by : Reiko Noodles/Pasta, Tofu

Two Timing Spaghetti – with Tasty Tofu “Meat”

I was in the mood for spaghetti today, and I couldn’t decide which sauce, red or green, I wanted, so I prepared both.

As a topping I decided to make my tofu ground “meat”.

It’s super easy to make.

What you need is “age-tofu” which is pre-fried tofu.

This type of tofu is firm itself but also has a firmer outside layer.

You crumble it into small pieces like this.

I use my hand.

Then you marinate the crumbled tofu in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, garlic powder, and oil.

It doesn’t take time for the tofu to absorb the mixture.

Once it’s ready, cook it in a pre-heated oven (225-230 C); I use the broiler function.

The tofu cooks quickly, and you don’t really have to worry about cooking it through.

The important thing is to get the right texture.

I personally like it to be well-browned and crispy.

I take it out of the oven when I feel it may start to burn.

This was perfect!

I didn’t time, but I think it was in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or so; I flipped halfway.

Sprinkle salt if it’s needed.

Green sauce: fresh basil from my planter garden, roasted sunflower seeds, cooked garlic, water (used to cook garlic), olive oil, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, sugar.

Red sauce: store-bought jar of pasta sauce that we like (lol).

I wish I could find good kalamata olives.

The selection of olives is limited in Bangkok.

Two kinds of sauce equals doubled satisfaction!

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Nature’s Charm Cafe – Delicious Banh Mi!

We had a brunch date at a new vegan restaurant this morning, but when we got there, it was closed!

So Nature’s Charm Cafe was our plan B.

Don’t get me wrong though.

It happened to be chosen as the plan B today, but they are definitely on our A list.!

It had been a while since the last time we were here, so it was about time to come back anyway.

The dining room on the second floor was as bright as I remembered.

I really like how they decorated the space.

The paintings were tastefully done.

I didn’t notice last time, but they painted the ceiling too.

I tried their Banh Mi this time, and it was absolutely delicious!!

So glad that I tried.

I liked what was inside, but what equally impressed me was the bread.

It was the perfect bread for the Banh Mi sandwich.

It was crispy outside, soft inside, and overall very light and nicely chewy.

The fries were perfectly cooked too.

The papaya salad was very good, and I liked having this fresh salad to go with my sandwich.

My husband ordered Moo Ping.

Unfortunately, the “meat” texture was off.

I don’t think we will ever order it again.

As always, it’s fun to shop their products on the first floor.

Check out my previous post about this cafe .

Here is a link to Nature’s Charm Cafe’s website.

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by : Reiko Sweets

Cardamom Coffee Donuts

I tried taking pictures in various spots, but this spot seems to get the best lighting.

I made a new batch of vegan butter for this too.

I have tweaked my favorite recipe, and finally I wrote down how I make my favorite version (softer/spreadable).

I knew this flavor combination of coffee and cardamom would be something I like, and I was not wrong.

Ground cardamom was something I needed to order from an online shop because I couldn’t find it at any stores, but again online shops came to my rescue.

My TWG Grand Wedding tea was a perfect beverage to enjoy with the donuts.

I used this recipe as the base for these donuts.

I didn’t have applesauce, so I grated a fresh apple myself.

The recipe said you could make 8 donuts, but for some reason I ended up only with six, which actually worked out just fine because I could only make 6 with my pan.

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Golden State Vegan Restaurant – Funky, Retro, Fun!

We’ve tried many vegan restaurants in Bangkok since we moved here last July.

But fortunately there are still many left!

So we decided to check out one of the restaurants that was on our list for a while.

It’s very close (only a few minute-walk) to Phrom Phong BTS station.

The sign is very unique (lol) and hard to miss.

It’s on the third floor.

As soon as you get to the floor, you can already feel their fun vibe.

It’s a funky, retro, and playful space.

What pleasantly surprised me was how bright the space was with a lot of natural light coming in.

If you want, you can dine at their outdoor space, watching trains, too.

We ordered a couple of items for lunch to share.

This was Orange “Chicken” Sushi Roll.

It was good.

The sauce had a little kick.

We also had Mushroom Tacos.

These were delicious.

The mushrooms were crunchy, and the vegetables were fresh, and the combination of various sauces was perfect.

I liked that the tacos came with some extra veggies.

I would definitely order these tacos again and like to try other items.

They have a large selection of sushi rolls, and it will be fun to try them next time.

Here is a link to Golden State Vegan Restaurant website.

There are quite a few restaurants and shops that serve vegan food around the Phrom Phong area.

We stopped at Skinnylicious after lunch.

My husband tried them, and he really liked them (I was too full to eat after the lunch).

