Lovers of Mookata will know that there is one singular ingredient that distinguishes it from the likes of Japanese Yakiniku, Korean barbecue and Chinese steamboat.
It is an ingredient commonly found in South East Asian cooking.
It reveals a distinctive fragrance especially when tossed about with other ingredients in a Chinese wok.
And if you follow the halal or kosher diet, very sorry, this ingredient is completely out of bounds for you.
Unless (ahem) you *happen* to be one of those who doesn't really care about the ingredients and/or you choose not to recognize what those chunks of white stuff on top of the grille are.
I can't say whether or not it is the right thing to do- different people live their lives by different rules.
What I can say, however, is that those chunks of white stuff make up the foundation of Thai Mookata, and it is a primary ingredient for your entire meal. Whether it be for the grilled foods on top of the dome, or the boiled foods in the moat below, lard is central to your entire meal.
Thai Mookata became a genuine hipster thing in Singapore about two years or so ago, and whilst there are a good number of places around the country that serve up this ubiquitous Thai experience, it is this place on the second floor of Golden Mile Complex that frequently catches my eye.
Called Y Cube, it sits right next to the upriding escalator, and is unmistakably the only place in the building that carries a millennial vibe, contrasting strongly with the others which have more of a street food vibe.
It really doesn't matter which Mookata place you go to, honestly, they have their little differences (like cheese!) but I'd think they are more or less the same.
Just follow your heart.
Or your stomach.
Whichever works.
We have an established pattern that we seem to adhere to each time we are at Y Cube.
I start with grabbing the utensils and a couple of empty plates to do up the table setting. Yes, order is important to me. Next, I place a couple of those white chunks on top of the grille. It takes some time for the grille to heat up and for those white chunks to start melting, so off I go to get the drinks and the vegetables.
Meanwhile, my companion would have been traipising back and forth with platters of beef, chicken, pork and crayfish, and so whilst I head off to get the corn, the mushrooms, the lettuce and the seaweed, my companion works the half melted white chunks around the dome of the grille.
The grille won't be hot enough yet for a couple of minutes, so whilst more chunks get smothered over the grille, I go get the prawns, the cuttlefish balls, the fish balls and the cheese tofu.
Yes, they're all for the soup- lettuce included.
I dunk some of them in, never mind whether the fat from the white chunks is already flowing down- I can taste it afterwards.
Now is the time for the meats.
So in a round robin of beef, pork and chicken, we eat whatever catches our fancy, or whatever gets cooked first. Sometimes it is the pork, sometimes it is the beef. It depends. My companion does the cooking. I do the eating.
In between I go to top up our drinks. There're soft drinks on tap, but in recent times there's also been Thai milk tea, so with us being sticklers for a full and complete experience, we skip the Sprite and get glasses of iced Thai milk tea.
More food tends to appear on my plate in the time that I am gone, including rings of fresh cuttlefish, so I spend the rest of my time dividing up my meal between bites of meat, perfectly grilled crayfish, and spoonfuls of (lard-flavored) soup filled with lettuce and seaweed.
Vegetables are wonderful during buffets- not so much for feeling healthier- but their fiber aids in digestion and I've found I feel less stuffed at the end of a meal when I take lettuce compared to the times when I don't.
For the same reason at Mookata I usually eschew the carbs for protein. Fried samosas and instant noodles are not that hard to find elsewhere compared to good marinated meats that I get to grill with the oil of pork fat.
What charms us about this place is that they do have a fair bit of variety. I cannot recall what their offerings are- the food blogs would have the pictures- but I know I've had two different kinds of lettuce, fresh tofu, seaweed-wrapped fish cakes, Fuzhou fish balls and pieces of fresh fish. I don't take seafood so much, but I've seen crabs and other kinds of shellfish (mussels?) for those who do.
We usually finish off the meal with bowls of ice cream two scoops each (because there are four flavors and we are kiasu kiasee like that). I take strawberry and paddle pop, or cookies and cream. My companion takes chocolate and cookies and cream.
Called Y Cube, it sits right next to the upriding escalator, and is unmistakably the only place in the building that carries a millennial vibe, contrasting strongly with the others which have more of a street food vibe.
It really doesn't matter which Mookata place you go to, honestly, they have their little differences (like cheese!) but I'd think they are more or less the same.
Just follow your heart.
Or your stomach.
Whichever works.
We have an established pattern that we seem to adhere to each time we are at Y Cube.
I start with grabbing the utensils and a couple of empty plates to do up the table setting. Yes, order is important to me. Next, I place a couple of those white chunks on top of the grille. It takes some time for the grille to heat up and for those white chunks to start melting, so off I go to get the drinks and the vegetables.
Meanwhile, my companion would have been traipising back and forth with platters of beef, chicken, pork and crayfish, and so whilst I head off to get the corn, the mushrooms, the lettuce and the seaweed, my companion works the half melted white chunks around the dome of the grille.
The grille won't be hot enough yet for a couple of minutes, so whilst more chunks get smothered over the grille, I go get the prawns, the cuttlefish balls, the fish balls and the cheese tofu.
Yes, they're all for the soup- lettuce included.
I dunk some of them in, never mind whether the fat from the white chunks is already flowing down- I can taste it afterwards.
Now is the time for the meats.
So in a round robin of beef, pork and chicken, we eat whatever catches our fancy, or whatever gets cooked first. Sometimes it is the pork, sometimes it is the beef. It depends. My companion does the cooking. I do the eating.
In between I go to top up our drinks. There're soft drinks on tap, but in recent times there's also been Thai milk tea, so with us being sticklers for a full and complete experience, we skip the Sprite and get glasses of iced Thai milk tea.
More food tends to appear on my plate in the time that I am gone, including rings of fresh cuttlefish, so I spend the rest of my time dividing up my meal between bites of meat, perfectly grilled crayfish, and spoonfuls of (lard-flavored) soup filled with lettuce and seaweed.
Vegetables are wonderful during buffets- not so much for feeling healthier- but their fiber aids in digestion and I've found I feel less stuffed at the end of a meal when I take lettuce compared to the times when I don't.
For the same reason at Mookata I usually eschew the carbs for protein. Fried samosas and instant noodles are not that hard to find elsewhere compared to good marinated meats that I get to grill with the oil of pork fat.
What charms us about this place is that they do have a fair bit of variety. I cannot recall what their offerings are- the food blogs would have the pictures- but I know I've had two different kinds of lettuce, fresh tofu, seaweed-wrapped fish cakes, Fuzhou fish balls and pieces of fresh fish. I don't take seafood so much, but I've seen crabs and other kinds of shellfish (mussels?) for those who do.
We usually finish off the meal with bowls of ice cream two scoops each (because there are four flavors and we are kiasu kiasee like that). I take strawberry and paddle pop, or cookies and cream. My companion takes chocolate and cookies and cream.