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Mookata may be the perfect community meal option (aside from the hot pot), but be careful where you put your cooking gear.
A Christmas dinner at a mookata joint in Changi quickly turned sour for a group of five friends after a tempered glass table broke, leaving them with multiple bleeding cuts, Lianhe Wanbao reported.
The sudden explosion took place more than an hour after his meal at 555 Villa Thai on Friday (December 25), Gerline Ng, one of the victims, told the Chinese Evening Daily.
According to Ng, a waiter had just refilled the soup base for the group, which consisted of her, her husband, and three of their friends, when the glass table broke into pieces with a loud bang.
“I heard what sounded like an explosion. Then I was surprised to find shards of glass everywhere.”
Cuts in arms and legs
Still in shock, she only stood up and walked away from the table after her husband and friends called her, Ng recalled.
She suffered cuts on her arms, thighs and calves, while her husband bled from a cut on her leg.
The staff rushed over and profusely apologized to them, explaining that the mookata pot might have overheated the table, Ng said.
However, according to her, it was the response of the head of the restaurant that left a bad taste in the group’s mouth.
First, the restaurant staff had been unable to locate him for half an hour after the incident. When they finally spoke on the phone, things weren’t much better.
“The boss just said he was sorry and that it was an accident. Then he said that if we want compensation, we should go see a doctor and claim it from his insurance company.”
[[nid:474967]]He also declined his request for a face-to-face meeting, claiming he was too busy, Ng said.
When they offered to wait for him at the restaurant, he allegedly told them to “wait slowly.”
According to Ng, as tensions mounted, she even cursed her husband.
The restaurant manager denies having sworn
Speaking to Lianhe Wanbao, the boss, who remains nameless, denied swearing to Ng’s husband.
“That day, he was busy in another establishment. I suggested to visit him at his home the next day to apologize personally, but he turned me down.
“They asked me to fix the problem immediately or they wouldn’t pay.”
Addressing the accident, he explained that his tables have suffered wear and tear over the past five years and will be replaced with new marble in a month.
The tabletops are made of tempered glass, so even if it breaks, it’s less dangerous than regular glass, he also said.
However, Ng refuted their version of events, saying in an interview with Mothership that he never offered to meet them at their home.
Use thermal insulators to prevent glass from breaking.
This is not the first time that kitchen equipment and glass tables have proven to be a dangerous combination.
In January of this year, a woman and her friends were left with multiple cuts and burns after their tempered glass table broke due to the heat from a steam pot.
Although tempered glass is stronger than normal glass, uneven heat exposure can cause it to break.
Speaking to the Straits Times, experts warned against using steam equipment directly on glass tables and suggested placing thermal insulators under the equipment.
