Cleveland Taco Guide: Foodhisattva's Bangkok Tacos Are A Local Vegan Standout

Type: Vegan/Vegetarian
Price: $11

Joshua Sias is obsessed with perfecting taco recipes. He and his wife, Frances Cheng, spent the better part of a decade creating, reworking and testing this recipe for pop-up events featuring appealing and (of course) delicious vegan food.

The Bangkok tacos, the most popular of its pop-up fare, has been among Foodhisattva’s bestselling dishes since they opened two summers ago. The taco base is a tempura cauliflower fried in a fragrant, massaman curry-infused batter made with coconut flour. It’s topped with a green papaya, carrot and red cabbage slaw, a variation on the papaya salad that’s a staple in Thai cuisine.

Sias’ is made vegan with mushrooms, Thai chiles, tamari and sour lime juice. He adds peanuts, a traditional element of massaman curry dishes, as a crunchy garnish, plus a little cilantro and sweet Thai chile sauce.

“Thai food is all about that balance between spicy, sweet and sour, and I wanted to be respectful of the cuisine,” Sias says. “It’s a good middle ground, flavor-wise — nothing overwhelming in any direction.” 2158 S. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights, 216-938-5675, foodhisattva.com

Click here to order up 30 of Cleveland’s best tacos. Plus, meet the Northeast Ohio restauranteurs mastering Cleveland’s new favorite dish.