Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron, Batu Caves

It has been ages since I've met Vincent, maybe almost a year?

And when we finally arranged for breakfast and Vincent was to suggest a place, it was immediately Bak Kut Teh..hahaha how can I forget Vince who's a huge fan of it?

Since he's the BKT enthusiast, we got him to suggest..

And that's how we ended up at Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron..

Yeah, funny name huh? When I asked Vincent the name of the BKT place, he says it's simply called "Restoran Bak Kut Teh". But upon a closer look at the signage, "Gabtron" was squeezed at a tiny end of the signboard..hahaha

I was told that this place was opened by the grand daughter of the famed "under the bridge" BKT in Klang, which means expect minimal 'extra' ingredients in the BKT..

So we gave our orders and a few minutes later..

Piping hot, smells excellent..

When we were told it's served with just mainly 'bak' (meat), they were not joking..There's no extra condiments like mushrooms, beancurd, bits of veg..heck, there's only 1 type of innards, ie, intestines. And no, there's no yau zhar kwai (fried crullers) too. We felt a void...

But we recovered quickly..hehe..

So, what's left? It's for us to savour the meat, meat, meat and soup!

The verdict? We were there early (before 9 am) and the soup was already thick and sticky (from the gelatine and fat of the porky pork). It's dark based soup, herbally taste was evident and was satisfying to sip it down. The meat- we had different cuts, mainly was quite tender but still gave a nice bite to it. Overall a tasty experience, and yes, other than Klang, there's still some scrumptious BKT out there....

Restoran Bak Kut Teh Gabtron is located at 15 Jalan Sj 1, Taman Selayang Jaya, 68100 Batu Caves, Selangor.

Restoran BKT Kim Tek, Kepong

When it comes to Bak Kut Teh, there is always something distinct in a particular shop's recipe that always draws one back for more.

Maybe it's the thick, bitter soup? Or the lighter version? All those bak (meat)? Or maybe even the fried crullers that soaks up the soup?

With so many different combo, it's not surprising I never have a favourite BKT shop. Just quite a number to choose from, dont you think?

Kim Tek is Lily's favourite, a surprising choice for someone who grew up in Klang/ Shah Alam..

What's the draw for Lily? It's the soup. She loves the thick, gelatinous soup. For me, it would have been better if it was slightly more bitter and a lil less oily. The meat on the other, was cooked to wonderful melting texture, especially the lean meat chunks. Usually, these lean meat are coarser; drier in texture and bland in taste (which will be the last in the pot), but Kim Tek's version was just delicious. Juicy, melt in mouth and fully absorbed the BKT flavours.

And of course, what complements BKT better than dunking in yau zhar kuai into the soup and sipping hot chinese tea?

Lovely way to start a lazy weekend, dont you think?

Restoran BKT Kim Tek is located at 26, Jalan 3/1A, Kepong Indah, 52100 Kepong, KL.

Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh, Klang

Hey guys..

Have been ages since I did any post, my apologies...was very sick for about 2 weeks.

Even now I'm not fully recovered, the cough's still lingering :(. Such torture for a food lover like me, I lost my appetite and could not eat much, I was so hungry all the time! My friends thought it was ironic for me to feel this way, since I love food so much and I was nauseated just looking at it for the past 2 weeks..

Since now I'm feeling much better, I thought I'd better post something :)

A place I've been years back but never posted, and we did pop by a few months back...so I brought my camera along this time so I can blog about it.

One of the more famous BKT in Klang, Teluk Pulai BKT is located at the famed 'maybank square' where quite a number of BKT shops are located.

Vincent insisted that we need to be there early, to get the 'first pot of soup', if we were there later, the soup would be thinner.

The vegetables was served first...we got fibre before the sinful momma..

Then came the piping hot BKT...

The soup was thick and slightly gelatinous/ sticky from the fatty pork. Not as bitter as I'd like it to be, Teluk Pulai's version was mildly sweet from all the boiling of the pork(parts). Yes, there's lots of pork; spareribs, pork chunks, fatty meat, innards and something that Vincent like very much, the pork ligamen. Most of the meat were well infused with BKT flavours, except for the fatty meat chunks, I'd prefer a melt in mouth version compared to their more solid meaty chewy version.

A good version of BKT, though I must say I felt rather guilty having it for my breakfast early in the morning :p. We added more soup to our claypot, it was thinner than the first serving....so yeah, better be here for early brekkie if you prefer a thicker based BKT :)

Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh is located at 27H, Jalan Teluk Pulai, 41100 Klang, Selangor.

Ah Sang Bak Kut Teh, Sg. Way

Abner told me about this BKT in PJ and lucky me, he took me there quite soon too :)

Ah Sang has been running it's BKT business for years (30 years i was told) and has a loyal following of customers from around PJ area.

A claypot of piping hot BKT to start the day...

