[Media Invite] ChokChai Mookata 泰式火锅铁板烧 @ Blk 340 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1

Mookata in the heartlands. Want to have mookata in your neighbourhood coffeeshop? Now you can. ChokChai Mookata is currently nestled deep in the Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 neighbourhood. About 15 minutes walk from Ang Mo Kio MRT. We headed towards AMK Hub, and then crossed the road towards the HDB blocks. Cut through the blocks and you will pass by one or two coffeeshops before arriving at the destination.

menu

The place is a brightly lit coffeeshop. On our night of visit, we spied that there were about two other tables that were enjoying mookata as well. Otherwise, one could opt to have prata as the other stalls seemed to be closed.

If you are a family of four adults and two children, the $45 set menu should be sufficient. If more food is needed, there are ala-carte options as well. The meat options starts from $3/$6 per portion, while vegetable portions are priced at $1.50 each. If you don't feel like having the fixed items in the set, then you can go on full ala-carte options with a minimum order of $15.

ready

ChokChai Mookata $45 Set Menu

Our group of 6 adults (5 ladies and one guy) had the $45 set menu comfortably, with some additional items such as liver, Thai instant noodle and cheese tofu.

Thai instant noodles @$1

cheese tofu @$2.50

The set includes Thai black pepper chicken, Thai garlic lean meat, pork belly, prawn, sotong, scallop, pork balls, fish balls, crabsticks, hotdogs, xiao bai cai, cabbage, golden mushroom, sweet corn, carrot, tang hoon and egg.

meaty affair

ChokChai Mookata takes pride in their mookata broth and chili dips. According to Mr Len Wang, owner of ChokChai Mookata, the broth is boiled from pork bones, pandan leaves and other ingredients, while the chilies were imported from Thailand.

golden pork broth

ChokChai Mookata green and red chili dips

Both the red and green chili dips were rather spicy with the red being the spiciest of the two. I'd dare say that the red was of two notches in spice level above the green. The green chili is named as seafood chili and is more tangy savoury salty while the red is slightly sweet and more spicy. Joy, one of the native Thai service staff, recommends to dip the sauce separately to get its full taste, but I think the mixed version was rather nice too.

First step in mookata dining (after turning up the fire, of course), is to oil the hotplate. Pieces of lard were utilized for this purpose. Reminded me of  ジンギスカン.

oil the hotplate naturally

Then, just pile the meats onto the hot grill and the rest of the hardy vegetables and meatballs into the soup.

let it sizzle, let it boil

While waiting for the food to cook, one could order up a plate of prawn som tam as appetiser. Be warned that this plate could be rather spicy for some. Lovely salad and we were ready for the grilled stuffs.

ส้มตำ (som tam goong) @$5

almost done

Communal dining, cooking your own food, cooking for your family/buddies, were all part of the experience. We became somewhat loud, boisterous and basically, had fun.

let's eat

Marinated meats were tasty and I particularly liked the garlic pork. Slightly sweet but tasted so good with the chili dips. The pork liver was fresh and cooked easily. The cabbage was really sweet and after having our fill of the expertly sliced thin liver cooked in the broth, the broth became almost like the bak chor mee soup. So robust and tasty!

more soup please

Used to think that mookata was difficult to manage. The meats would usually slip into the broth due to the dome shaped grill. Glad to report that we didn't have that problem at ChokChai Mookata. However, wished that the circular section could have more depth and slightly wider to cook our vegetables and noodles.

Am of the opinion that mookata could be quite popular with families dining out on weekends. My neighbourhood foodcourt used to have one and it gained popularity after some time. The smell and sound of meat sizzling was the main draw.

Thank you Len and ChokChai Mookata for hosting the dinner, and Hence (@chubbybotakkoala) for the invite. To my makan kakis; Kris (@msginginly), Jennifer (@jellylovesfats), Melissa (@cptslowyeo) and Tiara (@tiara_star), you guys are fun to be with! Thank you and let's meet again!

ChokChai Mookata

Location: Blk 340 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1, Singapore 560340
Contact: 9778 3942 or email: chokchaimookata@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chokchaimookata/
Instagram: @chokchai_mookata
Business Hours:
Mon-Sun: 17:00 - 23:00