lunch: Finding Lunch in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan » PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Niko” on October 28th, 2008