Sin Heng (Herbal style) Claypot Bak Kut Teh

Generally speaking, Bak Kut Teh comes in two main varieties - the "Singapore style," which is relatively clear soup with loads of garlic and white pepper, and the Herbal soup style which (as its' name suggests, is a darker, stronger and thicker soup). Which style you prefer probably heavily depends on which soup you grew up drinking; since the darling and I grew up in Malaysia, we prefer the KL style.

Which is sort of a bummer in Singapore because we haven't really found any good herbal-style places so far. A friend of ours suggested Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh over on Joo Chiat Road, and since it was only about a 10 minute bus ride away, we pay a visit to see if it's any good.


The claypot BKT (without any spare parts) costs SGD12 and comes with a solid amount of meat for two average eaters. It's predominantly pork ribs; which are pretty tender without falling off the bone easily. However, we found that the soup was subpar, tasting of herbs and pepper and nothing else - in our opinion, a good BKT soup should also have a strong porky taste.


The egg fuyong with prawn (SGD7) is decently sized, and is pretty par for the course. Could perhaps use a tad bit more seasoning, though.


Kai Lan is also SGD7 ... normally we don't like ordering vegetables at restaurants because of the huge mark-up on the (extremely cheap) base cost of the greens, but with so much meat we felt compelled to order it.

Sin Heng is on 439, Joo Chiat Road. It's not within walking distance from an MRT station so you'll have to take a bus, or drive. In our opinion it's not good enough to really travel to eat on purpose, but as the restaurant is open til 4am in the mornings, it's available if you live nearby and need to satisfy a BKT craving :) Closed on Mondays. Non-halal.

Klang Bak Kut Teh (BKT) Crawl - Teck Teh BKT on Jalan Stesen 1.

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Today we're continuing our exploration of the Bak Kut Teh capital of the world - Klang! We're in a BKT place over on Jalan Stesen near the KTM Komuter station named Teck Teh. It's an old and run down shop, and there's only a small signboard that's utterly unreadable from all the black soot/dirt/whatever that's caked on it.

But hey, being a true Malaysian means that none of that matters if the food's good, right? Just keep a look out for this uncle and you'll know you're at the right place.


When eating here, you've got the following choices:
1. Bak Kut Teh (1 person's portion)
2. Bak Kut Teh - Ribs only (1 person's portion)
3. Chinese Tea
4. Rice.


Yup, nothing else but the basics. No vegetables, no 油炸鬼 (You Zha Gui), no tau foo pok, nothing. Heck, they don't even provide you any light/dark soy sauce, garlic, or chilis. If you must have your BKT with any of these add-ons/condiments, then you have to bring your own from home.


That's OK with me though, cos the BKT here is delicious. The broth is more of a gravy rather than a soup, and is thick and flavorful. It's also a tad bit on the salty side, and you don't get much of it - so those of you who like to drench your rice with soup until it's like porridge are out of luck.


For this trip, we weren't in control of the ordering, so we got a lot of 'fatty' portion of the pork - trotters, etc. I prefer a mix that leans towards lean meat. Nevertheless, this is the third BKT place in Klang where we've eaten at and it turns out to be the best - as long as you're aware that you'll get great BKT and nothing else.


Don't know how to give you road directions, but if you've got access to google maps or a GPS, punch in Jalan Stesen 1 and you'll be golden.

Our updated Klang BKT rankings:

1. Teck Teh BKT
2. Fong Keow BKT
3. Teluk Pulai BKT

J Tean Kitchen - BKT and other Porcine delights at SSTwo Mall

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New malls can sort of be like a chicken-and-egg thing - if there are no shops, nobody comes, and if nobody comes, then shops don't open. And for now, it seems that SSTwo Mall (in ... dun dun dun ... SS2!) is in danger of falling into that catch-22 as it's got barely a third of its' shoplots occupied.

Which is a shame, though, because there are some pretty good new makan places - J Tean Kitchen opened its' doors a month ago and are currently running a 20% discount off everything until the end of May.


No idea where the name comes from, but anyways J Tean is basically a pork lovers paradise, with dishes like ribs, pork pies, bak kut teh and dongpo pork. Deco is nice and airy, although indoors is a bit noisy due to the nearby gymnasium blasting techno music.


