Johor Bahru Eat: Soon Chiang Bak Kut Teh (顺江肉骨茶) @ Taman Pelangi

22 October 2024

Soon Chiang Bak Kut Teh (顺江肉骨茶), located along Jalan Maju or the locally-known “Newspaper Street” behind Plaza Pelangi, serves old-taste bak kut teh (pork ribs soup) in traditional way since 1982.

Aside from bak kut teh with spare ribs, there are pig stomach, intestine, belly meat, pig tail, pork knuckle and meat bone in different soup-bases as well. Dried beancurd puff and salted vegetable are also available as side dishes, but no fried dough (油条) though.

Unlike most bak kut teh restaurants in Johor Bahru that serves all add-on ingredients in one claypot, Soon Chiang serves each ingredient in separate bowl with respective broth — i.e. pig stomach will have its dedicated broth, spare ribs with a different broth, etc. This is one of the traditional ways of having bak kut teh.

The bak kut teh with spare ribs comes in a dark broth that is lightly herbal (spices) and added with dark soy sauce — Hokkien style. The broth has well-balanced taste and not too savoury. The spare ribs meat, having cooked in the broth, has similar flavours and also very tender and separate from the bones easily.