First things first, this Mookata meal you see here took place about three months ago.
July.
It had been planned to be a birthday celebration, and since my friend and I both missed Mookata, we decided to make it of an afternoon here at this coffee shop somewhere in Bedok North.
Mookata stalls in coffee shops have become a popular thing these past few years. Where at one time they were available only at Beach Road- the shopping center there- or at selected strata shopping malls, today they are at more convenient locations in equally fun spaces.
For us who don't know, Mookata is commonly known as the Thai version of a barbecue. But instead of a flat grill like how most barbecues are, theirs is in the shape of a dome with a moat running around the bottom of the dome.
How it works is that pork lard first gets placed all around the dome.
Your choice of food is then arranged all around the dome. As the food gets cooked, the natural oils, together with the pork lard, get mixed together and it all flows downwards the sides into the moat at the bottom where chicken stock soup is filled for you to boil whatever you wish to throw in.
It is your choice whether you want to make a BBQ of your meats or a shabu shabu out of it.
It is also your choice whether you want to grill your prawns or boil them in the soup for sweeter taste.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to the etiquette of Mookata dining.
It is just so long as the pot allows it.
Perhaps the spirit of harmony and self-awareness is what this meal embodies.
Our choice of the Mookata meal this afternoon here at Bedok North was meat.
All meat.
They had seafood in the chiller, yes, and maybe at another time I might have considered going for the prawns and crabs and fish, but today I was quite contented with the variety of meats available.
I am not much of an adventurous diner when it comes to Mookata, by the way.
Most of the ingredients I take are the regular, almost boring ones, the kind that anyone and everyone will eat.
So here's how our pot looked like this afternoon.
This is a very colorful pot.
Much more colorful than I thought it would be.
I think it might have been because I kept making sure the top and sides were continually filled up.
On the top of the domed grill there were pieces of meat both marinated and unmarinated. I'm not sure if we got beef or pork or chicken, but I think it were mostly pork. There were a couple of pieces with black pepper. There were also other pieces with spicy marination.
Right in the middle of the grill on the very top of the dome was a little foil dish holding two different kinds of cheese.
We watched it slowly melt whilst we picked food off the grill and ate.
Cheese and meat do go very well together.
Never mind whether you slather them on or not.
Down below in the moat were a whole bunch of vegetables floating around.
They had been specially chosen.
Lettuce and Chinese cabbage are my choice of vegetables when it comes to hotpot and Mookata. When available, I go for the big lettuce leaves. If not, I go for whatever's available.
This place today didn't have the big lettuce leaves I liked (the kind that look like big trees)
But they had lots of cabbage and other vegetables, including carrots, potatoes, bean curd skins, radishes, broccoli, sweet corn and mushrooms of all kinds. Green leafy vegetables they had included the cai xin or nai bai- I can't remember which was which- but I took one of them.
I am not a fan of their stems- they are rather hard sometimes- but I like them when they are thoroughly boiled and softened. I like them when flavored with the spice of the meats- it takes away the green- and this afternoon I tried them dipped in melted cheese.
Surprisingly they tasted well together.
In the moat too, there were other ingredients- the usual ones that many of us put inside our hotpots.
This afternoon I had chosen a couple of cheese tofu pieces, a ladleful of quail eggs, some bean curd skins, and a few of the ball balls. Quail eggs are a favorite food of mine. Doesn't matter whether they are eaten sweet or savory. I like them anywhere, anytime.
I also took a fancy to the cheese tofu. There are some places where the tofu has more tofu than cheese but the ones here were soft, their filling almost lava like after I bit into them.
Then, on a whim, I decided to have the purple potato noodles I saw on the shelf. Opened the packet, broke it into half, and dunked it inside the moat. The noodles took a bit longer to cook, but they were soft and slightly QQ the way I like them after I picked them out from the soup.
To my surprise they weren't salty.
And I liked the color.
So pretty (and contrasting a color) they looked inside my bowl with the green vegetables and the spiced meat.
Unfortunately I did not get to finish all the noodles.
Although I tried.
You know, I am really thankful for the time we have had here at this Mookata place here in Bedok North.
Just one little Ehm to say.
I love ice cream as a dessert.
And it would have been perfect had they included ice cream of any sort as part of their dessert, but no matter, they did their best. On a homemade type of tray, there were cute little (smushed up) Swiss roll cakes of different flavors, including Earl Grey, and fresh watermelon slices that made for a wonderful end to the meal.