I'm pretty sure I have taken pictures of this meal here at Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh before.
But it has been a while, and it has been some time.
Still, a dish of bak kut teh from this place here at Joo Chiat Road is not something you easily forget, and so pictures like these become significant- somehow- to me.
If you find what I say over the top, well, there's one thing you must know.
I am not the kind of diner who will have craving for bak kut teh or will think of bak kut teh when asked what I want to eat. Neither am I the kind of person who has this dish at the top of my head, nor will I have it come to mind when someone asks me what I want to eat.
Here's the irony: I can't say bak kut teh is my favorite dish, but I don't eschew a good bowl of hot, piping soup, be it the (Hokkien) black herbal one, or the (Teochew) white peppery one.
I too do not eschew big pork ribs when their meat is cooked tender to the level that it falls off the bone.
That being said, however, there are only a couple of places I am happy to go, and I like sticking to my favorite ones.
My BKT journey to date has seen me queue at a Centerpoint branch, a Chinatown branch, dash across fast-traffic Geylang Road to a shophouse at Geylang Lorong 11, cross two roads to a coffee shop at Geylang East close to Paya Lebar, walk 15 minutes, take a bus, then walk again, to this place here at Joo Chiat Road.
Sin Heng Claypot serves their bak kut teh in the soup of the dark herbal style.
What makes it interesting is that the soup isn't as thick as most people assume black herbal soups to be.
On the contrary, they make it such that there is the right balance of thickness with the right quantity of water, so you do get the thickness of a broth same time as you get the clear, watery texture of soup.
Two of our regular dishes we order here at the bak kut teh, and the ter ka.
Do I like one over the other?
No, but I do need help picking out the meat from the ter ka whose collagen-rich skin I don't know how to eat, cannot bear to see, and can't tell which is where.
This afternoon we ordered just one dish- the bak kut teh- on its own.
We weren't very hungry, and pork ribs are, naturally, easier to eat.
Just peel them off the bone, put them at the side of the bowl and drizzle some of the soy sauce over.
I have never quite struggled with how pork ribs are like- I am good with the taste in and of its own- but not too long ago I discovered the joy of enhancing the tender, clean-tasting pork with bits of coriander in a spoon with rice, and that's how I had my bak this afternoon.
One spoon holding a bit of soft, tender, boiled pork, a bit of yam rice, a single stalk of coriander and a tiny little dollop of dark soy sauce that we brought from home.
Don't laugh, the combination actually works very well.
Of course, not bak kut teh meal is complete without you tiao, and this afternoon we got ourselves one bowl.
My friend ate his crispy and plain. I dunked mine inside the soup.
Both tasted good all the same.