Breakfast

Homemade Bagels and Local Organic Tomatoes

It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes you realize you have all the right ingredients to make something fabulous without going grocery shopping.

I had freshly baked bagels.

Organic fruits/veggies delivery just arrived.

I ordered a box from “farmfruitfolks” on Instagram.

They deliver organic and local produce.

It was the first time I used their service, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quantity, the quality, and the selection.

Everything looked so good but I decided to use the tomatoes for this breakfast dish.

I first toasted a bagel; it got a little darker than I intended, but it was still good.

Toasted bagels, tofu spread, beautiful organic yellow/green tomatoes, basil and parsley from my patio garden, red onion, and balsamic glaze.

Very fresh and satisfying.

Other items from the delivery were also fantastic.

I especially liked the goldenberries.

They were so sweet and delicious!

I will definitely order produce from them again.

You can send a message to “fuitfarmerfolks” on Instagram to order.

I paid 500 baht + 50 baht (delivery to Bangkok) for an S box.

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February 9, 2025

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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January 11, 2025

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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December 30, 2024

by : Reiko Beans/Lentils, Breakfast

Plant-based Brunch – No more canned black beans

There are some restaurants in Bangkok that serve vegan brunch plates.

Whenever I see that on a menu, I get excited.

However, I hesitate to order it.

Vegan dishes at restaurants are usually not cheap, and I can’t help thinking about how well I can make vegan brunch plate with that price (lol).

(I really shouldn’t do this though, because dining out is an experience and means so much more than just eating food!)

So instead of going to a restaurant I decided to make my ideal brunch plate.

On this plate served are homemade Shokupan toast, scrambled turmeric tofu, homemade cumin black beans, roasted potatoes, broccoli, and roasted tomato.

I used to buy cans for black beans in the U.S., but since it’s not easy to find the cans here in Bangkok, I started cooking black beans myself, and I’m loving it.

Who knew it tastes so much better!

I follow her instructions and flavor them with whatever the spices and herbs I happen to be in the mood for.

I like my broccoli with my homemade vegan mayo.

He likes his brunch with a lot of ketchup (lol).

And the perfectly toasted Shokupan is the best!

Served with homemade vegan butter.

What do you like on your brunch plate?

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December 23, 2024

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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December 1, 2024

by : Reiko Breakfast, Sweets

Rosemary Ginger Cranberry Scones – Full of Fall-Winter Flavors!

I liked the Kabocha scones so much that I decided to make more scones.

This time with dry cranberries, rosemary, and ginger.

I found dry cranberries on sale (buy one get one) at the local grocery store.

The rosemary is from my planter garden.

(This is my second rosemary plant, and I’m relieved that it’s doing well (the first one died only after a few days).)

And ginger?

I got a lot of ginger from Happy Grocers.

Lately I’ve been getting their surplus set once a week, and the last few weeks they sent me a lot of ginger.

（You can find out more about their surplus set on this post.)

I’m not complaining.

I like ginger.

I just need to find a lot of ways to enjoy it.

The dry cranberries and rosemary were added to the batter.

Then, after being baked and cooled, they were finished with ginger-rosemary icing.

I decided not to grate but minced ginger for the icing so that you can really enjoy the look and taste of the fresh ginger.

After I had a bite I wanted more rosemary flavor, so I sprinkled some more leaves.

This flavor combo is great for the fall season and also for Christmas.

Recommended beverage – Black tea

I used Nora’s recipe as the base.

Highly recommended.

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November 19, 2024

by : Reiko Breakfast, Sweets

Happy Halloween 2024! – Kabocha Scones

This year Halloween feels very different.

I’m usually wearing a heavy coat by now, but this year I’m still wearing a summer dress.

In October!

Luckily, I was able to find a beautiful organic Kabocha.

It was small, but…

It was good quality!

Look at this beautiful orange color.

They look good already.

But…

I wanted to dress them up a little….

Cinnamon icing, roasted sunflower seeds, and cinnamon powder were added.

Delicious!!

My husband is not a big fan of scones in general because they are often too dry, but he loved these.

Perfect with black coffee.

I used Ms. Nora’s recipe, and I highly recommend it.

https://www.noracooks.com/pumpkin-scones/

*As noted above I used Kabocha squash in place of pumpkin. Also, I used regular white sugar for brown sugar, flax meal/water for apple sauce, and coconut oil for vegan butter. They still turned out fantastic! I didn’t add any spices to the scones, and I only added cinnamon to my icing.

