Bak Kut Teh, Singapore

Bak Kut Teh means meats, bones and tea in dialect. In the olden days the Chinese usually eat this dish for breakfast. But now this dish is available even lunch and dinner. The way to eat this dish is to eat the meat together with the rice and then the soup. Some people enjoy eating this dish in this sequence, rice, meat, soup, rice meat soup, etc. There are so many ways to taste this dish, and all ways taste simply great. After you finish them, you should drink tea. I guess this is to “wash” away the fats from the pork ribs in your body. Another reason to drink tea is during the olden days, the Chinese prefer tea to coffee. By the way was coffee introduced to the Chinese community during that time?_?

In the olden days, the Chinese coolies in Malaysia and Singapore needed energy to work in the dock. So they had to eat heavy breakfast. So this dish was introduced. During those time pork ribs was not popular to the rich because it consisted of bone and it hardly had meats. That was why the coolies could afford the dish. The pork ribs brought the taste to the soup. The herbs were added to the soup to improve the constitution of the coolies' bodies. This also added taste to the soup. Thus the dish gained popularity and was spread to the Chinese community.

Instead of introducing the shop or the restaurants, I am going to introduce this dish for this post. This is because me, a young, smart, hardworking and fine Chinese-Cantonese glutton, still prefer the Cantonese style way of cooking this pork rib soup which popular and mostly found in Malaysia. There are also Teochew and Hokkien style. They taste great but this depends on individual preference. The Teochews used pepper and garlic on this light-colour-and-light-taste soup and the Hokkiens used pepper, garlic and dark soy sauce to give this soup darker colour and a bit of saltiness. The Cantonese are expert in soup. They used the pepper, garlic, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and Chinese herbs in this soup. Thus the taste of the soup is quite marvelous and sophisticated taste yet so traditional. I always find myself fall in love with this style of soup again and again. Again as I mention, this is personal preference.

This morning after my model-shoot session, I had this dish for my brunch. Singapore is famous for Teochew-style Bak Kut Teh. I ordered you tiao (Chinese fried dough), braised pork intestine (bizarred food for westerners) for side dish and Chinese tea. They taste good. However due to my heritage, I still love the Cantonese style Bak Kut Teh in JB.

I have a thought that comes to my mind right after I mention the word “heritage”. Could it be the tastiest food in this world come from our mothers? Think carefully, even though you are in overseas or you taste the cuisine from the three-star Michelin restaurants, will you still miss your mother’s cooking eventually? Will you think she knows your preference very well and she perfects her dishes and suit your own taste? Will you have the feeling to rush back home to taste her cooking after you reach the airport immediately? I think my mother is the best cook in the world, no doubt about this.

I would like to say to my mother in this post: “Madam Chua, my lovely mother, Happy Mother’s Day to you!”. I would like to represent my best colleagues Yew Fen and Boon Cheng who are in Singapore currently and have no time return to Malaysia to celebrate Mother's Day with their mothers, to say to their mothers:" Happy Mother's Day, Aunties!"