Vegan in Paris: Aujourd’hui Demain Cafe

A plate with eggs Benedict, potatoes, and a lot of salad

Here’s the final installment from Dr HH’s trip to Paris last year. I’ve been dazzled by all the good food he had!

I had one last morning in Paris and as the weather was good I decided to enjoy some parks. I started with another Land and Monkeys breakfast that I have already covered. After some outdoor time, I went for brunch at Aujourd’hui Demain Cafe.

It was a Sunday morning and it was very busy, I definitely recommend booking ahead (which I did the evening before, so I don’t think you need to worry about booking too far in advance).

A very small cinnamon roll topped with icing

I went for the brunch set deal, which meant I got a main, a dessert, hot drink, cold drink, and a mini cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll was just a little bite and was perfectly fine.

A plate with eggs Benedict, potatoes, and a lot of salad

I ordered eggs Benedict as my main dish and it was a tasty dish. It was half an English muffin, topped with salmon, cream cheese, egg, and hollandaise. Everything worked well together, the salmon gave a nice bit of smokiness and there were good flavours and textures from the egg and hollandaise. The hollandaise was very cold though, like it had just come out of the fridge. The potatoes on the side were nice but it was a bit of a shame to find half my plate was salad. I of course would have appreciated both halves of the muffin.

A white and green dessert in a takeaway box

I was in a bit of a rush so I got my dessert to go and I ordered a coco pandan, which looks like it was just a special for May. This was delicious. It was a coconut and pandan sponge cake with a pandan whipped ganache topped with a coconut panna cotta and a bit of raspberry coulis. In the middle of all this was a crunchy coconut biscuit thing. There were a load of different flavours and textures in here and they all worked really well together.

A tall glass of a cold red drink and a mug of milky coffee

For drinks I got a cafe latte, which was fine but a little bit small and a bissap, which was an infusion of hibiscus, mint and orange blossom. This was perfectly pleasant too.

That brings an end to the tales of my Paris trip. I had a great time with lots of delicious food and some excellent tourist activities. I look forward to going back and eating all the pastries again.

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Vegan in Paris: Fauborg Daimant

A dish of creamy butter next to a plate with four crispy croquettes

More from Dr HH in Paris.

The big event of my last full day in Paris was another fancy meal, this time at Fauborg Daimant. Would this go better than my last attempt at a fancy meal? I got croquettes, potato millefeuille, a side of butter and a chocolate ganache for dessert.

Four crispy croquettes with a green dipping sauce

The croquettes had a great crispy coating which had a really good crunch. The menu described them as “piggy croquettes”, which doesn’t mean much to me – perhaps they were meant to resemble trotters of sons kind. The filling has a bit of a jelly texture with some bits of meaty texture. I would have preferred a bit more bite from the filling and it didn’t particularly wow me. I don’t know the original dish that it’s emulating so it may be a good imitation. On the whole, it was a good crunchy bite with a tasty dip.

Three blocks of layered potato with an orange sauce and various garnishes

I also got the potato millefeuille with a tomato and paprika sauce. The potato was tasty and rich with plenty of butter oozing out when I cut into them. The sauce was a good accompaniment and tasted like it was made with plenty of butter too. It was also topped with some chimichurri, but I didn’t feel like there was enough of it for it to really shine through.

A dish of creamy butter

I got some butter as a side dish and it was great. It tasted more like dairy than any other vegan butter I’ve tried. It had a good bit of smoky and salty seasoning in there. I enjoyed eating all of this with the bread that came with the meal. It was a lot of bread and butter for one person, but I was not wasting any of that butter!

A quenelle of chocolate ganache garnished with lime zest and a tuile

The chocolate ganache was great. It was lovely and rich with a great texture. The lime was a nice addition to cut through the richness a bit. The tuile was lovely and thin and crisp.

I got one of the mocktails, which was tasty but it didn’t feel special enough to be charging 14 euros. They also provided bottles of still and sparkling water with the meal. It was an excellent meal that I thoroughly enjoyed and I would happily go back there again.

A structure made of bones in the Paris catacombs

In between all of this eating, I did some touristing with a trip to the catacombs. I’ve seen a good few large collections of bones over the years, and this one sits probably somewhere in the middle. The fact that it’s a wander through some underground tunnels sets it apart from places where you see ornate displays of bones in a large room. There are a lot of bones and there are some interesting displays made from some of them. Parts of it were under renovation when I visited, which I think included some of the more famous displays. It’s currently closed for large-scale renovation.

