Name: Suki Thai (สุกี้ยากี้) — Thai Hot Pot
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: Family pot
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 300 g pork tenderloin or collar (เนื้อหมูสันใน/สันคอ); 1 egg for the marinade (ไข่ไก่); katsuobushi, kombu, sake, mirin, Japanese soy, brown sugar (ปลาโอแห้ง, สาหร่ายคอมบุ, เหล้าสาเก, มิริน); cabbage, morning glory, celery, spring onion (กะหล่ำปลี, ผักบุ้ง, ขึ้นฉ่าย, ต้นหอม); 4 cubes red fermented tofu + 2 tbsp brine (เต้าหู้ยี้สีแดง, น้ำเต้าหู้ยี้); 5 tbsp chilli sauce (ซอสพริก); 2 tbsp ground jinda chilli, 4 tbsp ground garlic (พริกจินดา, กระเทียม); 3 heads pickled garlic + 3 tbsp brine (กระเทียมดอง, น้ำกระเทียมดอง); 3 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp + 0.5 tsp salt (น้ำตาล, เกลือ); 3 tbsp lime, 3 tbsp vinegar (น้ำมะนาว, น้ำส้มสายชู); 2 tbsp ground roasted white sesame + 1.5 tbsp sesame oil (งาขาวคั่วบด, น้ำมันงา)

The Hot Pot Thailand Never Gave Back

สุกี้ยากี้ is Japanese sukiyaki by way of Bangkok — the MK restaurant chain took a Kyoto hot pot, dropped the raw egg, and added a sauce so Thai that it outgrew the dish it came with. The Thai sources treat the structure as three parts, and Tecnoplus names them: the broth, the marinated meat, and the vegetable set — with the whole thing existing in two forms, สุกี้น้ำ (the soup pot) and สุกี้แห้ง (the dry stir-fry version of the same ingredients).

The broth keeps its Japanese skeleton. Kapook's version is honest dashi — katsuobushi steeped in boiling water for two minutes then lifted, seasoned with Japanese soy and brown sugar, finished with sake and mirin. The quick school swaps in kombu alone. It's deliberately clean, because the flavour of Thai suki lives in the sauce, not the soup.

And the sauce is the dish. Pim's recipe — the MK-style standard — builds on red fermented tofu, blended with chilli sauce, fresh ground chillies, garlic, and pickled garlic with its brine, then balanced with sugar, salt, lime, vinegar, ground roasted sesame and sesame oil. The fermented tofu is, in her words, the soul of it: sweet, salty, funky and sesame-rich all at once. That's what makes suki Thai Thai.

The Recipe (sauce from Pim, broth from Kapook)

Thai	English	Amount
น้ำจิ้มสุกี้ (the sauce)
เต้าหู้ยี้สีแดง + น้ำเต้าหู้ยี้	Red fermented tofu + brine	4 cubes + 2 tbsp
ซอสพริก	Chilli sauce	5 tbsp
พริกจินดาบด / กระเทียมบด	Ground chilli / garlic	2 tbsp / 4 tbsp
กระเทียมดอง + น้ำ	Pickled garlic + brine	3 heads + 3 tbsp
น้ำตาล / เกลือ	Sugar / salt	3 tbsp / 1 tbsp + ½ tsp
น้ำมะนาว / น้ำส้มสายชู	Lime / vinegar	3 tbsp / 3 tbsp
งาขาวคั่วบด / น้ำมันงา	Roasted sesame, ground / sesame oil	2 tbsp / 1½ tbsp
น้ำซุป (the broth)
ปลาโอแห้ง / สาหร่ายคอมบุ	Katsuobushi / kombu	to taste
ซอสถั่วเหลืองญี่ปุ่น / น้ำตาลทรายแดง	Japanese soy / brown sugar	to taste
สาเก / มิริน	Sake / mirin	to taste
To cook in the pot
หมูสันใน/สันคอ หมักไข่	Pork, egg-marinated	300 g
ผักชุด	Cabbage, morning glory, celery, spring onion	a platter

The quick sauce (Tecnoplus): chilli sauce, ketchup, white soy, sugar and vinegar simmered until thick, sesame oil off the heat. The quick broth (Kapook): kombu only, no simmering.

