Thai suki, known simply as suki (สุกี้) in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, is a Thai variant of hot pot

Hot pot

Hot pot , less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table...

, a communal dish where diners dip meat, seafood, noodles, dumplings and vegetables into a pot of broth cooking at the table and dip it into a spicy "sukiyaki sauce" before eating. Despite the name, the dish only barely resembles Japanese sukiyaki

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish in the nabemono style.It consists of meat which is slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin...

, having more in common with shabu shabu and Chinese hot pot

Hot pot

Hot pot , less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table...

.

Thai sukiyaki evolved from Chinese hot pot served in restaurants catering to members of Thailand's sizeable ethnic Chinese

Thai Chinese

The Thai Chinese are an overseas Chinese community who live in Thailand. Thailand is home to the largest, oldest, most prominent, and most integrated overseas Chinese community in the world with a population of approximately 9.5 million people...

 clientele, in which an aluminum pot was heated on a charcoal fire at the table and the raw ingredients presented on one big plate.

In the 1960s a restaurant chain called Coca opened its first branch in Siam Square

Siam Square

Siam Square is a shopping and entertainment area in the Siam District of Bangkok, Thailand. The area connects to other shopping centres and links to the other shopping districts by sky bridge, such as Siam Center/Siam Discovery Center, MBK Center, Siam Paragon, Ratchaprasong shopping district and...

, Bangkok, offering a modified version of the Chinese hot pot

Hot pot

Hot pot , less commonly Chinese fondue or steamboat, refers to several East Asian varieties of stew, consisting of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table...

 under the Japanese name of Sukiyaki. (Although it only vaguely resembled Japanese sukiyaki, it was a catchy name for it because of a Japanese pop song called "Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki (song)

The cover version by A Taste of Honey reached number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also went to number 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart and Soul chart)....

" which was a big worldwide hit at the time.) This modified Thai version proved to be a massive hit, and it wasn't long before other chains started opening "suki" restaurants across Bangkok and other cities, each with its own special dipping sauce as the selling point.

In Thai sukiyaki, diners have more options of ingredients to choose from, each portion being considerably smaller in order to enable diners to order many more varieties. The spicy dipping sauce caters to Thai tastes too, with a lot of chili sauce

Chili sauce

Chili sauce is a condiment, similar to ketchup but with onion, garlic, and spice. Despite its name, it does not contain chili peppers and thus is not hot....

, chili

Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...

, lime

Lime (fruit)

Lime is a term referring to a number of different citrus fruits, both species and hybrids, which are typically round, green to yellow in color, 3–6 cm in diameter, and containing sour and acidic pulp. Limes are a good source of vitamin C. Limes are often used to accent the flavors of foods and...

 and coriander

Coriander

Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...

leaves added. The raw ingredients are presented on small plates and are cooked at the table in a gas- or electrically-heated stainless steel pot containing broth. Usually, an egg is added to the broth at the start of the meal.

Today the MK Restaurant chain is the most popular in Thailand with around 200 restaurants across the country and 23 in Japan. Coca is making a rapid spread abroad too, already serving Thai suki in 24 outlets across Asia and Australia and further outlets planned in the US and Europe. Coca's strategy abroad is focusing on the high-income customers. Other popular chains include Texas and Lailai.

Thai sukiyaki also spread to Malaysia, such as Smoke BBQ Company serving Malaysian Thai sukiyaki.