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Vegan in Paris: GangNam Falafel

A corn dog drizzled with sauce

The next stop on Dr HH’s solo Paris trip…

After a morning of art, I had a little wander along the Seine before heading to my next eatery, GangNam Falafel. This was pitched as an all vegan Korean Lebanese fusion restaurant (apparently it serves meat now). There was some fun looking stuff on the menu here with some fusion ideas. I went for a bit of classic Korean with the corn dog and some fusion with kimchi hummus.

The corn dog was enjoyable. Half is filled with a mozzarella-esque cheese and the other half has a sausage in it. The fillings were tasty, the bread coating was quite light and it had a good crispy outer. The sauce on top gave a bit of extra flavour. It is also partially dipped in sugar for a bit of sweetness. I really enjoyed it, but it may not be for everybody.

A bowl of kimchi hummus with some garnishes, and very well crisped tortilla chips

The kimchi hummus was also very good. The hummus had a little bit of texture and wasn’t perfectly smooth, which is exactly how I like my hummus. It tasted good, but I always think hummus can have more seasoning, I may be overseasoning the stuff I make at home! The kimchi is a good addition, it’s not your typical napa cabbage kimchi and I wasn’t exactly sure what vegetable it was. It had a good bit of bite and crunch to it, but wasn’t very spicy. The crispy tortilla served with it was great for scooping everything up.

There was some interesting looking stuff on the menu and I’d have liked to have tried the falafel and tteokbokki skewer. Maybe another time! It’s a small place and looks geared to takeaways orders. There were only about 10-12 seats so just keep that in mind when visiting.

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Vegan in Paris: VG Patisserie

A plate with a croque monsieur and an eclair on it

(More envy-inducing pastries from Dr HH’s solo trip to Paris.)

On my second morning, I decided to get some pastry treats elsewhere and headed to VG patisserie with my sights firmly set on an eclair. That of course was never going to be enough to keep me sated so I also ordered croque monsieur and a large cafe latte.

A croque monsieur - a very tall toasted sandwich topped with melted cheese with a slice of ham visible in the middle

My sandwich came out after a short grilling and I was concerned about how I was going to fit in my mouth with how tall it was. Fortunately, the bread is lovely soft and airy and squished down easily for eating. Along with the cheese on top there was a bechamel inside with a slice of ham tucked in amongst all the cheese. I didn’t get particularly strong flavours from the cheese and bechamel and the ham was a bit lost in the vast quantities of everything else. It was a lovely comforting bite of food but it wasn’t packing a huge amount of flavour.

An eclair filled with chocolate cream and topped with chocolate

I don’t really know what eclairs are supposed to be like. I make no claims about authenticity but I can say that this was delicious. It was a lovely thin shell of choux pastry filled with a delicious chocolate cream. There was possibly more of that cream on top along with some biscuity chunks.

A pain au chocolat and glass of hot chocolate

I was having a bit of a slow start to my day so I sat and read for a little while before I decided to treat myself to a pain au chocolat and a hot chocolate. I was a bit underwhelmed. It was a bit bready and didn’t have a huge amount of chocolate. I’ve definitely had better. This was a much cheaper pastry, coming at 1.20 whilst the fancier goods were 4-5 euro.

The drinks were nice, the latte was pleasant and not very strong. The hot chocolate was fine but not up there with some of the great decadent ones I’ve had.

After a hearty fuelling, I headed to the Modern Art Museum to see (I thought) an exhibition of Matisse and Magritte. Unfortunately, I did not read this very closely and it was actually an exhibition titled Matisse and Marguerite. It was a collection of paintings mostly of Matisse’s daughter named Marguerite. It wasn’t as fun as I was hoping for. The good news was that the permanent exhibition in the gallery was great so it was still a good activity for me.

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Vegan in Paris: Le Potager de Charlotte

A cream sauce topped with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and various garnishes

(Dr HH picks up right where he left off in last week’s installment.)

