YINGDEAW homemade - bake from heart
Address: Siam Square One (4th floor ), Bangkok 10330
Ice cream: 75 THB (roughly €1,90)
Best thing on the menu: homemade waffles - my personal
                                            fave: Strawberry Honey Lover)


Find them on Facebook (here)




To all the coconut lovers out there: Thailand is the place for you. Coconut pancake, coconut ice cream, coconut drink, coconut waffle, coconut cake - all coconut everything. As luck would have it, my friend A is madly obsessed with anything that contains the tiniest bit of coconut and proclaimed Thailand her personal heaven. And exactly that passionate and unconditional love for coconuts lead us right to my personal heaven: YINGDEAW homemade. 

Back in February, A and I attended a basic course at a traditional Thai cooking school, where we learned to make five different dishes and yes, you guessed it, two of them had coconut in them. You can imagine how happy A was - not even our cooking instructor could have overlooked the fact that she loves this particular drupe. On account of this, he gave us several tips on where to find his personal favorite coconut dishes in Bangkok. To make sure we actually get to the places he was talking about, he was kind enough to provide a note - only problem was: everything was written in hieroglyphs, uh, Thai. 

So, after a pathetic attempt of decoding, we had precisely two things on our to-find and eat list:
1) coconut pancakes at a local market just around the corner 
2) coconut cake at a cafe in a shopping mall

Long story short: the coconut pancakes are yet to be found and the coconut cake turned out to be rather disappointing. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was quite tasty, but it reminded me of the Austrian quark cake too much. Now you must think, we wasted a whole lot of time for nothing, but no! Right next to the notorious chain cafe that serves the oh-so-famous coconut cake, I spotted a cute little cafe that wanted to be checked out. And, oh, was it worth checking out!!

pure deliciousness
Not only do YINGDEAW homemade serve waffles satisfying every single taste bud in your entire body and a variety of homemade ice creams and cakes, but they also score with their friendly staff and their cosy atmosphere. Can someone please take me back?

So this story confirms once again this one old saying that - I'm pretty sure - goes something like this: "The best things in life you stumble upon while you are on a coconut hunt with your crazy coconut-loving friend." 

xx Lena


Photos taken in: Bangkok, Thailand

 The thing you need to know before coming to Estonia is this: they are not the most outgoing bunch, these Estonians. A tiny little detail that I just couldn’t wrap my head around when I first got here and one that I tend to ignore like a pro nowadays. After all, overwhelming them with all my joy and love was how I got most of my Estonian friends. The fact that it took quite some time to convince them that I am not a crazy person, on the other hand, is also something I like to ignore like a pro.

So you can imagine how weirded out Krõõt Kukkur, the funniest Estonian illustrator and designer I have met so far, was, when I found her booth at a design market and got a little too excited about her products. After our Papetri Paperworks post I’m sure all of you know that Lena and I take our designer hunts seriously. And that we can get a bit overjoyed when we find something we really like. Well, Krõõt didn’t know that. All she knew was that a random girl asked her out for coffee to talk some more about her designs after coming back to her booth a billion times and touching her amazing backpacks twice as much. Amazingly enough, she agreed to meet up with me anyways, once again proving that my approach of just overwhelming them with emotions can work sometimes.


Picture: coucou.ee

Speaking of overwhelming situations, I’ve spent the last two hours trying to figure out how to fit everything there is to say about the girl with the thick black stripe tattooed around her arm into one blogpost. Because to be honest, I wish I could just put our whole hilarious conversation up on here. During our one hour long chat a couple of things happened: 1) the sun was shining – worth mentioning because this doesn’t happen that often in Estonia. 2) I couldn’t stop laughing about her funny comments on her own life. 3) Turns out that Krõõt has the most random things to tell about herself. Exactly my kind of person. 

She carries a board game with her wherever she goes. Quit art school due to a lack of interest in perfectly parallel lines. Doesn’t consider herself a crazy cat lady but is scared of her own cats’ – who sometimes think they are dogs – anger. Loves making people uncomfortable with her postcard collection of road kills. Has the most amazing bike. Doesn’t only design backpacks and illustrates whatever she can – from beerbottles to CD-covers – but is also working on a career in the tattoo industry. (I’ve got a feeling I need to support that…) And she doesn’t care about marketing and promoting her products. She just creates. I think that’s my favorite thing about her. And that she made me feel better about being lazy sometimes. Apparently this happens to the best of us.

Picture: coucou.ee

But speaking of Krõõt’s creations: let’s “briefly” talk about why I got so excited when I found her booth. First of all, her illustrations are super cool. I know, that is probably the worst description you’ve ever heard. But in lack of the right art vocabulary, this is what you have to deal with for now. I’ll work on it. In any case, I’ll just give you a list of my favorite things in her collection:

  1. Her backpacks. Because they are completely made by herself. And because the inside is covered in one of Krõõt’s prints. And because they just look cool. Again, amazing vocabulary, Kathi.
  2. Her packs of cards. Because each card has a different illustration of some person’s face on it. And because the joker is a cat. And because every time I look at my pack – of course I bought one – I am reminded of that time when I was playing cards with Lena and her family – and L lost. Let’s just say she is not good at loosing. To be fair, I had been warned by her brother. And her mom. And her dad. So just take this as a warning from me. If you want to have a nice afternoon in the sun with L, don’t bring any games. Might ruin the atmosphere a bit. (I love you, Lena!)
  3. Her “Why did you cut down the tree…”-collection. Because she says she doesn’t fight for our planet being saved while she actually raises awareness with more than one of her collections. And because she does it in such an easy way. And because cute animals staring at you, asking you why you destroyed their home really does make you think.
Photo: coucou.ee

That was the longest and most rambling post I have written in a long time. I hope you got a glimpse of the awesome person behind the name Krõõt Kukkur. If you ever want to meet her, she works in one of Tallinn’s best restaurants. Not going to tell you which one, though. You’ll have to find out yourself. Or hit the next design market. Or check out her homepage or instagram and contact her on there. Don’t forget: Overwhelming them with emotions works best!

Have a lovely Monday, everybody!

xx Kathi

P.S.: Due to a lack of photographic skills I didn't feature any of the pictures I took of her. I want people to like me, after all.
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