Bak Kut Teh

Since I was on the Chinese herbs side of things, I decided to continue with it. On Sunday, I made some Bak Kut Teh, a popular meal from a town called Klang; a town where I grew up in. Bak Kut Teh, or "meat bone tea," is one of the dishes that is considered to be truly originated in Malaysia. It consists of meaty pork ribs simmered in a broth of numerous herbs and spices for hours. Wikipedia provides a good background and variety information of it, and Eating Asia had featured the famous "Under the Bridge Bak Kut Teh" in Klang (very good write up and photos there, made me miss home...)


I have gotten the Bak Kut Teh spices/seasonings from my Mom, who has gotten them from her friend, Auntie Lam. With the pre-packeted spices, making Bak Kut Teh is so much easier; just need to get some pork ribs and/or meat, garlic and some soy sauce. 

In this case, I have used pork ribs (Mom always says bones make the soup tastes sweeter), pork belly (with the fat removed), and pork intestines -- very much like the way my family would order our Bak Kut Teh at a restaurant. I wanted to get the pork intestines so I can practice on cleaning them because it sounded pretty tedious and challenging. According to Mom, the cleaning process involves numerous repetition of soaking in salt water, rubbing and scrubbing, and running chopsticks through it and turning it inside out! But I guess I lucked out because the intestines that I have gotten seemed to be pretty clean. Nonetheless, I did three rounds of cleaning process just for good measures... and really, just to get rid of the smell! Anyway, I kind of digressed. So, back to the Bak Kut Teh. Others also prefer to add mushrooms, cabbage, and tofu pockets in their soup. Chinese cruller, or yau ja gwai, is a great accompaniment for Bak Kut Teh as well. I was tempted to get some when I saw them at the store, but they looked so unfresh and uninviting, which ultimately killed my temptations. Just for kicks, I also added dried onions onto my plate of rice. The results, yummylicious! :)

Having Bak Kut Teh for brunch used to be a ritual for Ah Po, my brothers and I on Sundays, as Bak Kut Teh is one of Ah Po's favorites. We used to frequent this family-owned restaurant by Jalan Kapar. Since it has been more or less ten years now that I haven't been there, I can only faintly remember the route to get there; like many Malaysians, I do not know the address of this restaurant, but can point out the landmarks around it. In fact, I don't even know the name of the restaurant, but could only recall the name of the owner was Ah Huat. 


As I mentioned above, we would order our Bak Kut Teh to contain pork belly - half fat and half lean, a mix of other parts of the animal, and intestines, and then a side order of a plate of yau ja gwai. While waiting for the food to be served, my brother, either Sunny or Aaron, will make the tea. When the Bak Kut Teh arrives in a claypot, we would dig in together. I would scoop for the soup repeatedly to soak my rice and then dig for the lean and boneless meat. Ah Po, on the other hand, would literally dig for the fat pork belly. After eating, we would sip a lot of tea to wash down our larded meal. Then, we would drop Ah Po off at Auntie Lam's, where Uncle Lam and the other mah-jong kaki's would already be congregating.


As time passed and the topic of cholesterol became notable, we have Bak Kut Teh lesser and lesser because Ah Po just cannot get her hands off of those fatty pork belly and her BMI was already on the obese side of the scale. She did pout, but we were not budging on our good intentions. Occasionally, we would have Bak Kut Teh, we joked, to reward her.




Bak Kut Teh
1 packet of Bak Kut Teh spices, shown above (contains 2 packets within)
1/2 lbs of pork ribs
1/2 lbs of pork belly (fat removed)
1/4 lbs of pork intestines
8 cloves of garlic, smashed
3 tbsp of dark soy sauce (I was trying to mimic more of a Hokkien's style; otherwise 2 tbsp should be sufficient)
4 tbsp of light soy sauce
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 L of water


Rinse/clean and cut pork ribs, belly, and intestines to bite sizes.
When water is boiling, put in meat and Bak Kut Teh spices. Use medium heat to simmer for 45 minutes.
When meat is fully cooked, add soy sauces, oyster sauce, and salt.
Add pepper before serving.
Serve with rice.
Sprinkle dried onions on top of rice (optional, but recommended).