The napkin was cute!

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by : Reiko Sweets

Vegan Almond Cake

I had craving for an almond cake, and I was lucky to find a vegan recipe that looked promising.

It took me a while to get all the ingredients, but finally I was ready.

It’s a bit challenging to find so-called Western food in Bangkok, but if you look hard enough, you can find almost everything.

I had to order this pure almond extract online, but it’s okay.

Delivery is usually pretty fast.

The cake came out of the oven, looking very good.

I had a perfect tea to enjoy the cake with.

It was a gift from a friend.

I love TWG.

I was initially thinking about serving the cake with some kind of sauce or cream, but honestly, I didn’t need anything.

Or I should say I didn’t want anything.

This cake is so perfect that you want to enjoy it as is.

It has the perfect sweetness.

The texture is spot-on, moist but not dense.

It’s a must-try for anyone who likes almond flavored baked sweets.

It’s simple yet elegant and tastes like a cake from a fancy pastry shop.

Here is a link to the recipe.

Some of my favorite recipes are from this site.

I really appreciate the weather here in Bangkok, especially coming from Minnesota, where it’s -19C degrees currently!

Being able to enjoy the sunshine like this daily is good for my soul. 🙂

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by : Reiko Bread, Breakfast

Sourdough Toast with Passion Fruit Jam and Matcha Syrup

Baking sourdough bread is a part of my routine.

It’s rather irregular, but I do make one every week or every other week.

This one turned out great.

I felt good about the bulk fermentation and second proof both, so I was pretty confident that it would turn out fine, but seeing the result still gave me joy. 🙂

There were some large holes close to the edge, but overall the crumb structure was pretty good too.

For breakfast I toasted a couple of slices.

First, my homemade vegan butter.

I had made passion fruit jam a few days before, and I was determined to enjoy it on my sourdough toast.

Looked already good, but I wanted to add one more thing.

Matcha syrup.

This is one of my recent favorites.

It’s easy to make.

I just mix honey, Matcha powder, hot water, and a little salt.

The passion fruit and Matcha together sounds a bit unusual, but we both really liked it.

It created some sophisticated flavors.

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by : Reiko Sweets

Taiyaki filled with Yuzu Custard Cream & Sweet Black Beans

I like baking, and I think homemade sweets are the best (if I can say that myself :)).

But since there are only two people in our household, I hesitate to make a large amount unless I can freeze it.

Taiyaki is a good choice when you just want a little something for a snack.

It looks fancy, but it’s actually pretty easy to make (as long as you have filling ready) with this trusted Taiyaki pan which I brought from the U.S.

Traditionally, Taiyaki is filled with sweet “Azuki” bean paste, but since I had beautiful black beans from Happy Grocers, I used them, and it worked perfectly.

I was planning to have custard cream as well, so instead of making bean “paste”, I sweetened the beans but kept the shape of the beans to give a nice texture to the custard cream.

When we were at one of our favorite beverage places, Yuzu House, the other day, we saw this being sold on the counter.

I love yuzu, and this dried yuzu peel was full of flavor, slightly sweetened, and absolutely delicious.

(I will definitely buy more next time we go there.)

So I decided to add this to my Taiyaki to give a little twist.

There are so many different recipes for Taiyaki batter, but I like this recipe (Japanese) because it creates the crispy (vs. soft) texture; the recipe does not call for eggs, and that is probably one of the reasons for this particular texture.

The recipe calls for cake flour.

In my pantry I only keep all-purpose flour and bread flour, so I “made” cake flour by adding a little corn starch to my all-purpose flour.

Also, I used honey in place of mirin, which I don’t keep in my pantry either.

The ingredients are important, but pouring the batter “thin” is equally important to create the crispiness.

For the vegan custard cream I used my go-to recipe.

(I used oat milk and soy milk both (I didn’t have enough soy milk) this time, which is why the color is a little darker. It still tasted great though.)

I hope you can tell how crispy it is from this photo.

The extra edges are the best part!

And the filling was SO GOOD!

I LOVED the combination of creamy custard cream, sweet black beans, and slightly bitter but refreshing yuzu peels.

Hapy New Year!

Wishing everyone a healthy, joyful, and peaceful year. 🙏

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Restaurants

Toshikoshi Ramen – Mensho Tokyo BKK

In Japan it is customary to eat noodles on New Year’s Eve.

It is said that eating noodles symbolizes leaving this year’s hardships behind (because noodles are easy to cut) and also the long noodles represent longevity.

We call it “toshikoshi soba”, which means “year-crossing noodle”, and most people eat buckwheat noodles close to midnight.

