Mookata literally means pan pot in Thailand, is a kind
of steamboat from Bangkok.
As seen from the picture, you grill the ingredients on
the center and the soup is at the circumference of the pan. Usually, pork lard
is used to grill the ingredients (and prevents the meat from sticking on the
pan), and basically all the oil from the meat will flow down to the soup,
enhancing the flavor of the soup. But, one more important aspect about Mookata
is the Thai spicy sauces!!!
I have been to a few mookata places and today the one I
am reviewing about this Mookata in Jurong West!
Bangkok Street Mookata!
Location: 4/5 (walkable distance from lakeside mrt, or
else you can take bus 49/335 and alight after Yuhua Sec Sch and walk there, if
you drive, there are a lot of HDB carparks around)
Price:
4.5/5
Food:
4/5
Service:
3.5-5 /5 (service was quite slow when it first started, but now, it is really
fast. Waiters are efficient too!)
Ambience:
It’s in a kopitiam (depends on yourself) and is really crowded with people
Here’s
the menu:
For
the sets, there is a set for 2 and a set for 4. I have tried both before and I
would say if you are here for the first time/ first time eating mookata, do try
out the set so you will know what you wanna order next time for ala carte. The
portion is enough for the number indicated if you are not a big eater. What we
usually do was that if 3 of us are eating, we will order a set for 2 then ala
carte a few more meat.
If you know what you want to order, do order the ala carte because i feel it's more worth it.
Meh…
Shisamo is a nono for me. I think it’s not a really wise
choice to include this in the menu, cos I really don’t fancy this fish, same
goes for my family. I think shisamo is still meant for deep frying, more than
grilling. If you ordered this set, and want to try it, please add this as the
last ingredient. Warning: the eggs of the shisamo will flow into the soup so it
will make the soup unpleasant (for me) /nice (if you like it).
Thai fish cake is a nono for bf. I personally did not try it but
according to him, it taste weird, so I’ll just give it a miss!
Fishball is a nono for mummy. The fishball is just a lump of
fishy taste cake to her, cos it’s not the bouncy fishball but a more nua kind,
but I still can take it cos there’s no pungent fishy smell, which means probably
it’s fresh!
Egg
You
can’t fry the egg, I repeat, YOU can’t fry the egg in the dome shaped pan! The
egg will flow down into the soup! And the egg basically stucks to the pan and
then if you removed it, the black chaotas that are stuck to the pan will fall
in love with the egg.
Result=
a clean pan but a chaotas-covered egg. L
The
next option is to boil the egg(which probably takes a longer time than usual
because the egg won’t be fully covered) or just break the egg and cook it with
the soup or make egg flower(?).
Try these!
Chicken
There’s
a love-hate relationship for the chicken. I like the chicken but it’s not that
easy to cook cos it’s not a thin slice of chicken meat. Given its uneven
surface and thickness, it is really hard to make sure every part is cooked.
Prawn
Grill
the prawns, I like prawns a lot so I think it’s nice! It’s $3.90 for 4 or 5
prawns. Idk it’s 4 or 5 because when I ordered 2 servings of prawns, they gave
me 9 prawns. And they are very considerate and thought of our needs, so they
removed the shells, keeping the head and the tail shell intact. So you don’t
have to use your hands to remove the shell at all, yes! Anyway the prawns are
the bigger ones, and aka the king prawns.
Scallop
1
serving of scallop= 3 scallops. The scallops comes with their shells, but I’m
not quite sure how to grill it with the shells so I usually removed it before
grilling it (any idea is it to grill with the shell not?).
Hotdog
Ok
this is a common ingredient in the steamboat scene but I still want to say it
taste nice when grilled!
Pork Liver
They
offer pork liver as well, this depends on whether you like pork liver or not.
If you like it, you would think it’s nice and if you don’t, forget it then.
Vege
The
oyster mushroom is unexceptionally nice, ok I’m biased here because I don’t eat
that a lot at home or outside, so I think it’s quite a refreshing experience
haha! Other than that, just order whatever vege you want and throw them into
the soup. Le family favourite: jinzhengu, wangyabai, corn(my mum says enhances
the flavor of soup), oyster mushrooms. Actually that was all we put in the
soup. Meat is still the focus!
Must try!!!
 |
Left: Marinated Pork Collar, Right: Pork Belly, Bottom: Chicken
4 servings each |
Marinated Pork Collar
Don’t
be scared off by the word pork collar, because it’s just pork meat. This well
marinated pork meat is what that keeps me going to this mookata. You don’t’
even have to dip into the thai chilli sauces, because it is just as delectable
on its own, but of course, it taste as good if dipped.
Pork Belly
AKA
sanzhanba (hokkien) and samgyeopsal(Korean). Who can resist this succulent piece
of meat with layers of tender fats? This goes very well with the sauces since
it is not marinated!
Recommended
to grill this piece of meat first so that it can act as the cubes of pork lard
given! Another recommendation is to wrap jinzhengu with this meat. It tastes
really good! Disclaimer: this is my own recommendation, not by the boss!
Sauces
There are 2 types of sauces, the sweet one and the spicy one! My personal favourite is the mixture of the sweet and spicy one because I can't really take too spicy. But go for the spicy one if you like spicy stuff cos it's really good!
Pork lard is usually used as the oil to grill the meat. But if you don't like it, they have margarine/butter too. There
are still some ingredients I have yet to try and I can’t comment on it so ya do
try those in “Try these!” and “Must Try!!!”. ;)
Verdict: Must try if you stay in the west!
Address: 498 Jurong West Street 41, 640498
Phone:9655 5771
Opening hours: 5pm-3am
