by : Reiko Drinks

Pineapple Rosemary Green Tea & Passion Fruit Mint Earl Grey: Plus Karmakamet Cafe

In the morning the first thing I drink is a glass of water.

Then I drink a cup of hot green tea with fruit and breakfast.

After that I mostly drink water either cold or room temperature throughout the day.

But I also enjoy creating flavored tea, using fresh fruits and herbs.

This pineapple rosemary iced green tea was very refreshing.

I liked it slightly sweetened.

This one was passion fruit mint iced earl grey.

When I have a lot of passion fruits, I freeze it and make passion fruit cubes.

It’s one of my favorite snacks.

I usually throw a cube in my mouth, or put a few in a cup with some sugar and enjoy it as a quick sorbet, or add a few cubes to cold beverages like the one above.

The frozen passion fruit slowly dissolved and added nice sweetness and tartness to the tea.

It’s fun to make your own drinks, but I also like to go to cafes to get inspiration.

We visited this beautiful cafe the in the same building as a Karmakamet shop, one of the most popular aroma brands in Thailand.

I don’t remember the name, but it was something Christmassy.

It was certainly festive-looking.

They were also very serious about their coffee.

I’ve never had decaf coffee served in this fancy manner!

I would suggest checking out the shop first and then enjoying a tea or a drink in the cafe.

You can choose a table outside, surrounded by the plants, or inside where you feel like you are in an old movie setting.

The shop shows the history of the company.

It looked almost like a museum than a store.

Plan to spend some time, checking out various fragrances and taking pictures.

The shop was as photogenic as the cafe.

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by : Reiko Bread

Garlic Rosemary Sourdough Bread – not the prettiest but still adorable (to me)

My sourdough baking journey part II (Part I was in the U.S.) has been great!

There have been minor ups and downs, and I’m still learning, but I feel I got the hang of it for the most part.

We always enjoy plain sourdough bread, but I do like to add some flavors once in a while.

This time I added fresh rosemary and garlic powder.

My scoring is not consistent, and this was a bad one…

It was not the prettiest bread (frankly quite ugly (lol)), but since this was MY “baby (sourdough bread)”, I still found it adorable.

Also, the bottom burnt (I know the reason, and I can prevent that next time), and I had to cut the part off.

But the rest was fine.

I was initially afraid that I put too much rosemary and garlic powder, but when I sliced it, I quickly realized that I could have added much more.

Add a lot more next time; a note to myself.

A good thing about bread-baking is that you learn something new every time you bake.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Mother May I – Elegant space, perfect for indoor/outdoor events

There are so many hidden gems in Bangkok, and Mother May I is one of them.

(Or maybe it’s not that hidden as there was a large group of tourists posing in every part of the property for photos (lol).)

It’s located in a residential area, on a small street, away from the city’s hustle and bustle.

We found it by chance during our afternoon leisurely stroll.

The gate is inviting, and on the other side of the gate is a charming garden.

Currently decorated with the Christmas theme.

The terrace is lovely as well.

I was so sure I wanted to have a table on the terrace, but once inside I was equally impressed.

Since it was quite hot outside, we decided to stay inside, where it was nicely air-conditioned.

They mostly serve Thai food with some western dishes.

They also offer some vegan/vegetarian dishes, but nothing jumped out.

Since we were not hungry anyway, we just ordered something to drink.

Kumquat Thai Tea.

This was tart and refreshing.

Rose Longan Tea.

The flavor was unique and very good.

We enjoyed these drinks, but since they were both quite sweet, we felt we should have ordered one of them unsweetened.

It was such an elegant space.

Pretty spacious too.

It will be perfect for mother’s day celebration, girls brunch, or even a wedding.

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by : Reiko Bread

The Best Rolls! – so soft and fluffy, and you don’t need butter, milk, or eggs.

I’ve tried many recipes for this type of rolls, but this one is hands-down the best!

These rolls are soft, fluffy, and sweet.

It’s kind of crazy that butter, milk, or eggs are not needed.

This makes me question why I was making rolls with all these ingredients for so long in the past!

It doesn’t make sense.

These are great for breakfast.

I like to warm one up in the microwave and eat it with homemade vegan butter.