I spent some more time ambling around the city after my exhibition before heading to Le Potager de Charlotte for my dinner. This promised a bit more of an upscale dining experience. I’ll be honest, the menu didn’t really excite me but after reading all the glowing reviews, I thought I would give it a go. This meal did not hit the mark for me but I may have just chosen poorly. I’m keen to support places doing higher end vegan dining and I’ll happily give them another try when I make it back to Paris again.

Blocks of tofu crusted in sesame seeds, sitting on a pool of yoghurt and garnished with greens

I had the sesame marinated tofu to start, and it just lacked flavour. It was a big piece of tofu with a lovely texture and a good sesame seed coating. As we all know, getting your marinade into a big piece of tofu is not easy and it just didn’t taste of much. It was served on a soy and lime yoghurt sauce, and this also didn’t really deliver enough flavour.

A cream sauce topped with mashed potatoes, asparagus, and various garnishes

In classic fine dining style, the dishes are mostly just a list of ingredients so I didn’t know what to expect from the mains (except probably the bowl of pasta). I went for the hazelnut mashed potatoes and was a bit underwhelmed again. The issue probably is that mashed potatoes are just not that exciting, so I’m willing to hold my hands up and admit I probably chose poorly. The tamari and rooibos sauce was pleasant and got good when I got a nice hit of the wholegrain mustard too. The white asparagus sitting on top of the mashed potato was fine, I don’t have strong feelings about asparagus. Maybe it was great asparagus but it didn’t do much for me. Bits of hazelnut added a crunch. I was disappointed to find the mushrooms on the dish were a few raw slices. I always prefer my mushrooms cooked.

A deep glass pot of creme brulee topped with berries

For dessert I got a creme brulee topped with some completely unnecessary goji berries. It was a hearty deep pot of creme brulee, which unfortunately meant the caramelised top to custard ratio was not what I had hoped for. The top was nice and sweet and crispy but it was already broken up so I didn’t get the chance to break my way in. The custard itself was well set but I would have preferred it to be a bit sweeter.

I had a bottled drink of fizzy cherry, verbena and lavender, which was nice. The flavours were good and it wasn’t very sweet, which worked well.

A pond in the park surrounded by greenery

Earlier in the day, I had opted to spend a few hours strolling around Bois de Vincennes. The park is described as one of the “lungs of the city” and it made for a nice peaceful contrast to the hustle and bustle of being in the city in the morning. It’s a huge space and I only explored a fraction of it. I took a nice leisurely walk around one of the lakes, enjoying the views and the birdsong. There were quite a lot of peacocks running loose so I spent some of my time watching them from a suitable distance, which sadly cannot be said for everyone as there was one person right up in their faces taking pictures. I could happily have spent most of my day here if I hadn’t already had various meals and exhibitions planned.

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Vegan in Paris: Jah Jah

A plate of cauliflower wings and a mixed plate with loads of different things on it

(Dr HH continues to talk us through his solo trip to Paris.)

After a good few hours of touristing on a full belly of pastries, I was starting to get hungry and headed back towards my hotel to eat at Jah Jah. I’ve not got a lot of experience with Afro Caribbean food and have very few opportunities to get this, with there being nothing vegan readily available in Prague. I’m always keen to try but also have no real frame of reference to whether it is a good version of this cuisine.

A plate with lots of different things on it, including skewers, rice, salads, and something that looks like stew

I ordered a mixed plate of the day and a side of cauliflower wings. The mixed plate had some Attieke, which was made from cassava and felt very similar to couscous. There was a tempeh and red pepper barbeque skewer. The sauce was good and I’m never going to complain about some tempeh. The boiled yam and plantain were both fine, there wasn’t a lot of flavour from the yam but it worked with the other sauces and flavoursome things. There was some coleslaw and some salady bits which added some textures and a bit of sharpness. The saka saka was possibly the best thing on the plate, it was well seasoned spinach with some beans in there.

A plate of cauliflower wings with a crispy looking coating and a pot of sauce

The cauliflower wings were very good. They were really tender and the coating was crisp and nicely flavoured. I think there was some coconut in the coating which worked really with the sauces it came with.

I had a nice ginger and passion fruit drink to wash everything down with too.

