Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶

Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶

 

Bak kut teh or translated literally as meat, bone, tea is a Malaysian Chinese concoction. You can't find it in China or Taiwan. The origin of the story goes like this- A long time ago Chinese port workers at Port Swettenham a.k.a Port Klang in Selangor used to pick up pieces of Chinese herbs that dropped from gunny sacks while being unloaded from Chinese ships docked at the port and to be transported to other parts of the then Malaya. The workers were poor and their meals were simple and bland. Then one day someone decided to add the bits and pieces of herbs collected to the pork they were boiling and thus bak kut teh was born. Of course you can't check the veracity of the above story. 

Today,  the best bak kut teh in the country is found in the city of Klang a few kilometres from Port Klang.

The bak kut teh shop where we had the bak kut teh is located in Kepong town. It is called Pan Heong (品香）

A pot of pig tail, stomach and pork rib soup. This is the original style of bak kut teh

The rice with onion oil and of course a pot of you-can't-do-without Chinese tea

A small clay-pot of pig trotter. This is just a side dish

A plate of vegetable cooked  in garlic oil. This is another side dish.