Eating Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶 in Malaysia

Its been a long time that i wanted to write something about Bak Kut Teh. due to my love for this food and it's indeed a very unique food to have in Malaysia.
This time while i was sitting on a boat to Mersing which is a 2 hour boat trip, i at least could find a bit of emo to write this description or a bits of history of BKT.

Bak kut teh (BKT) is one of the most popular delicacy among Malaysian and Singaporean. Both Chinese from this 2 country has developed an unspeakable passion for BKT. Malaysia tourism department has also declared it as 1 of top 5 of Malaysia Unique cuisine same row as Nasi Lemak.

The word 'Bak Kut' mean ribs meat in hokkien language. and in this food it means Pork Ribs.
'Teh' means tea. Example of Chinese tea.
So u can imagine that the pork rib is cooked in a Pot of Chinese tea.
Well almost like that.
It is actually a kind of food that cook pork rib in a soup of mixed herbal and tea might be. There is no fixed recipe of soup. Everybody has creatively added in tons type of ingredient in the soup. Ranging from herbal, pepper and etc.

Origin of BKT was rumored Started by the china migrated coolie working in the pier. They gathered the herbs drop on the ground while unloading from the boats and boil pork together in a pot. As time goes by with then improvement on the recipe it has transformed into delicacy that is essential to Malaysian chinese food!

Passion for this gourmet that we developed does not need to speak or written in words. Malaysian eat BKT in their breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. Anytime you want to you can get it. as for me, I must have it at least once per week. If I missed 1 week I will feel extremely uneasy.

Traditionally it is also being served in 2 general ways. one Bowl per person or by clay pot which is share among a table, then we will eat it with a white rice. Normally side dishes will be a 'ham choi' salty vegetable and 'yau za guai' or 'you tiao'. Lastly you must further match is with a hot Chinese tea. Only with the combination like this your meal will be a perfect Malaysian BKT meal.

Bowl type Bak Kut Teh

Clay pot Style Bak Kut Teh

Ham Choi Salty Vegetable

What is so special of BKT that till we love so much?
It is the combination of meat and soup. The Chinese love to drink soup. Thus when this meal is a combination of soup and lots of meat it could satisfy our needs two bird at one stone.
Furthermore the soup is a herbal soup. It is not too heavy taste food, that is why we could even have it as a breakfast.
Tenderness of the rib pork, tasty soup with herb taste, fragrance of white rice is a perfect combination!
Lastly Chinese tea will do it's 'magic' to dissolve the cholesterol of the oily and meaty meal.

now you should understand what type of love we had for BKT!
One of the most famous BKT in Malaysia is Port Klang BKT,
Of course we will try to introduce some Johor's famous BKT for you!