The traditional Thai steamboat, Mookata, is the latest steamboat craze in town. It is new to me as I have never come across Mookata even though I have visited Thailand many times. I love steamboat, any kind of steamboat, especially the ones that come with two types of broth such as chicken-and-tomyam or the Sichuan broth made with fiery and tongue-numbing Sichuan peppers.
Unlike most steamboats or hotpots where the food is cooked in a broth, the Mookata steamboat offers the choice of cooking the food on a hot-plate coated with pork lard and in a broth. The wonderful thing about Mookata is that the broth at the base of the steamboat collects all the juices from the meat that is being cooked on the dome-shaped hot plate. What you get at the end of the meal is a wonderful broth flavored with vegetables and seafood that have been cooking in it that was made even tastier by the dripping juices from the barbecued meat.
Sometimes, I cannot figure out why we enjoy perspiring away in front of a steamboat in hot and humid Singapore and come away smelling of food.
