Several restaurants, selling the Nanyang-popular bak but teh (肉骨茶 / pork-ribs soup), are located along Jalan Keris 1, a short lane leading from Taman Sri Tebrau (大马花园 / Dai Mah Garden) to Taman Sentosa, and Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh (亞顺肉骨茶餐室) is one of them. The restaurant is popular among locals and Singapore visitors, and can be very packed on weekends.
Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh is renowned for its traditional Malaysian-style herbal bak kut teh, slow-cooked over charcoal, and has been serving it for more than 50 years. Aside from pork ribs soup, Ah Soon’s claypot sesame oil chicken is another famous dish to try.
Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh serves their traditional pork ribs soup in claypots and optionally accompanied by cut fried dough (油条). Typical of Malaysian-style bak kut teh, other ingredients such as pig livers, pig intestines, fried tofu skins, mouth mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, etc, can be added-on to the broth and charcoal-boiled together.
For solo diner, getting a 1-pax serving bak kut teh (炭火砂煲肉骨茶) and optionally adding up to two other ingredients are sufficient for a full meal — I added different things each time (in the photo below, mouth mushrooms and pig livers are added). The traditional way to eat the pork ribs is to dip them in dark sweet sauce and eat with some chopped garlic and chilli. The pork ribs are tender and separate from the bones easily. The aromatic broth is rich in herbal flavour, savoury but not bitter. I always finish the broth.
For dining in group, aside from getting larger serving for the claypot bak kut teh and adding-on more ingredients, go for additional side dishes of preserved mustards and braised tofu puffs. Fried dough is definitely a must. The preserved mustards, sweet-savoury with mellow acidity and not too salty, has become my favourite.
As mentioned, Ah Soon’s Claypot Sesame Oil Chicken (砂煲麻油鸡) is not to be missed. It is an aromatic dish with tender chicken meat in thick dark-soy-sesame-oil sauce. The sauce has really nice flavour, with slight claypot flavour, and is great to add to rice. It is difficult not to empty the claypots and bowls.
For customers who love the flavours of Ah Soon’s bak kut teh, get a bag of their spices to self-cook at home. Each bag is sufficient for 1Kg of pork ribs, serving at least 4 persons — it is too much for me, so I visit Ah Soon often to have them cook for me.
Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh is definitely not to be missed when planning a trip to the food haven in Taman Sri Tebrau. Two shop-units away is Castella Cake & Bakery House, which sells several flavours of traditional castella cakes, egg tarts and char siew buns. Both shops are affiliated and Ah Soon have promotions for its customers to enjoy RM5 discounts off purchases at the bakery on the same day — whilst the promotion lasts!
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Address:
141, Jalan Keris 1, Taman Sri Tebrau, 80500 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
8am to 4pm | Closed on Monday
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take BAS.MY J11 / J15 / J20 / J22 to Crystal Crown Hotel and cross the road. Read: JB Bus: To Taman Pelangi & Dai Mah Garden.
Nearby:
More @ Taman Sri Tebrau:
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