by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Bread, Breakfast, Restaurants

Kinako Coffee Bagels & Veggie Sushi

For some reason I forgot to post it.

Here is how I made it.

Cut a bagel in half, spread homemade vegan butter, drizzle homemade decaf coffee syrup, and sprinkle Kinako (Japanese roasted soybean powder), and roasted sunflower seeds.

This was so delicious!

The combination of Kinako and coffee was irresistible.

The more Kinako, the tastier!

Waki Waki Veggie Sushi was on my husband’s list for a while, and a few weeks ago we finally went to check it out.

We had this tofu steak as an appetizer.

You can’t see the tofu, but it’s there, buried under the crunchy stuff.

It was not bad, but just a bit too much deep-fried stuff.

If there is a next time, I would rather order the cold tofu dish with veggies.

My husband ordered this roll.

(I don’t remember the name.)

It looked very brown, but apparently it tasted good.

He enjoyed it.

I had veggie sushi platter.

One of the small rolls was supposed to be egg, but they were happy to change it to avocado for me.

The presentation was very nice, but I would have liked a little more creativity regarding the use of veggies.

(Maybe my expectation was too high…)

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Bread, Restaurants, Vegan Fish

Vegan Lox Bagel & Lunch on a rainy day

I have a hard time deleting food photos from my phone because I’m afraid that I may need them when I don’t have anything to post one day.

Well, today is that day, and I’m thanking my old me for keeping these photos.

I don’t even know when I baked these, probably a few months ago.

I’m glad I kept these photos because this was a good-looking batch of bagels.

I used to make these vegan smoked salmon often when we lived in the U.S.

This was the first time I made this in Bangkok.

I was a bit worried because I don’t have a peeler here.

As a result, the “salmon” slices are thicker, but they still turned out great.

Parsley instead of dill because my husband is not a big fan of dill.

I used Swees Cheese brand’s vegan cream cheese.

It’s always a fun dish to enjoy for brunch.

Served with turmeric scrambled tofu.

I’ve made various fun dishes with this vegan smoked salmon in the past, such as this “Salmon” Temari Sushi.

I should make it again.

Yesterday was a rainy day.

It was Wednesday, and we usually go out to eat on Wednesdays at a restaurant that I pick.

Unfortunately, at noon the rain did not seem to stop anytime soon, and I decided to go to one of our favorite neighborhood vegan restaurants, Plant Passion.

We had not been there for a few months, and apparently they had added several new dishes to their menu.

My husband tried this new dish, noodles in curry.

I got my all-time favorite item on their menu, Shrimp Paste Fried Rice.

It was delicious as usual.

Such a flavorful dish.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Kem-Kon – A must stop for all plant-eaters!

I thought we had a quite complete list of vegan restaurants in Bangkok, but apparently that was not the case.

So I got excited when I found a new (to us) restaurant that looked promising.

Kem-Kon has several locations, but we picked the Phahurat location, because it seemed easiest to get to from where we live.

The directions were pretty straightforward, but the last step of crossing this street to get to the restaurant was tricky.

There were traffic lights, but they were very pedestrian-unfriendly; there was no allotted time for pedestrians to cross safely.

We needed several minutes to figure out how to get to the other side without being run over.

(We couldn’t really figure out the right way (because there was no right way), but when we saw a few other people started crossing despite ongoing traffic coming this way, we just joined them, which often works well in Bangkok.)

Anyway, once we got inside the restaurant, although it was after 1 o’clock, all the tables were taken.

(It was a holiday.)

Luckily, there were tables upstairs too.

(When we got there, we were the only ones, but quickly, all the tables got filled.)

We got a table right by a window.

This view is so typical in Bangkok (lol).

It’s “Siam Cream: Thai tea, soy milk, and vegan cream cheese”.

My husband got excited when he saw this on the menu because he always wanted to try something like this (with cream cheese), and finally he found a vegan version!

I had a sip, and it was delicious.

