Messy Vegan Cook

27/08/2026

August is always the hardest month to sell supper club tickets (and for London food businesses generally), which is a shame because it's my favourite month for supper clubs. It's when the Thai herbs and Sida tomatoes are at their peak in my garden, providing the brightest and most fresh flavours of the year.

The menu from last weekend's vegan Thai supper club in my wee East London home (complete with new porch):

Pad cha luk chin: herbal fish ball and green bean stir fry with finger root and Thai basil.

Ka hed hom pad bai yee ra: shiitake stem jerky stir fried with Shan (Tai Yai) style seasoning and tree basil.

Gaeng tae po: Sweet and sour water spinach and faux fish coconut red curry. I make the fish from tofu, pea protein, TVP, and potato starch.

Tam khao poht yang + kanom jeen: Isaan style som tam with pla ra jay (fermented vegan fish paste), with smoked grilled corn and extruded rice noodles. I threw some lemon basil in too.

Pla kem tod gati: crispy faux fish and coconut relish with fresh garlic, shallot, chillies. I'd been wanting to serve this one for awhile, but it didn't suit prior menus. Typically I build each menu around a curry, but this time I built the menu around this dish. It's a signature dish of Yai Puad restaurant in Chumphon, which I've never had because ya'll I'm vegan. Thankfully Thai internet provided the recipe basics so I could formulate a vegan version. It's a relatively time-consuming dish, because you've got to cook a lot coconut milk until it breaks and becomes oily, before frying the "fish" until it's crispy. Palm sugar at the end for caramelised sweetness.

Pad prik pao moo sap tao hoo: tofu with chilli jam and vegan pork mince. This one isn't featured in the reel (my priority is cooking and hosting, not collecting media, so I don't always capture everything) but it's a favourite. It's got a flavour profile most people love – sweet, sour, toasty, umami.

Khao neow naa sankaya: coconut pandan glutinous rice with custard topping. Mega thanks to .vegan for the custard recipe. It's perfect.

05/08/2026

When I plan my Thai supper club menus, I'm always drawn to themes and dishes that people may not have encountered before and that London Thai restaurants are less likely to offer. My most recent supper club explored the food traditions of Thailand's Muslim communities.

The full supper club menu included:

Mashed potato fritters (man farang bot tod มันฝรั่งบดทอด). Not pictured anywhere in the reel. Steamed potatoes, TVP, chilli powder, spring onion, and salt, fried and served with a sweet and sour tamarind dip.

Vegan beef satay (neua satay เนื้อสะเต๊ะ). In my opinion, satay is one of the most misunderstood dishes in the Thai culinary repertoire because of its association with peanut sauce. Satay is a style of preparation in which a protein is threaded onto skewers and grilled over charcoal. It's not an adjective for peanut sauce, which is simply one accompaniment to satay.

Southern style curry noodles (kway teow gaeng ก๋วยเตี๋ยวแกง). Less familiar than khao soi is kway teow gaeng, a mellow coconut curry noodle soup served with rice noodles and an array of toppings, including turmeric tofu, bean sprouts, preserved radish, ground peanuts, coriander, spring onion, and crispy fried shallots. As with many Thai noodle dishes, it's accompanied by the standard caddy of noodle condiments.

Muslim Thai biryani (khao mok g*i ข้าวหมกไก่) is one of Thailand's most well known Muslim dishes, now a firmly established part of generalised Thai food culture. It's served with ajad (a sweet and sour quick pickle) and a vibrant green sauce made with chillies, mint, coriander, and spring onion that helps to cut through the richness of the dish.

La sae (ละแซ) is a little known noodle dish from the Muslim communities of Southern Thailand. The dish is comprised of freshly steamed rice noodle sheets, rolled, and cut into bite sized pieces (chee cheong fun style). These are served with a mild coconut and vegan fish broth and a selection of fresh vegetables and herbs.

Kanom lopatigae (ขนมลอปะตีแก) is made with rice flour, pandan leaves, and slaked lime water. Thi

02/07/2026

From my last gap khao / khao gaeng supper club featuring vegan Thai recipes I've gathered and developed over the years (and years).

First we've got gratong tong, or golden cups, filled with pad gaprao from dried shiitake mushroom stems.

Next is vegan pork belly stir fried with a sweet and savoury, fried garlic heavy "fish" sauce.

Then nam prik makrut, or chilli relish made with makrut limes. It's not often there's a chance to actually cook with the juice of the limes, which is quite bitter. Served with vegan pork rinds and crudités.

Moving on, there's som tam with green papaya, glass noodles, and fresh strawberries.

Then a yellow curry modelled after a version I seek out in Phuket each year.

Meet tom klong, one of Thailand's best soups (IMO). It's smoky, hot and sour.

Moving on, we've got green beans stir fried with nam prik kua sai, a chilli paste made with lots of crispy fried garlic and tua nao (fermented dried, toasted soy discs commonly used in Northern Thai cuisine).