Drinks - Rose Flower Tea (MYR4.50) and Jasmine Green Tea with Honey Longan ($2.80).


We try the J Porky Pie (MYR19.90), a fusion dish combining braised chili pork with black sauce, in a pie crust (quite similar to a crossaint-type pastry). We liked this dish quite a bit - it was like a more moist "dry Bak Kut Teh" with a nice chili aftertaste.


Combo 1 Bak Kut Teh (MYR20.90) has pork belly, ribs and stomach in a herby Bak Kut Teh soup. We felt that for KL standards the BKT was above average, however there was a distinct lack of pork flavor in the gravy - understandable since J Tean is not a 'dedicated' BKT restaurant (hence they wouldn't have boiled enough piggy parts to get a really strong taste).


Total bill after 20% discount came up to MYR42.90 for two, which is pretty cheap! If you're in the area, do head down to SSTwo Mall to give J Tean a try - go fast though, the discount is only running til the end of the month.

Other reviews: eatdrinkkl

Klang Bak Kut Teh (BKT) Crawl - Teluk Pulai (Pottery) Ba Kut Teh

I did not know that Bak Kut Teh has an entry on Wikipedia :) But anyways, supposedly it was introduced in Singapore, and then someone brought it to Klang and made it a gazillion times better. Whatever the real history though, there's no denying that it's generally accepted that Klang has the best BKT places.

Having grown up in KK and JB respectively, the darling and I are late bloomers to the Klang BKT scene. Heck, we didn't even go to Teluk Pulai BKT til recently. Better late than never, though, right?

We start off with Chinese Tea - 茶王 (literally 'King of Tea') this meal. To be honest, I can't really taste the difference between all the different types of tea. Maybe one of these days I ought to do a tea tasting - steep a few pots and then sip each cup to taste the differences. Anyone wanna join? :D


Some vegetables - onion oil you mak - just to keep my conscience happy that I have tried to balance my meat intake with a bit of greens.


The real star of the show though is, of course, the Bak Kut Teh. I personally prefer eating the 'claypot' style where everything is mixed up in a big claypot, over the 'small individual bowl' styles a-la Pao Xiang BKT.


Meaty goodness, with lots of soup to drench the rice in :)


Now here's the problem ... we found Teluk Pulai too salty for our tastes. The vegetables had too much oyster sauce (i.e. too salty). The BKT soup, although being flavorful and tasty, was also too salty to comfortably drink without worrying about my hair dropping. Heck, even the rice was salty - was it boiled in salt water?

And the price was MYR50.00 for the both of us, which in my opinion is a tad bit overpriced.


So for us, the rankings for our Klang BKT crawl up til now are (yes ... we've only been to these two places so far):

1. Fong Keow BKT
2. Teluk Pulai BKT

Do sound off in the comments if you've got any particular favorites in Klang so we can go try it the next time we're there!


To get to Teluk Pulai, take the Federal Highway towards Klang/Shah Alam. Immediately after the second tollbooth, turn left off the highway and you'll see Teluk Pulai BKT at the shophouses on your right.

Pao Xiang BKT (Bak Kut Teh) - Porky goodness in Pavilion, KL

I'm a huge Bak Kut Teh (BKT) lover. To the darling, not so much - she's less of a carnivore than I am :). To me there's just something special about chowing down hunks of meat drenched in savory soup, and then washing it all down with cup after cup of hot refreshing Chinese tea. And so it's kind of a bit odd, perhaps, that I've only got two posts about BKT.

Time to rectify that though - today, with a 3rd post about Pao Xiang BKT. We've seen and heard about this 'chain' in a few shopping malls, but never got round to trying it. I mean, BKT is supposed to be eaten in hot coffee shops, so how good can a clean fancy air-conditioned one be, right?


The Pavilion outlet is big, clean and bright, and nicely decorated with lots of teapots.


It's very pleasant to eat in a nice restaurant, of course, but it does initially cause a bit of unease as to how big a hit the meal will be to the wallet - particularly as Pao Xiang is on the top floor in Pavilion smack in the middle of that upmarket restaurants area.


Hot tea to start off the meal - and to end it later.


Rice and you char kway (油炸鬼) - the you char kway is a bit interesting in that its' texture is quite a bit more 'buttery' than normal.