One of the big draws for my trip to Paris was the Paris Noir exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. This was celebrating the influence of Black artists on art in Paris and it was an excellent exhibition. I’ve spent plenty of time in big European galleries and the only person of colour I have ever seen really highlighted was when I saw a Basquiat exhibition, so this exhibition was a welcome change to the norm. Sadly, the galleries with the great permanent collection were closed but the one of the other exhibitions was also good fun and this all made for a good couple of hours of afternoon art.

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Vegan in Paris: Land and Monkeys, Les Halles

Two pastries on a tray

(More from Dr HH on his solo trip to Paris last year.)

On my first full day I was up bright and early to get breakfast at Land and Monkeys – Les Halles before I went to Notre Dame. Land and Monkeys has about 10 branches in Paris now and they are famed for serving delicious sweet treats. Pastries were one of the main reasons I took this trip to Paris. I came here for breakfast twice.

The inside of a cinnamon roll, with lots of spice and sugar running through it

On my first trip I got a cinnamon roll that was more like a cinnamon knot. It was lovely and soft inside, with a good crust on the outside. Some of the edges were gloriously crispy. The flavour was great too, well balanced without being too sweet or too strongly spiced.

The inside of the tart showing layers of pastry, cream, and pistachio

I also got the azahar which just looked too good to turn down. There was a buttery pastry case that crumbled perfectly as you put a spoon through it. There was a pistachio frangipane type thing in the base and a layer of meringue. There was a pistachio cream in the middle on the top. It tasted good and the textures were great, but the flavours didn’t really wow me. I’d have liked a bit more of a pistachio hit. I got a cafe latte to drink that was nice and a decent sized cup.

I went back another day and got the citrus and meringue tart and a babka roll. The tart had the same great pastry as the azahar and the filling had a good consistency and was good and sharp. There was also sweetness from the lemon filling and the meringue to make a well balanced treat.

The babka roll was a lot like a classic cinnamon roll but with lots of hazelnuts in there. It was perfectly baked and had a great light texture with a nice bit of crust on the outside.

A chocolate cookie topped with sticky caramel and nuts

I got a couple of the peanut caramel chocolate cookies to take away as a treat for Ms. HH on my return to Prague. They were quite decadent. The cookie was very soft and the sticky nutty filling on top made for a good treat. I enjoyed all the food and would love to go back and try some more things. Everything on display looked great.

Notre Dame was a relatively short walk from the bakery and I took a nice scenic walk along the river with a little detour past the glass pyramid of the Louvre. I’d managed to book a slot relatively easily online about a week before my visit. It was absolutely heaving and not a particularly relaxing activity. It’s an impressive building and I was glad to see it rebuilt and open. As usual with cathedrals, my favourite things are always the fun stained glass windows. There was also what appeared to be some sort of baguette baking competition going on outside. Could there be anything more quintessentially French than a famous landmark and a competition for baking baguettes all in the same scene?

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Vegan in Paris: Le Daily Syrien Veggie

A large plate with one big falafel in the middles, surrounded by two stuffed vine leaves, some tabbouleh, and various dips

Hello! Dr. HH here making a return and I’ll be at the wheel for a few weeks. At the start of May last year, I had a few days off and decided to take a long weekend trip to Paris. Ms. HH was unfortunately still stuck at her desk so I was flying solo this time. It’s been a few years since we’d last been to Paris so I was curious to see how the food scene had changed.

On my first day I arrived in the early evening on the 1st of May. This is taken very seriously as a holiday in France so the hotel staff were a bit unsure about how many places would be open for a meal in the evening. There was no need to worry as the area near the hotel was buzzing with open eateries and many of them were all vegan or at the very least vegan friendly.

My first spot for food was Le Daily Syrien Veggie. I believe there are a few branches in this chain around the city, all with a slightly different name and serving slightly different things.

A large plate with one big falafel in the middles, surrounded by two stuffed vine leaves, some tabbouleh, and various dips

I had the vegan plate which consisted of falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, mousakka, moujadara, courgette caviar, vine leaves, and a pile of flatbread. There was one big falafel, it was crisp and well seasoned. The moussaka was excellent, with really well seasoned meaty aubergine in a tomato sauce. From the dips, the courgette caviar was my favourite, packed with flavour. The remaining dips were tasty too. The vine leaves were good and felt similar to others I’ve had in the past. There were nice bits of pickled vegetables and pomegranate seeds on the plate for little bursts of extra flavour. This was served with lots of flat bread to mop everything up. It felt like good value for 16 euros.