Their menu is large, and they serve a wide variety of food, from traditional Thai, western, to croissant sandwiches.

It took me a long time to decide what to order, but I ended up ordering Pad Thai, mostly because I was interested in the vegan sausage that came with it.

A lot of people had positive comments about this sausage on google.

The texture was not what I had expected, but it was definitely unique, and I enjoyed it.

Overall, it was a very good dish.

My husband had lasagna, and he liked it very much.

I didn’t tell him in advance, but one of the reasons why I wanted to come here was this dessert.

It’s Hong Kong Strawberry Waffle.

It was the fun shaped waffle, served with fresh strawberries, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce.

I always wanted to try this waffle, and I was ecstatic when I finally found this vegan version.

This was SO GOOD!!

Absolutely delicious.

Okay, I have to post one more picture of this because it deserves it (lol).

Like I said earlier, their menu is big, and there were so many other things I still wanted to try.

Such as…

Sukhothai Tom yum Noodles.

Doesn’t this look and sound amazing?

And the vegan egg!!

Or this croissant sandwich.

Here is a link to the restaurant’s website.

It’s a must stop for all the plant-eaters in Bangkok!

The rainy season started in Bangkok, and it’s been raining a lot the last few days.

I don’t mind rain when it comes for a few hours a day, but when it rains all day long, that definitely makes it harder to go for a long walk or check out new restaurants. 🙁

And, the rainy season has just started and supposedly last several months…

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by : Reiko Bread, Uncategorized

Sourdough Bread & Vegan Cupcake

I don’t post every bread I bake, but I’m still baking sourdough bread regularly.

Since I figured out how to utilize the fridge for the fermentation process, I’m more relaxed and I don’t have to strictly schedule my day around it.

Because of the size of the oven and the size of the cast iron pot, the loaf I bake at a time is not large (250g bread flour), so I usually bake two loaves, one after another.

My bread used to get a little too dark (you can call it “burnt”, too), but since I use this trick (photo above) of using the lid of the pot upside down between the bread and the sheet pan when I take the bread out of the pot and bake for the last 15 minutes, it’s no longer an issue.

I can’t slice it too neatly.

Maybe it’s time to buy a bread knife, but I’m not sure if I want to add another item to our small kitchen.

And yes, I’m still making vegan butter regularly.

Lightly toasted sourdough bread + homemade vegan butter = Yum!

Remember the cupcake I was talking about a few days ago, the one that’s priced at $9?

Well, we thought about it a little more, and we decided to check it out.

We were just too curious (lol), and we wanted to get out of the house after a rainy day too.

The bakery was located in a quiet residential area.

It’s a cute bakery, called Wild Grains Bakery, with a simple yet sophisticated decor.

The dining space is pretty big, and they even have a designated kids’ space.

There are many vegan options as well as gluten-free items.

And here it is.

The 300 baht ($9) cupcake!

We decided to share a carrot cupcake with maple cream cheese.

200 baht.

Okay, it was not $9.

It was $6.

This cupcake was vegan but not gluten-free.

(I often find gluten-free cake too dry, so I wanted to try something NOT gluten-free; I’m not saying this bakery’s glute-free cake is dry.)

This was very good.

It was perfectly sweet (not overly sweet), and the vegan cream cheese was creamy and had the right amount of tanginess.

We also had iced Americano, decaf, with oat milk.

They freshly ground beans, and the coffee was excellent!

This bakery also sells various types of bread and vegan cream cheese.

Will we go back?

Probably.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Breakfast, Restaurants, Sweets

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Muffins & The best vegan ramen in BKK

My husband and I were discussing where we could get good vegan sweets.

(We have this conversation often (lol).)

After googling for a while we found a bakery that sells vegan cupcakes within our walking distance.

The pictures looked good, but they were quite expensive, and one of them that I was most interested in was 9 dollars.

Vegan items tend to be priced higher, and this cupcake was vegan AND gluten-free, so that was probably one of the reasons, but still the price seemed a bit absurd.

