Literally called 'pork ribs soup', bak kut teh (肉骨茶) has always been a food that's always there, because there're so many eateries doing that. Importantly, it was a huge part of my life as a young adult needing food before or after an alcohol-fuelled night out. LOLOL
By this age, I have already made visits to many many bak kut teh eateries around this island. I always prefer the clear peppery soups over herbal or dark bases. Later on, I learnt that the style I prefer is the Teochew style with a strong dose of garlic and pepper. The Hokkien base is darker with soy and more herbs. The Cantonese style is also heavy on the soy and tastes completely medicinal.
Nowadays, if I have to do bak kut teh, I go to Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh (老字號中峇魯肉骨茶), Kai Juan (佳園) and Balestier Bak Kut Teh (馬里士他肉骨茶). These three do it garlic and peppery the way I love it. I care more about the soup than the ribs itself. Well, I do eat it, but not that much. I like the pig stomach that they offer on the menu too. Heh! However, come August, to satisfy BKT cravings, I'm going to be down to two eateries.
This final month is seeing super brisk business. On busy nights, the eatery has been closing at 9.30/9.45 pm instead of the usual 9pm, or whenever their food runs out. We had to have a few more dinners there before the end of the month.
They open at 7am, and they have a fair chunk of breakfast crowds all the way through lunch. I can't have bak kut teh this early in the morning. It's not my kind of breakfast! Anything this heavy would simply send me to toilet bowl hell.
Hopped in for dinner. The man takes the ribs and soup, with chay buay, tau kee and tau pok, all of which I don't quite fancy. I usually get a pig stomach soup or lean pork slices. That night, they ran out of pig stomach, so I took the ribs. Those went great with the sambal kangkong and the chai poh omelette. We went for broke and ordered the pig's trotters too. Baahhahaha. Oooh that skin and bit of fats. 1000 calories. Okaay.
No comments:
Post a Comment