A plate with several pieces of flatbread

I also ordered makdous as I can’t resist the opportunity to get those when I have the chance. They were delicious, the aubergine was really soft and had a good sharpness from the pickling. They were well stuffed with plenty of walnuts and the whole thing was bursting with flavour.

A plate of makdous, small pickled aubergine stuffed with walnuts. The dish is on a bed of salad and garnished with pomegranate seeds.

I got a lemonade with orange blossom to drink. This was really good, it was quite sharp with a bit of a floral note from the orange blossom. They also brought over a bottle of water to drink too.

It was very busy when I went but service was still very quick, I guess it helps that almost everything I had was a cold dish ready to be plated up.

The vegan plate is labelled as vegan (obviously) but the individual items are not clearly labelled. If you’re ordering individual dishes from the menu, it might be a good idea to check. 

This was a great hearty meal that was perfect after hours in airports and transit.

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Top Ten of 2025

As always, I’ve been spoiled for good food in 2025! Across Switzerland, Tokyo, Kyoto, London, and Berlin, I’ve enjoyed some sensational dishes. And the Prague scene is pulling its weight too with delicious options. So here are this year’s greatest hits, in no particular order.

Bakery Bakery, Zürich, Basel, Bern

The cheese tarts at various branches of Bakery Bakery are truly the stuff of dreams. They fuelled us on our week of football in Switzerland, along with numerous other delicious items from this all vegan bakery. Read more here.

A cheese pastry tart

Eaternia, Prague

This casual canteen has become one of our favourite spots in Prague, with it’s incredible selection of cakes and exciting specials. A special mention goes to their ambitious St Martin’s Day goose. Read the full review here.

Two contrasting piles of cabbage, a big chunk of mock meat, some folded potato pancakes, and a rich gravy

Gives a Fork, Geneva

Our favourite restaurant in Geneva was this vegetarian spot with exciting vegan options. The dishes were creative and flavoursome – a bright light in an otherwise somewhat underwhelming vegan scene. More here.

Six pani puri with an assortment of sauces

Vegan Sushi Tokyo, Tokyo

My time in Tokyo usually focuses on ramen, but it’s always fun to try something different and the sushi plate at this new-ish restaurant was quite the treat. Each piece is different, and the tuna was particularly good. Read the full report here.

A plate of multiple sushi pieces, each one different

Gauthier Soho, London

We like to splurge on a trip to Gauthier Soho whenever we visit London for some all-vegan fine dining. As always, the food was amazing this time. Some of the highlights were the brioche with whipped feta, potato dauphinois with a savoury sauce, blue cheese tartlet, and cherry and beetroot dessert. What a treat!

Brammibals, Berlin

The best vegan donuts in the world? Quite possibly! From the regular menu to the monthly specials, everything looks and tastes fantastic, and the dough is pillowy soft. Read more here.

Two milky hot drinks and two doughnuts

The Tavern, Prague

My usual Friday night takeaway is burger and chips from the best spot in Prague, The Tavern. It’s not fully vegan, but has really great vegan options, including the magic mushroom truffle and Swiss burger which is my absolute favourite. The fries are nicely seasoned too, and they recently added a vegan cake to the menu.

A basket containing a burger and fries

Vegan and Gluten Free Osaka, Osaka

This spot didn’t get its own post in 2025 as we’d already visited in 2024 (mentioned here) – but we were fonder of it this year than last and it earned a spot on this list. It serves veganised traditional Japanese dishes including okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and kushikatsu. Everything was delicious and really special.

Okonomiyaki

Vegan Ramen Uzu Kyoto, Kyoto

I wasn’t going to include this place because it would be two years in a row in the top ten – but fair is fair. I love the art, but it’s not just style over substance – the dishes are delicious as well. Read the full report here.

A bowl of ramen

Okja, London

It’s been an exciting year for pastries! This fully vegan bakery in London was an absolute delight, and the hot chocolate was not too shabby either. Full review here.

A box of four pastries

I’m excited to discover what awaits in 2026! Thanks for reading along!

