Klang Bak Kut Teh 肉骨茶

Bak Kut Teh, literally translated into English is Herbal Pork Broth. Basically, it is pork cooked with herbal soup, and you always have tea to go with this dish, that's how the name Teh (which means tea in Hokkein) comes. This delicacy is said to originated in Klang, Malaysia. Up to this day, this is still a dish that the Chinese in Klang are proud of. There are many many shops selling Bak Kut Teh in Klang area, there are good ones, but there also bad ones. Over the good Friday long weekend, I tried out 3 of the shops selling this speciality.

1. Teluk Pulai
2. Qi Xiang (奇香）
3. Qing Xiang (Backstreet Branch) 庆祥 （后街）

Teluk Pulai serves the clay pot version of the Bak Kut Teh. The meat is tender and just nice. Other than Bak Kut Teh, they also serve other dishes such as fried vegetables. You can satisfied all your taste buds there.

Qi Xiang also serves the clay pot version of the Bak Kut Teh, but they also have a 'dry' version of the Bak Kut Teh, which is a new invention, a new development of an old dish. The dry version is more spicy, cooked with soy sauce, lots of green & red chilli.

Qing Xiang is the most most authentic version, which Bak Kut Teh is served in a bowl. This shop is said to be the No. 1 in Klang, and they are only open for the morning. On weekends, by 9am, their Bak Kut Teh is sold out. If you don't want to miss it, be an early bird.

Personally, I like the Teluk Pulai version most, followed by Qing Xiang and Qi Xiang. Some warning though, all 3 use a lot of MSG. In terms of hygiene, many may frown on Qing Xiang's practice. As they are short of man power, they don't clean the tea cups! Customers leave the tea cups on the table after use. The next batch of customers must use the boiling water provided to clean the tea cups themselves. So if you are there, don't forget to clean the tea cups yourselves, ok?

All 3 shops are in the Lan Hua Yuan (蓝花园）area which is near the Federal Highway. A hand drawn map is available here.

Too bad, I have no pictures to show for now. My PDA and my laptop simply refuse to talk to each other. :(