So, I decided to go get a bag of chocolate chips and baked muffins.

Done!

Someone already ate one (lol).

The muffin top is the best!

We usually eat pizza on Sundays by my husband’s request, but yesterday he said he was rather in the mood for ramen.

So we decided to go to our favorite ramen place in Bangkok, Mensho Tokyo.

Last time it was full.

And this time it was full, again.

But we got there around 1:30 p.m., and we didn’t have to wait too long to get a table.

He had Vegan Black Tantanmen.

And I had Vegan Yuzu Shio.

We both had the same ramen last time.

They are so good!!!

I think it’s not only the best vegan ramen in Bangkok, but also one of the best vegan ramen I’ve tried anywhere.

(My all-time favorite for the longest time was at CHABUTON at the Kyoto Yodobashi location in Japan, but sadly they discontinued the vegan ramen.)

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by : Reiko Main Dish, Noodles/Pasta

Vegan Sheet Pan Lasagna with Two Types of Homemade Vegan Cheese

I made sheet pan lasagna a few weeks ago for the first time.

It turned out great except that the store-bought cheese I used for it was disappointing and that kind of ruined the whole dish, sadly.

So this was my “revenge” lasagna.

Here are the building blocks…

My go-to Tofu “sausage”.

This is my favorite tomato sauce right now.

Homemade fresh lasagna sheet.

Vegan cashew cheese.

Vegan basil ricotta “cheese”.

My sheet pan lasagna only has three layers.

The first layer was the mixture of tomato sauce, tofu “sausage”, and sauteed garlic/king mushrooms.

The second layer was the lasagna sheet.

And then I topped it off with the cashew cheese and basil cheese AFTER it was baked.

I stacked two pieces so that it looked like “real” lasagna with extra layers.

So good!

Making vegan cheese myself was worth the effort.

I’ll definitely make this lasagna again.

My husband loved it too.

I saw a picture of this cake on one of our favorite vegan cafe, Kind Kulture’s SNS, and I quickly messaged the cafe if they still had it.

As soon as I got a positive response, we were out the door.

This was peanut butter cheese cake, and it was delicious!

Perfectly sweet (meaning not overly sweet).

Next time I want to try one of these (or all of them!).

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by : Reiko Bread, Sweets

Cardamom Banana Bread, Pool, & Live Jazz

I made this banana bread a week or so ago.

It’s really hard to organize photos, and I have so many food photos on my phone.

One of the reasons for this disorganization is that I don’t post them as quickly as I should.

I really should post what I made/photographed the same day, but I often feel like I should keep some for when I won’t have anything to post.

That’s apparently a mistake.

From now on I will try to post in a timelier manner.

I simply topped it off with banana slices, oats, and sunflower seeds.

I wanted to make it appropriate for breakfast, not just for a snack.

I don’t have the typical sized pan (for banana bread), so I use my shokupan bread pan.

The shape is a bit different, but it works.

I already have a smaller sized loaf pan, so at this time I’m not interested in creating a larger pan collection.

Anyway, this banana bread turned out amazing!

Probably one of the best banana bread, vegan or not.

I used Ms. Anthea’s recipe (I used cardamom in place of cinnamon), and it’s a keeper!

I’ve tried many of her recipes, and with her recipes I don’t change the amount of sugar, because it’s usually spot-on.

Highly recommend it!

I’ve been a bit lazy these days and not getting out much.

One of the reasons is that the books I’ve been reading are so good and I really enjoy spending time at home reading.

But I do try to exercise every day, even when I don’t go outside.

I usually do some exercise on our yoga mat, but yesterday I went upstairs to swim.

Why not taking advantage of this beautiful pool.

I was surprised to find these fall-colored leaves around the pool that seemed to have fallen off from the tree in the back shown in this picture.

There is no fall season here in Bangkok, I believe, but maybe there is some change in the weather that creates these colors?

Last night I actually went out and socialized!

We met with a friend couple at Shaloba Eatery for dinner and live jazz music.