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Cookbook of the Year: The Korean Vegan

Hardback cover of the cookbook The Korean Vegan

Last Christmas, I gave Dr HH a cookbook and selection of Korean pastes and seasonings so we could spend the year enjoying tasty Korean food. We found Korea the least exciting culinary destination on our trip to east Asia last summer, but we’re not giving up on this cuisine yet! Armed with Joanne Lee Molinaro’s The Korean Vegan, we have tried a lot of new (to us) dishes and broadened our understanding of typical Korean meals.

We didn’t make anything from the sections: basics, breads, and kimchi and salads. Here’s what we did try.

Banchan (Side Dishes)

Gamja Jorim (Braised Potatoes)

Rice topped with big potato chunks and chopped vegetables in a sauce

While we fantasised about making a full feast with an array of banchan, which we loved so much in Korea, we actually just made one dish from this section and served it as a main instead. It made for quite a quick and easy dish for lunch, scaled up a bit and served with some rice. The potatoes were nice and soft, with a few tasty vegetables, all in a sweet and savoury sauce. Like a lot of dishes in this book, our version looked a bit saucier than the pictures.

Soups and Stews

Spicy Doenjang Chigae (Fermented Soy Bean Stew)

Rice with cubes of tofu and small pieces of vegetables in a beige sauce

I followed this recipe exactly, though I possibly diced my potatoes too small – I made my potatoes, courgette, and onion the same size, but the recipe later referred to taking 20 minutes to cook through the potato, which means the pieces should have been larger. I enjoyed this texture though, and have stuck to it on subsequent attempts. It was a tasty dish. The doenjang (which I’d never tried before) reminded me a bit of miso and was quite nice combined with the spicier seasonings. This time, my version was significantly less saucy than the picture in the book – partly because I cooked it in advance and then reheated it later. I’ve made this several times, switching now from firm to silken tofu due to personal preference. It’s a nice easy stew for a work night.

Soondooboo Chigae (Silken Tofu Stew)

Rice topped with silken tofu, courgette slices, and a spicy looking sauce with flecks of red

This one was spicy! It was also easy to make. I used regular courgette rather than the recommended hobak, and a stock cube rather than homemade vegetable broth. The only real seasoning is the gochugaru, which brings a lot of heat. I loved the silken tofu, and the other vegetables were tasty, plus it was very easy to just chuck it all together. I have toned down the spiciness on subsequent occasions, but Dr HH loved this first iteration!

Noodles and Pastas

Jjajangmyun (Black Soybean Noodles)

Noodles topped with vegetables and tempeh in a very dark sauce with cucumber sticks

This recipe could be more specific – it calls for “half a soy fillet”, and suggests alternatives to this such as tempeh but no sense of quantity. How big is a soy fillet?! I did use tempeh, but wasn’t sure how much to chuck in, and it broke up quite a lot. The recipe also calls for tiny quantities of cabbage and courgette, which feels a bit wasteful and requires further planning for using up the rest of the veg. It’s so hard to see the dish in this photo in the book: it’s dark food in a dark bowl on a dark background. Help me out a bit, I want to get a sense of how the dish looks while I’m working on it!

Bar and Street Food

Curried Tteokbokki Skewers

Tteokbokki with strips of vegetables in a thick beige sauce

Dr HH loves tteokbokki, so he was excited to try this. He didn’t skewer them, and we lack a good griddle pan, so he just served them in the sauce. It was a tasty sauce, well flavoured. It was also easy to make. He found that the suggested amount of vegetables was very small (a common theme) and added more peppers and onions to the pan when cooking to bring a bit more variety to the plate.

Cheesy Hotteok (Fried Stuffed Pancakes)

Three small thick pancakes with rings of onion embedded

These were delicious, one of the highlights of the book! This was another one for Dr HH. He was a little bit skeptical about the cheesy filling made from potatoes carrots and vegan cheese, but it worked very well. They were relatively easy to make, and he prepared them in advance and heated them in the oven at meal time. There was a good crisp outer, they were fluffy inside, and the cheesy filling melted and oozed nicely. The onions pressed into the bottom of the pancake added a nice bit of extra texture and flavour. He never got round to making the sweet ones, despite having his eye on them. Fingers crossed for 2026!