I thought about going to eat buckwheat noodles for dinner, but there was a ramen restaurant that I had wanted to try for a while, and after a quick research I found out that toshikoshi noodle did not have to be “buckwheat” noodle, and as long as you eat on the day it didn’t matter when to eat.

So we decided to still follow the tradition but have ramen for lunch today.

My SNS friend told me about this place.

She said it was the best ramen in Bangkok.

There are three vegan ramen options, Black Tantanmen, Yuzu Shio, and Spicy Yuzu.

I like their focus on using local ingredients.

I had Yuzu Shio.

It’s clear soup, which is hard to find for vegan ramen.

I was amazed by the deliciousness of the soup.

They make their own noodles.

For this they use thinner noodles.

I liked all the toppings too.

They were all perfectly prepared.

My husband had Black Tantanmen.

This one had much thicker noodles.

The soup was rich and extremely flavorful, but not heavy.

We LOVED their ramen.

We agree that they were the best vegan ramen we’ve had in Bangkok so far.

I hope you are ending this year with delicious food as well, and I wish you all a year ahead full of joy, peace, and love.

Mensho Tokyo – Website; The menu on their website does not include vegan options, which may mean not all locations serve vegan ramen. We went to the on in RSU Tower.

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by : Reiko Breakfast

Black Bean Pancakes with Matcha Syrup

I wanted to make pancakes because I had fresh raspberries, and I thought they would make a pancake plate pretty.

I like black beans and I usually serve them as a savory dish, but this time I flavored it neutral so that I could use some to add to my pancake batter.

The first time I cooked black beans, I used beans from Happy Grocers.

Then, I realized that the packaged one sold at the grocery store was much cheaper, so I switched to it.

Interestingly, it took the beans from the grocery store forever (over 2 hours), whereas, it took the ones from Happy Grocers only about 30 minutes.

This time I went back to Happy Grocers’, and it’s the same; it took (actually less than) 30 minutes.

I wonder if the ones from the regular grocery store are not as fresh as the ones from Happy Grocers.

The beans look like blueberries when added to pancake batter (lol).

Love my FIKA pan.

This is still my favorite pan I’ve owned.

I doubled the recipe this time.

I now use this recipe to make my vegan pancakes.

I also made a fresh batch of vegan butter.

I use this trusted recipe, but I now use less almond meal (less than half) and a little more milk to make mine more creamy and “spreadable”.

One more thing I made to serve my black bean pancakes with…

Matcha syrup.

I simply put together Matcha powder, hot water, honey, and salt.

Salt is the key.

The final result.

So glad that the raspberries did make my pancake plate look attractive.

And yes, the vegan butter does melt perfectly.

My husband said it tasted “Japanese”.

The bean x Matcha combination IS used in many traditional Japanese sweets.

By the way this beautiful box of TWG tea was gifted by a friend, who also got us the Indonesian garlic peanuts.

We are not the easiest people to give gifts to because of our diet, and her gift was so thoughtful.

We love TWG tea, and this flavor was delicious just like other TWG tea.

The beautiful box also made an awesome prop for my photography!

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by : Reiko Bangkok Restaurants, Pizza/Flatbread, Restaurants, Sandwiches, Tofu

BLT (C) Open Sandwich & Butterfly Pea Lime Yuzu Tea

I had my homemade sourdough bread, lettuce that needed to be used in the fridge, and a beautiful tomato delivered from Happy Grocers today.

So it was easy to decide what to make for lunch.

In my pervious post (Soba Salad) I showed you my tofu “bacon” pieces.

This time I made the same thing, but the thick-cut version.

It was supposed to be BLT, but since we found and bought this vegan cheese at a grocery store, Villa Market, I decided to add this too.

In my opinion good mayonnaise is a must for the BLT sandwich, so I made a fresh batch of vegan mayo.

This was so good!

I made “open” sandwich because it would be easier to eat, but it ended up being so pretty too.

By the way we made pizza with this cheese later, and I thought it tasted better melted.

One of the things I like about Bangkok is that there are beautiful flowers everywhere.

When we go for a walk, I’m usually busy taking pictures of flowers (lol).

It is true that wires appear in many of my flower pictures though (lol).

This is a common thing to see in Bangkok.

There are reasons why there are so many shops that sell beverages in Bangkok.

It’s hot, and we all need to hydrate.

We’ve stopped at this shop before and had Matcha Yuzu drink, which was delicious.

This time we ordered Butterfly Pea Lime Yuzu Tea.

It was super tasty as well!

It was a bit sweet, a bit tart, very refreshing, and you can definitely taste yuzu.

We requested 25% sweetness, and it was perfect.

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