So good.

I also serve these rolls for dinner; they go well with creamy soup or stew.

These are also fantastic for burgers or sandwiches like this one.

The recipe for the rolls is in Japanese, but if you are interested, here is the link.

I brush soy milk before baking, which gives them the nice brown color.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Mercy Republic – “Get your vegan groove on”

My husband found this place and suggested that we should go check it out on Sunday for our Sunday pizza dinner.

When I was not sure how to enter, a gentleman came out and warmly greeted us.

Staff were very nice, friendly and answered all our questions well.

Once inside, you notice all the beautiful bottles displayed.

The place felt like a bar rather than a restaurant.

The place was really hip, decorated with black x white pictures of artists, who, the staff told us, are vegetarians/vegans.

We got there around 7:00 p.m., our usual dinner time, which was probably early for most of their customers (lol).

Apparently we were the first to arrive there that night.

It was nice I was able to take a lot of pictures without bothering other people.

They serve various foods including Thai dishes, but we had pizza as my husband set his mind on pizza that night.

Overall, it was a good vegan pizza.

The vegan pepperoni and cheese were very good.

I will go to Vegano Bangkok if I want to eat pizza, but I would come here to meet friends for drinks and snacks and listen to hip hop music.

When we were there a few weeks ago, the staff told us that they had only been open for three weeks.

I hope they do well.

It is really a fantastic place where you can enjoy music AND various vegan dishes!

Mercy Republic – Website

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by : Reiko Noodles/Pasta

Japanese “Napolitan” Spaghetti – with Tofu “Bacon”

“Napolitan Spaghetti” is NOT Italian, but one of the most beloved pasta dishes in Japan.

We don’t seem to know exactly how it was created, but based on some googled information it was likely originally created at Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, Japan, sometime around 1940-1950.

Cooked spaghetti is sauteed with various vegetables and processed meat (onion, green pepper, and bacon/sausage are popular) and then most importantly flavored with ketchup.

Cooking pasta with ketchup may shock Italians (lol), but since I grow up eating this dish regularly as a kid like many Japanese people, I still crave for it once in a while.

This time instead of using meat or fake meat, I decided to make “bacon” with “Atsu-age” tofu which is already deep-fried and firmer compared to regular tofu.

I cut the Atsu-age tofu into small pieces, marinated in soy sauce based marinade (soy sauce, sugar, garlic powder, oil, miso) and cooked/broiled in the oven until it was crispy.

I was very happy with the result because the texture was spot-on!

It was also nice to cook it in the oven so that I could do other things using the stovetop while cooking the “bacon”.

I like my Napolitan Spaghetti with a lot of vegetables.

This time I used onion, green pepper, Shiitake mushrooms, carrot, and zucchini.

As many do today, I added a few extra sauces in addition to the ketchup, including soy sauce and Tonkatsu sauce, to create depth in the flavor.

Finished with ITALIAN parsley from my planter herb garden. 🙂

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by : Reiko Bread, Pizza/Flatbread

Potato Flatbread with Pesto – Who knew I had a green thumb?

I may surprise some people, especially Japanese readers, but I don’t cook rice anymore.

Here in Bangkok I like to keep our belongings to minimal (so that we can easily move when we want to), so I made the decision to not own a rice cooker for now.

I could still cook rice with a pot, but I don’t want to keep a large bag of rice in our pantry either.

So I now buy cooked rice from the deli section of a grocery store if I want to eat rice, and this new change has led to our eating more bread, which means I bake bread more frequently.

Flatbread is one of the easiest breads to make, so I make it regularly.

I like freshly baked flatbread for lunch.

This time I simply added sliced (pre-cooked) potatoes.

It was good just like that.

But one thing that makes my husband happy regardless of what dish I serve is sauce.

A lot of it.

Luckily, the basil I’m growing in the planter is doing great, and I needed to harvest some anyway.

I made vegan pesto and drizzled it over the flatbread.

Super yummy!

Vegan pesto: basil, cooked garlic, roasted sunflower seeds, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, sugar

Basil bouquet!

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by : Reiko Sweets

Hazelnut Brownies – great with black coffee

I brought a few baking pans from the U.S., and the brownie pan was one of them.