Ah Sang's BKT soup was quite thick and had a very strong herbal flavour. Skewing towards a bitter aftertaste (i believe they added quite a lot of dong gwai), I like their version of BKT. The selection of meats were tender and I find the pig stomach excellent. The pig stomach had some peppery flavour which was great served in the BKT.

I've also tried the Pork trotters in pork vinegar when I was there with my brother on another visit.. Both of us took a sip of the vinegar and the first reaction was Mum's pork trotters vinegar. Tasted very similar to my mother's version of vinegar pork trotters, Ah Sang's vinegar pork trotters had the amount of sourness that I like. Pity that the gula melaka they used was less, hence it was not as fragrant. As the meat had fully absorbed the black vinegar, it was tasty.

Ah Sang Bak Kut Teh is located at No 531, Jalan SS9A/12, Seri Setia, Sg. Way, 47300 Petaling Jaya. Tel: 03-7876299.

Restaurant Hau Xiang Lai Steamboat and Teo Chew Bah Kut Teh, SS2

Many shops sells hawker fare in day time while at night, it's converted to tai chow place (chinese stir fry).

Hau Xiang Lai had the same concept, the only difference was, they serve bak kut teh and dishes by day, and steam boat by night. I did get to try on both occasion, and decided to combine both my lunch and dinner there in 1 post....

Their BKT was cooked in teo chew style, hence, the soup was lighter in colour, and not as thick.The BKT(RM14) was average, the broth was thinner in flavour; it had generous servings of mushrooms and foochook. The meat (the usual choice of lean, fatty, ribs, stomach, intestines) was not as tender as I like it, but it's still fine. I'd prefer my BKT a tad more bitter, Hau Xiang Lai's was too mild. Guess it depends on preference as my friend CW loves teochew BKT..

We also tried their fish head with black bean sauce. It's just mediocre, in fact, SL find it somewhat fishy. Quite large serving for RM20 though.

As for dinner, Hau Xiang Lai is converted to steamboat restaurant, guess it's a pretty comfortable place to have steamboat as it's with air condition. The servings are charged according to per pax, I cant recall how much per pax, but it's about RM16 per person. You can also choose to take some ala carte orders (additional ingredients) for the steam boat.Price ranges from RM2 to RM10 per plate. We liked the fish taufoo, sui kows and porkballs.The choice of soup base includes cheng thong (light soup), tom yam and BKT . We had cheng thong and tomyam, was ok.

Overall, the food in Hau Xiang Lai is average, but no complaints. Just average.

Restoran Bah Kut Teh Shun Heng, Sunway Mas

No I did not spell BKT wrongly, just following their sign board.. Having BKT at Shun Heng was rather unplanned for as redv as looking at going somewhere further like serdang for food.. anyways, change of plans, decided to eat somewhere near instead. Dragon joined us too since she was around that area..

We reached there slightly after 12noon, and only 2 tables were occupied. Hmm, maybe not such a good choice for lunch? The reason for us to pop over to Shun Heng was due to the fact that it serves dry BKT and since redv and dragon have never tried dry BKT before, might as well try here (rather than driving to Klang)..

My second time trying dry BKT since my first trying in Klang. The orders took some time to come, though not extremely slow..

The BKT was served first. The soup was fine, quite herby, though not sufficiently bitter (foo kum in cantonese) for me. The meat (of lean, ribs and mixed fatty types) were tender and does not 'stick in your teeth' as redv pointed out. Although it was not as good as those in Klang, dragon do find Shun Heng's better than some BKT shops in PJ.

We were served with white rice mixed with fried shallots. Looks pretty that I had to take a picture of it..Texture was just right.

And finally, the dry BKT..Ok la, ada standard (there's a level of quality) compared to the one I had in Klang (which I dont know where I went, an uncle brought me to a kampung which I was totally lost). The meat (lean and short ribs) were tender, heavily infused with the intense flavour of sliced cuttlefish, dried chillies, okra and onions. Stir fry with dark soy sauce and sugar, you hardly get any gravy, but just a coat of sticky, caramelised, fragrant sauce enveloping the meat..I was told that the meat used were the same as those served for soup BKT, hence it was so tender. For those who are not willing to drive to Klang to have dry BKT, I think Shun Heng's dry BKT does a pretty fine version of it.

Finish the meal with a hot pot of chinese tea on a rainy afternoon..ahhh, wonderful. hehe. Total bill was RM34 (BKT for 3 ppl, 4 plates of rice and pot of chinese tea).

What Julianne thinks?

Tasty and filling

Restaurant Bak Kut Teh Shun Heng is located at No. 9-1, Jalan PJU 1/3C, Sunway Mas Commercial Centre, PJ.Tel: 012-392 3082. Drive towards Aman Suria, it's the business center next to it. At Jin Shan Cheng (your landmark, corner, on your right), turn right. Drive on, turn right again. Shun Heng is on your left, facing a kopitiam.