Last is wibblywobbly kanom chan, made by steaming individual layers of a starch based slurry. Two flavours: one is pandan and one is nom maew (which has a bubblegum adjacent flavour).

My next supper club, this month, will feature a Muslim Thai menu. It's already sold out, but pop yourself on my mailing list at kippysnacks.co.uk to be the first to hear of events as soon as they're launched. Subscribers get 24 hours' advance notice before I announce on social media.

18/05/2026

Pad kanom keen ผัดขนมจีน

Extruded rice noodles soaked in black and white/thin soy sauces, seasoning sauce, and sugar, stir fried with garlic and shallot oil. Served with crispy fried shallots and garlic, spring onions, and coriander.

This is a Northern style dish, so it's heavier on salt and umami than the central Thai recipes that lead to the trope that Thai food is always a balance of salty/sweet/sour/spicy.

in Bangkok does a great version of this dish. The restaurant is a little far from central, but it's well worth the trip.

21/04/2026

Last weekend I hosted my rare vegan Thai noodles supper club menu, with a menu including boat noodles, kanom jeen (indigenous curry rice noodles), and sarim (mung bean noodles with jasmine syrup and coconut milk).

I try to serve Thai foods you're less likely to find in restaurants outside of Thailand (especially vegan versions). All of the noodles mentioned above are common in the kingdom, but for whatever reason are not so easy to find here in the UK. Costs, time, and storage are likely culprits, but having a small scale intimate production in my London home means I'm in a position to share these kinds of dishes.

For 24 hours advance notice of all events, sign up for my mailing list at kippysnacks.co.uk. Some events sell out fully from subscribers alone, before I even get a chance to announce them publicly.

18/03/2026

'sup everyone! Due to last minute cancellation I've got a ticket available for this Saturday's Tai Yai (Shan Thai) vegan supper club.

Tai Yai (Shan Thai) supper club Shan Thai foods merge elements of traditional Thai cuisine with Burmese seasonings and rustic preparations. Tomatoes, turmeric, flavoured oils, and fermented soy products feature heavily. Scroll for menu. Click here to buy ticketsSell tickets online with Ticket Tailor...

24/02/2026

From my most recent vegan Thai supper club in my East London home. The menu was Southern Thai in focus, with a whole lot of the vegan shrimp paste I hoard from my annual trips to Thailand.

Thank you to all of my lovely customers. It's corny to say, but you all really keep me going.

I'll hopefully find some semblance of organisation to announce new dates within the next few . Probably Tai Yai (Shan Thai). Join my mailing list to get advance notice of any dates. Don't worry; I'm too lazy to spam you.

03/02/2026

Pink fermented tofu noodle soup • Yentafo เย็นตาโฟ

If I could only eat one thing at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, this might be it.

If you've heard or read anything I have to say about yentafo, you'll already know I'm extremely fussy. If the seasoning is neon pink I'll keep on walking. What I'm looking for is a salmon coloured tare, flecked with bits of white from the most essential ingredient: fermented tofu (too hoo yee เต้าหู้ยี้).

When I complained of the difficulty of finding it in Bangkok, the yentafo dealer I return to year after year in Phuket, during the annual Vegetarian Festival, said to me "yes, it's hard to find in Bangkok because the locals there prefer a less pungent broth, but the South is different."

She sets up across from Jui Tui Shrine, out front of a bricks and mortar drinks vendor, from around 10am and has been there for the past several years. Toppings are generous and it's my favourite bowl of yentafo money can buy. The only thing missing, as it is from all jay เจ food, is fried garlic oil.

#อาหารเจ

27/01/2026

Filled rice noodle rolls with sweet soy gravy (kway teow lod song kruang ก๋วยเตี๋ยวหลอดทรงเครื่อง)
from just outside of Tha Rua shrine in Thalang during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival in October 2025.

This isn't a dish I order often because I've had too many bowls in the past with one-dimensional-y sweet gravy, but I knew my husband (his first time attending the festival) would enjoy it. The vendor could have been more generous with the filling, but the balance in flavours was perfect. Sweet (but not enough to overpower other elements), crunchy, silky, comforting.

21/01/2026

Set foot inland, away from the beaches, and it doesn't take long to realise Phuket's identity is both Thai and distinctly something else entirely. Food wise, you'll find plenty of national and regional classics. What you'll also find, and you can especially see this during the annual vegetarian festival, is how much this place has fostered its Chineseness since so many Southern Chinese people migrated for work in the Island's storied past.

Keng Tin is one of the first shops I hit up when I arrive in Phuket Town each year. They sell a variety of Phuketian-Hokkien snacks and sweets, many of which are vegan (or they at least make them vegan during the festival; I'm not sure). A lot of items sell out early in the first week, so I go in like a kid who cracked the secret of which neighbourhoods give you the most bang for your buck on Halloween. Huge sack, completely filled, an ear to ear smile.

#กินเจ