It took a while, but finally I got to use it in Bangkok.

This brand has several options of vegan chocolate, and we like it.

This was the first time I found this with hazelnuts, and I thought it would be fun to add this to brownies.

I always like nuts in brownies, and this hazelnut version was excellent.

I used my favorite vegan brownies recipe.

I didn’t follow the directions very well, but it still turned out great (except that this didn’t get the shiny top because of my skipping some steps, I’m sure).

I really enjoy eating it with a cup of black coffee.

But I might reduce the amount of sugar next time.

(It’s funny I didn’t think it was overly sweet before. Maybe it’s because the sweets we eat here in Bangkok is overall less sweet than the sweets in the U.S., and I got used to less sweet sweets?)

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by : Reiko Breakfast, Sweets

Ginger Pancakes with Banana and Butterscotch

When we had lunch at Nature’s Charm Cafe, my husband found a few fun items.

Coconut Butterscotch and Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk.

When we bought them, we talked about drizzling these on pancakes.

It took a while for me to be in the mood for making pancakes, but when I saw the butterscotch almost gone (my husband had been eating by itself as a snack), I knew I had to do it.

I still had a lot of ginger at that time, and I added grated ginger to my pancake batter.

I recommend doing it if you like ginger!

I was using New York Times vegan pancake recipe for a while, but I think I like this recipe better.

Homemade vegan butter.

Butterscotch.

Banana slices, and roasted sunflower seeds.

My husband wanted to pour some condensed milk, too.

This was good, but I will eat it as a dessert, not for breakfast (lol).

And I would like a cup of hot BLACK coffee with it.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Dumplings and Much More! – Din Tai Fung

It was the first time for us to have Thanksgiving outside the U.S., and we spent the day very differently.

No turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, or pumpkin pie.

But nonetheless, we had a wonderful meal with great friends.

If you really want the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you can find it at several hotels in Bangkok.

But since none of us really loved turkey, we decided to have a very nontraditional meal for that day.

We picked Din Tai Fung.

They offer many vegetarian (most of them if not all seemed vegan), and the pictures and reviews were great, so I was excited to try.

You can watch how their dumplings are made through the glass window.

Din Tai Fung originated in Taiwan, but they have restaurants outside of Taiwan, including the U.S.

In Bangkok there are three locations, and our friend suggested that we should go to the Central Embassy one because of their view.

She was right.

The view was amazing!

They are known for their juicy pork dumplings.

Instead of pork, we had mushrooms ones, “Steamed Assorted Mushroom Xiao Long Bao Infused with Truffle Oil”, and they were delicious.

We also had these “Steamed Vegetarian Dumplings”, and they were equally tasty too.

In addition to the dumplings we had a few more dishes.

This was “Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing”, and I absolutely loved it.

Stir-fried Spinach with Garlic.

“Deep-fried Homemade Tofu with Water Chestnuts and Mushrooms”

These were scrumptious!

It was crispy outside and soft inside.

I loved the texture of the water chestnuts in the soft tofu.

It wasn’t listed as “vegetarian (or vegan)”, but if anything I would guess there was some egg in the batter.

It came with tasty sweet chili sauce.

We also had three kinds of steamed buns: vegetables, mushrooms, and sweet red beans.

They were all good, but by that time I was already full, so I didn’t need them.

This was our first time, so we didn’t know how much to order.

Next time I will order exactly the same except that I will get 5 dumplings each instead of 8, no steamed buns, but I will get a bowl of Dan Dan Noodle (on the menu it indicates they can make it vegetarian).

Din Tan Fung – Menu

I cannot wait to go back.

After our lunch we went upstairs for a cup of tea.

If you are in this mall, you should definitely check out this area.

It’s a large bookstore with several cafes all over the floor.

Beautiful and comfortable space.

The same night we met with my husband’s ex-colleague who was visiting Bangkok from the U.S. and we went to the Speakeasy Rooftop Bar for a drink.

It was a really cool place, and the view was amazing.

We don’t drink alcohol much, so we hardly go to a bar.

So it was a nice opportunity for us to experience this rooftop bar scene.

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