I started reading this book I had found at a Japanese used bookstore.

It’s an old novel, published in 1973.

It became a bestseller, and a TV show has been made based on this book twice.

I’m really loving having time to read.

Another Kabocha dish.

I made this ginger Kabocha soup the other day for lunch.

It was creamy and so good!

Halloween decorations are everywhere in Bangkok too.

It is nice to see these familiar items this time of the year.

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October 31, 2024

by : Reiko Breakfast, Sweets

Marble Banana Muffins – マーブルバナナマフィン

I was in a mood for baking with bananas for a while.

So the timing was perfect!

I received these ripe bananas as part of the surplus set from Happy Grocers.

Now I didn’t have to wait for bananas to ripe.

They were already ripe and ready to be used.

And happy to add that I was able to rescue these guys from being thrown away.

If you are interested in Happy Grocers or their surplus set, check out my post here.

https://sideb.culinarytribune.com/2024/10/03/trying-to-eat-more-sustainably/

I added some cocoa powder to a half of the batter and created the marble design.

These turned out amazing!!

They made the whole kitchen smell so good!

I sprinkled some oats and roasted sunflower seeds on top.

I think they made these muffins even more appropriate for breakfast.

The texture was wonderful, too.

It was pleasantly crispy outside and moist inside.

It’s great as is, but irresistible with my vegan butter!

For the muffins I used this recipe as the base, and it’s a keeper!

https://www.rainbownourishments.com/vegan-banana-muffins/

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October 17, 2024

by : Reiko Bread, Breakfast

Biscuits, Butter, Passion Fruit Jam, All Vegan, All Homemade
ホットビスケット、バター、パッションフルーツジャム、全部プラントベース、全部自分で作るよ

People have different ideas of what they want to do if they have more time.

For me, there are several different things, but the biggest one is being serious about what we eat.

I did cook most of the time when I was working full-time, but I definitely felt that there wasn’t enough time for everything I wanted to do in and beyond the kitchen, like researching about certain food, making plans for meals, deciding what to get and where to get, and organizing and improving the kitchen functionality.

Thankfully, now I do have time to do all of these things, and I do enjoy spending my time this way.

As part of the Happy Grocer’s surplus package, I received beautiful passion fruit.

We enjoyed some as is, and I used the rest to make jam when they were still fresh.

It turned out great, and you can really enjoy the wonderful flavor of the fruit.

I don’t like raspberry or blackberry’s seeds, but for some reason I like passion fruit seeds.

Does anyone feel the same way?

In order to enjoy the jam, I decided to bake biscuits.

I used this recipe https://www.food.com/recipe/southern-oil-biscuits-with-self-rising-flour-493512 .

(I didn’t have self-rising flour, so I just used the following formula: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1.5 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt)

So I got jam and biscuits.

There was one more thing I needed.

Butter.

I still cannot find vegan butter at stores whose ingredients I’m comfortable with, so I made some myself.

It looks like butter, tastes like butter, and melts like butter.

And I’m happy with the ingredients.

Just like the vegan mayo, it’s extra work, but it’s so worth it.

With everything ready, brunch was served.

Scrumptious!

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October 9, 2024

by : Reiko Breakfast, Products, Tofu

Vegan Brunch in Bangkok
バンコクでヴィーガンブランチ

My husband and I both had craving for the western-style brunch for a while.

There is something about a plate full of breakfast food like a toast, “eggs,” and “sausage”.

I found good firm tofu at the grocery store I usually go to, and it worked great as scrambled eggs.

At the same store I found this vegan meat and decided to make breakfast sausage patties with it.

It’s a simple version.

I just added fresh herbs, garlic powder, and salt.

The texture is strangely similar to that of real meat.

They turned out great.

I was happy with both the texture and the taste.

According to their website, the main ingredient of this Meat Zero ground meat is soy protein, and the red color is from beetroot coloring extract.

https://www.meatzerobrand.com/en/meat-zero-plant-based-ground-meat/

I have mixed feelings about this as usual.

Since we switched to the mostly plant-based diet, I’ve been going back and forth regarding the use of high-processed vegan meat products.

A part of me does not want any in my diet, and another part of me thinks it’s okay to have a little bit.

I don’t think it is going to resolve any time soon, but I do know that I want to start making my own vegan meat again soon (once I’m a bit more comfortable in my new kitchen).