The Method

The broth. Water to the boil, katsuobushi in for 2 minutes and lifted; Japanese soy and brown sugar in; sake and mirin last; taste for sweet-salty.
The meat. Pork sliced thin and massaged with the egg — Tecnoplus's tenderness step — while the broth settles.
The sauce. Everything blended smooth, then balanced: sweet from sugar, salt, sour from lime and vinegar, funk from the fermented tofu, richness from the sesame.
The table. Pot in the middle, pork and vegetables cooked to order, everything dipped in the sauce. For the dry version, stir-fry the same set with a ladle of sauce.

Where Thai Sources Disagree

The sauce: fermented tofu or ketchup. Pim's classic blends red fermented tofu with pickled garlic and sesame — the MK standard. Tecnoplus's quick version simmers chilli sauce, ketchup, soy, sugar and vinegar. The tofu sauce is the real thing; the ketchup version is the home shortcut.

The broth: dashi or kombu. Kapook's full broth steeps katsuobushi and seasons with sake and mirin; the quick school is kombu alone. The dashi broth has the umami depth; the kombu one is a clean canvas for the sauce.

Soup or dry. Tecnoplus documents both forms — สุกี้น้ำ, the bubbling pot, and สุกี้แห้ง, the same ingredients stir-fried with the sauce. The dry version is the street-stall adaptation, eaten over rice.

Egg: in the marinade or on the table. Thai suki puts the egg in the pork marinade (Tecnoplus); Japanese sukiyaki dips the cooked meat in raw egg at the table. The Thai sources never use the raw-egg dip — that's the main fork in the road from the original.

The protein. Pork, chicken or seafood — Tecnoplus says swap freely; the pot shape doesn't change.

How Western Versions Get It Wrong

Calling it Japanese sukiyaki. Thai suki is its own dish — no raw egg dip, no grilled beef in the pan, and a fermented-tofu sauce that doesn't exist in Japan.
Chicken-stock broth. The broth is deliberately clean — dashi or kombu. A heavy chicken stock buries the sauce, which is where the flavour lives.
Sweet chilli as the dip. The sauce is fermented tofu, pickled garlic and sesame — sweet chilli sauce is a different condiment entirely.
Unmarinated meat. The egg marinade is Tecnoplus's stated tenderness step — skip it and the pork cooks up stiff in the pot.
No vegetables. The vegetable platter — cabbage, morning glory, celery, spring onion — is a structural third of the dish, not an afterthought.

UK Ingredient Notes

Red fermented tofu (เต้าหู้ยี้): jars at Chinese grocers — the red-cube kind, with its brine.
Katsuobushi and kombu: Japanese sections of supermarkets or East Asian grocers.
Sake and mirin: any supermarket's world-food aisle.
Pickled garlic: Thai grocers; morning glory: Thai/Chinese greengrocers.
Jinda chillies: any small red Thai chilli.

Sources

This recipe is translated from the following Thai-language sources. Where they disagree, we've said so.

1. Pim's Kitchen (พิม) — "น้ำจิ้มสุกี้" (the fermented-tofu sauce used here) — pim.in.th

2. Kapook — "ทำ ชาบู สุกี้หม้อไฟครบเซต" (the dashi broth) — cooking.kapook.com

3. Tecnoplus — "วิธีทำสุกี้รสเด็ดน้ำจิ้มกลมกล่อม" (the full set, soup vs dry forms, egg marinade) — tecnoplusthai.com

Johnny Tiger

Johnny researches and translates Thai recipes from Thai-language sources — chefs, restaurants and home cooks in Thailand — and publishes them with their sources cited. No westernised shortcuts, no invented steps.