I'm going to be super honest and say it straight out.
*takes a deep breath*
I'm not a bak kut teh lover. Neither am I a bak kut teh eater. This local favorite is no where on my list of local favorites. Not at all. It doesn't matter whether it is the Teochew version with the white peppery soup, or the herbal version, which is black. This dish is just not up there at all.
It's not that I don't eat pork. I do. But somehow, in between the char siew rice and char siew pau and wanton mee and steamed minced pork and pork dumplings, when it comes to bak kut teh, I suddenly become as kosher as one can be.
It's not that I don't eat pork. I do. But somehow, in between the char siew rice and char siew pau and wanton mee and steamed minced pork and pork dumplings, when it comes to bak kut teh, I suddenly become as kosher as one can be.
But there's one place, and to date only this one place, where I'm okaaaay with the bak kut teh, and the pigs' trotters.
Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh.
 |
| At Leong Kee |
It's this place that used to be at Beach Road, and which has since closed, and now they're at Lorong 11 Geylang.
It's an experience eating at their outlet in the Geylang 'hood. The tables are black, the utensils and crockery are black, and you've got the alternative of eating in the air-conditioned room or alfresco, either at the five foot way, or in the alley back.
We're usually at the alfresco five foot way, and you'll find more or less the same dishes on our table each time, no matter what the time. One bak kut teh, one ter kah, one rice, one you tiao, and two little saucers of the black black sauce with no chili inside.
 |
| you tiao for 80 cents! |
 |
| bean curd skin and veggies |
What it is about the Klang style of bak kut teh, I don't really know, but I like their broth.
I like the brownish color, I like the richness and thickness of its texture, I like the huge veggie leaves that they arrange on top of the soup, and the generous pieces of bean curd skin that help keep the meat simmering in the clay pot broth below. I like that they've done it so prettily that the first sight of the bak kut teh isn't the meat and the bones, but the bubbling soup accompanied by the colors of fresh lovely green and the soft beige brown. And I like the herbs, whatever they are, that they use for the broth, which makes the taste rounded and peppery enough for me.
And then there's the ter kah. For someone who doesn't really go for pigs' trotters (I become suddenly kosher at the mere sight of it), I actually do find the dish quite a charming one.
 |
| pigs' trotters below |
There's plenty of vinegar in the black, black sauce that goes wonderfully well with rice. And you get quite a bit of meat, which is cooked so tender that it falls right off the bone,and which you reach only after getting past the parsley that they've chucked right dead center on top of the whole clay pot.
I like the parsley.
It comes in very useful for a diner like me who goes completely squeamish and who loses her appetite at the mere sight of bouncy pork fat and the stewed pig skin. I simply spread out the leaves on top of the parts that I cannot bear to see, get along happily with my meal, and munch it up afterwards. :)
 |
| parsley camouflage |