Vegan options are very limited, unfortunately.

And I was a bit sad when told that they don’t serve hot beverages (like coffee or tea) for dinnertime; I like their decaf coffee hot.

But the music was lovely (the pianist was great (the singer was so-so :(), and the company was wonderful.

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by : Reiko Pizza/Flatbread

Vegan Pizza with Homemade Vegan Cheese & New Blender

In Bangkok you can find vegan cheese at stores.

We’ve tried some, and there is a wide range in terms of quality.

There were some we liked, and a few we couldn’t even finish.

I used to make all different kinds of vegan cheese when we lived in the U.S., but when we moved to Bangkok, I decided not to make vegan cheese here, mostly because I didn’t want to buy a blender; I like our life here to be “light” and “simple” and do not want to own a lot of things.

Especially to make vegan cheese with nuts, you need a very powerful blender, and I wasn’t ready to invest in one at this time.

And then last week my husband surprised me, coming home with a blender.

He was at some kind of technology/home/furniture/clothing (basically everything) fair, and he saw this blender being sold for a reasonable price.

So we quickly went shopping to buy all the ingredients needed to make our favorite vegan cheese.

Because of the price ($18), I was a bit skeptical, but the blender was heavy and seemed to be well-built.

The result?

Well, it worked！

The cheese didn’t become as creamy as how we would get from our old Vitamix, but it was very good, better than I had expected.

We were so excited about the cheese, and we decided to make pizza for lunch.

The toppings were onion, yellow pepper, and crumbled Ikea vegan protein balls.

Then, I drizzled the cheese and sprinkled fresh basil leaves.

It turned out great!

So we are keeping the blender (well, in Thailand we can’t return things, so that’s not an option anyway).

I think we will enjoy dishes with homemade vegan cheese from now on.

By the way my herbs in the planters are growing so well!

This is my basil.

The lemon grass is getting bigger and taller every day.

I should harvest some leaves and make tea again.

The rosemary is doing great, too.

I didn’t realize how much I like tropical fruits until we moved here.

This morning, we had organic papaya, lychee, and passionfruit, and they were all so delicious.

Being able to enjoy these fruits is definitely one of the biggest reasons why I like living in Thailand.

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by : Reiko Fruit, Other, Rice/Grains, Tofu

Tofu Katsu Rice Bowl & BACC

I realized that I had a bag of Panko, Japanese bread crumb, I had bought a while ago but was not using much, so I decided to make Tofu Katsu.

They were perfectly fried.

I love how the Panko makes the crust so crunchy.

I was initially thinking about serving it with sweet miso glaze, but at the last minute, I wanted Tonkatsu sauce as well, so I went with half miso and half Tonkatsu sauce.

Katsu is almost always served with shredded cabbage in Japan, and I follow the rule.

This burdock & yuzu dressing is so good and it makes everything, even simple cabbage, taste better!

Apparently, the lychee is in season right now, and I get beautiful organic lychees from farmfruitforlks, included in my farm box.

They are absolutely delicious!

I’ve eaten lychees before, but these are definitely the best lychees I’ve ever tasted.

We’ve been in Bangkok for a little over 9 months now.

Since we are not here as a tourist, we feel like we have so much time to do things, which makes us somewhat lazy.

The other night we shared our lists of things we want to do in Bangkok, and we decided to start crossing off those items.

Last week we went to the science museum and the planetarium. ✅

This week we visited the Bangkok Art & Culture Center.

It’s a beautiful building, and its architecture, my husband said, reminded him of the Guggenheim museum in New York.

 There were many interesting art pieces.

This one was titled as “Burden – Take me to Dream No. 1”.

Amazing how you can create the look/feel of water so beautifully without using water.

At this museum there are some cute shops where you can buy interesting items created by local artists and brands.

There aren’t many museums I truly enjoy, but this one, I’m glad I went.

You can easily spend a few hours at this museum, or longer if you decide to have lunch and/or a cup of tea as well.

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