On to the good stuff though - the meat! Every other BKT shop I've been to in KL is of the 'mix everything in one huge claypot' variety. In Pao Xiang, though, you order by small bowls of whatever kind of meat you want - one bowl is MYR15.00 and roughly feeds one mouth.

Advantages of these mini bowls is that you have much more control of exactly what meat cuts you want, but of course you take a hit on variety if you're just dining for two. I liked how the bowls were served with heaters below them to keep the soup hot.

Speaking of the soup, I thought it was pretty good. I'm a fan of this variety of more gravy-like soup, not the clear/herby kind. Meat was OK but my order of 'half fat lean' turns out to be 95% lean. Healthy? Yes, perhaps ... but I like some fats on my pork :D


Finish off with some oiled vegetables just so we don't feel so guilty about not having any veg.


Verdict? For about RM25-ish per person, I think it's very reasonable given the overall price of food in Pavilion KL. And it tastes pretty good too - definitely recommended if you're in Pavilion and have a craving for BKT

(I wouldn't say it's good enough to purposely drive all the way to KL city and pay exorbitant parking rates just to eat here, though).

Restoran Yee Heong - Bak Kut Teh in Puchong

Blog hit 3,000 pageviews over the last few days! And yes, I know it's a measly number in the grand scheme of things, but hey, at least now I know some of you actually read these random food ramblings of mine (or at least ... click on the links in facebook :P)

Took a family makan makan trip to Restoran Yee Heong over at Puchong for some Bak Kut Teh. It's nice, bright, clean and quite cooling!


If you haven't noticed, these pictures are again taken by the iPhone 4. Better slightly crappy pictures than none, right? The restaurant has a few different dishes other than BKT, of which we first sample the wu tau kau yuk (erm ... fatty pork sandwiched with yam). It's pretty good. The kau yuk is just the right amount of fat, and the dish has ben cooked well enough that the yam is neither too hard nor too mushy.


Another dish we sample is their fried tofu. This one isn't really tofu, tastes more like eggs, something like Japanese tofu. It's OK but nothing special.


Chee tou tong (peppered pig stomach soup) is next - also quite good, the stomach was washed well and doesn't have an overpowering 'porky' taste.


Sadly, we went a bit late and actually there was no more BKT (I know, right? Haha). So we sampled the sang kuat yuk, which is pork spare ribs in a 'clear' broth. The meat was well cooked and tender, but the broth was way too plain for our liking. We also got a few bowls of just the BKT broth which was more flavorful.


Overall it's a decent place to have dinner for a BKT fix, but in our opinion none of the dishes were really outstanding. Don't remember price, other than it was 'reasonable.'

Restoran Yee Heong
01-01, Jalan Kenari 19A,
Bandar Puchong Jaya,
Selangor.

Fong Keow Bak Kut Teh - Klang

Yet another non-halal post - sorry! Hehe. Couple of days before my brother ended his 3-week holiday and had to go back to slog it out pulling 35-hour weeks at his cushy GLC in the you-kay, we all take a trip to Klang for Bak Kut Teh! Many people say the Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh shop is nicer but I personally prefer Fong Keow which is just next door.


Judging from the nice decorations in their 'new wing' expansion, I'd say they're doing pretty good. Pretty damn good.


Of course, the focus is on bak kut teh - Fong Keow serves the claypot style where all the kinds of meat you order is mixed into a large claypot. I love the soup here which is nice and thick and strong, but still liquid enough to classify as "soup" (some places it's more like gravy).


Yam rice here is nice as well; thing is that I feel yam rice makes me full quicker, which means I can't eat as much Bak Kut Teh as with normal rice.


Give the Assam Fish a miss, though. It's not a bad dish; just that it's nothing special and rather non-descript. Plus, the actual fish is a sting-ray (which may be a plus point for you if you were a crocodile hunter fan), but to me stingray doesn't go well with Assam.


I don't remember what this was called (hehehe), but it was pretty good too. Some sort of Loh Bak.


And of course, some vege to make us feel a little less guilty about eating so much meat :)


To get here, drive up the Federal Highway towards Klang/Shah Alam. After passing Sunway/Subang area there'll be one toll - drive another 15 minutes and pass the next toll, and immediately exit left. The shophouses around here house at least 5, or even more, bak kut teh stalls which are all quite full at lunchtime - speaks of how much the Klang peeps love their meat.

About MYR15 per person.