Main Dishes

Mapo Dooboo (Mapo Tofu)

Rice topped with chunks of tofu in a beany sauce

I can’t resist a mapo tofu! This differed a little from my usual recipe in that it didn’t include any Sichuan peppers. Instead, the gochugaru added some spiciness and red colouring. I found it a bit too spicy, but it was perfect for Dr HH, and I would definitely make it again. I followed the recipe, but doubled the amount of shiitakes, for fun, and I don’t regret it as they were really fun and peppery.

Kkanpoong Tofu – spicy crunchy garlic tofu

Rice topped with chunks of tofu in a sticky dark sauce

This dish consists of nice crispy tofu in a spicy sauce, and Dr HH served it with rice. It was very tasty and hit the common notes of a bit sweet and a bit spicy.

Mushroom galbi

Strips of mushroom and vegetables in a light sauce on top of rice

Dr HH made a batch of Omma’s BBQ sauce to use in several dishes, starting with this one. It was easy to make, as he just had to blitz a load of ingredients and then simmer it for a bit. Again, without a griddle pan we didn’t manage to get any char on the mushrooms. And again, we added extra vegetables compared to recipe suggestions.

Bulgogi

Rice topped with mock meat and green peppers in a sauce

Tasty stuff again using the BBQ sauce. Dr HH used a lot more sauce and vegetables (again), so it looks very different to the dish in the book, but it was tasty and pretty easy to make overall.

Lasagne with Gochujang Red Sauce

A huge dish of lasagna

This was an endeavour! The recommendation is to make various components before the day of cooking as there is a lot to do. Dr HH spent almost a week of his summer holiday bringing this together, and fortunately it was a labour of love. The components were: oven roasted tomatoes, roasted courgettes, red sauce, avocado bechamel, tofu ricotta, mushroom filling (which involves Omma’s Korean BBQ sauce again), and some roasted doenjang-glazed onions (found in the banchan section). It was a lot of work but the end result was delicious. The Korean flavours worked throughout the dish. It was a bit sweet and a bit spicy, and the mushrooms made a satisfying filling.

Dooboo Jorim (Braised Tofu)

Rice topped with several slices of tofu and lots of garnishes

This dish has some things in common with the crunchy garlic tofu. A lot of the flavours were quite similar, but the tofu didn’t have the same crispy coating. There are also a few more vegetables in the mix, and as usual Dr HH added more as there always seem to be so few in the recipes. This used the spicy soy sauce dressing from the basics section, which was soy sauce with a few extra bits added to make it more fun. This one was nice, but not an instant classic like some of the others.

Sweets

Chocolate Chip Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies

I find myself a bit reluctant to try red bean sweet dishes when I’ve travelled to east Asia, because beans just don’t sound dessert-appropriate to me. But I have had them and I know it works! I bought a packet of red bean paste so I could try a couple of the sweet dishes. For these cookies, I followed the recipe exactly, but the method said to remove them from the oven after 11 minutes when they still looked underdone, so I kept them in longer. The recipe suggests that the red beans makes the cookies lighter and chewier. They felt quite heavy to me, though they were chewy. They had a really nice crispiness to the outside which I liked, but they won’t be replacing my go-to cookie recipe any time soon.

Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Marble Cake

A loaf cake

Continuing on with my packet of red bean paste! I made this as a loaf rather than the recommend bundt cake, and baked it for 45 minutes rather than 50-55 as recommended, as it looked done. I couldn’t get the milk and vinegar to curdle, but the mixture curdled when it was added, so maybe that’s alright. The paste doesn’t actually create much of a marble effect, and the recipe calls for red food colouring to achieve it, which I didn’t use. Without food colouring, it’s not a very dramatic colour contrast at all. It’s a tasty cake and a nice sponge, but not mind-blowing and again I’m not totally sure what the red beans are adding.

Verdict

I really enjoyed this book, and we plan to continue using it next year – trying some more recipes and revisiting some of our favourites. In general, we added more vegetables to every dish to make it more substantial and avoid waste. We didn’t need too many specialist ingredients – there’s a lot you could make without ordering online. It was nice to try a diverse range of Korean dishes, when I feel like in the past I haven’t seen that many different options on menus. I would definitely recommend this, it’s not as daunting as you might expect and there are loads of fairly straightforward rice-veg-tofu dishes that are flavoursome and easy to whip up. I think we’ll spend a bit more time exploring this book before we try the author’s newest publication, but it’s definitely on my radar.

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