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Motormouth From Ipoh

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Klang's Famous Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh

A colonial building ... possibly Klang's municipal building?
Klang town is notorious/infamous for a few reasons. The traffic jams. The un-clean surroundings. And the traffic jams. Oh, did I repeat myself there? ;)

A touch of royalty ...

But of course, this town, situated around 30km from Kuala Lumpur, houses the royal palace for the Sultan of Selangor, and one of the busiest (if not THE busiest) port in Malaysia, Port Klang. It is also one of the world's busiest seaport.

A boy cycling past the gate of the palace

Soon to be granted city status, Klang is rapidly developing, and flourishing, indeed a future force to be reckon with, in terms of tourism and development.

But of course, Klang is famous for one specific dish. Even the most un-foodie of Malaysians are able to correlate Klang with Bak Kut Teh, a herbal soup concoction with various pork cuts, from ribs to lean cuts, and tenderloin, and served with various type of vegetables.

Side view of Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh

After tasting several of Klang's best offerings, Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh in Taman Intan, Klang (opposite of Jusco Bukit Raja, but DO NOT cross the busy highway, you're just walking into your own grave!!!) managed to impress me time and again. Even boo_licious, Joe, kySpeaks and several others agreed.

Opens for breakfast and lunch only, the place is packed on most days

Choose your brew

The place is packed on most days, typically on public holidays and weekends. Unlike Ipoh's Bak Kut Teh outlets, here you pick your own Chinese tea, brew them with a steaming kettle of hot water placed on strategic locations, and wait patiently for your serving of Bak Kut Teh.

Normally, the person sitting nearest to the kettle would be automatically in-charged of brewing and pouring tea for everyone on the table

Yau Char Kwai - Chinese crullers

Most outlets serve mediocre Yau Char Kwai to complement the fragrant herbal soup. But not in this restaurant. The flavourful fried dough/breadsticks are crunchy, and soak up the soup really well, providing squirts of aromatic herbal aroma with every bite.

White rice with fried shallots

The white, fluffy rice served with Klang's Bak Kut Teh is different from other states. Firstly, the rice is drizzled with fragrant oil, and the sprinkling of fried shallots on the rice is a good enough reason to consume the rice on its own.

Claypot brimming with porky-licious cuts

You can pick your preferred cuts of pork, from the usual 'bun fei sau' (half lean-half fat) to pork ribs, and tenderloin to 'yat chi kuat' (a whole bone, resembling chicken drumstick). Innards are served as well, and you can choose golden mushrooms ("kam cham ku") and additional "foo chook" (beancurds) if desired.

Soon to disappear in minutes ...

The fragrant herbal soup, not overpowering, but not as diluted as some restaurants' offerings. You can request for unlimited top-up of the soup, for free. A wise option, considering even without the meats, eating the rice with soup alone is a feast in its own right. Delightful, and warming concoction of Bak Kut Teh, possibly THE best in Klang, and even Malaysia.

Front view of the shop

Total for 4, including drinks and rice = RM39. We ordered a portion for 3 person, as this was BREAKFAST after all. Oh, and here in Klang, you can even opt for HALF portion, eg. 1.5 portion if you're eating with a friend, particularly with small-eaters.

Location : Teluk Pulai Bak Kut Teh @ 32, Jalan Batai Laut 5, Kawasan 16, Taman Intan, 41300 Klang. Do refer to the other bloggers' posts for directions.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

So this is back to KL sequel. I once did try Klang for BKT but without recommendation did not find any and was sadly disappointed, tho I ended up in Port Klang with the famous Gong place restaurant in the middle of no where but teeming with executives well dressed.

It looks yummy except the chi kuat that sticks out is a bit disgusting. Love kim chan mushrooms and yeow char kwuai; I have not eaten yet and I am so hungry.

Anonymous said...

For everyone's attention,THE traffic jam is not a permanent situation. It is due to the upgrading works near the Klang bridge that the Klang folks will have to endure for the next 18 mths. Hopefully it will be a smooth ride after that.
p/s: Hmm...I hope this is not a tit-for-tat post from the way "certain" ppl always comment on ur beloved Ipoh ya?! Need i say more?...=P

mh said...

aha, i like this as well, especially the fragrant oil rice, will make me keep on eat and eat and eat... will get fat though :)

CRIZ LAI said...

Aiks.. I will be in Klang this coming weekend. Maybe I will pop in the shop to try them out. Do they serve the dry version as well? I can't get enough of that and not even one stall in Penang has the dry version as tasty as those in Klang. Errr... I think I will go for Bak Kut Teh dinner afterwards :P

Psss.. My housemate just brought back 1.5kg of fresh sotong... I hope I can fry the sotong like your last post. I better get an armour ready as frying sotong is not an easy task. Mind the oil!

http://crizfood.blogspot.com/

J2Kfm said...

jencooks : yeah, alternating my blog on KL food and the others. else I risk suffering another bout of amnesia!

MBoy : gee, thanks for the clarification, and rest assured nothing's personal. The BKT's real good. That's probably all there is to it. haha ... I didn't go to the 'stench', did I? :)

tekko : aiyo, I was practically chomping and devouring without a care to my surroundings. the rice with the herbal soup is REAL addictive stuff.

CrizLai : OH! fried sotong MY fav!!! be it Chinese style, Nyonya style, Malay style, or Mamak style, everything's to my liking!
dry version this one dunhave, the other one in Pandamaran named Yap Beng (the origin of dry BKT, it seems) is rather tasty, though the crowd can be intimidating.

Little Inbox said...

Is their BKT with some other ingredients beside pork?

Anonymous said...

Guess I shall delay my BKT post ^^
Else everyone jelak with BKT.

Ciki said...

as usual, written and captured very well!

backStreetGluttons said...

we used to frequent BKT shops quite often few years back , but this one din rank among our top 5 and we only remembered the chicken feet at the bottom .

who knows maybe they have improved or its just us
LOL !

Hulk said...

Ever tried the Dry Bak Kut Teh Version...its spicier.
It was recomended at 8TV HoChak.
But tested Sitiawan Dry version...quite nice. Heard Klang version is better.

J2Kfm said...

little inbox : eh, I usually let the hosts ordered, and on most days we had the pork cuts, either all lean, half-half, ribs, etc.

jason : haha, wont la. Malaysian-ized breakfast ma! I like! wei, if you're back, let's go for Ipoh BKT crawl k?

cumi & ciki : thanks! :)

BSG : really? I'd like to know which ones made it to you guys' list!

hulk : yeah! tried one in Pandamaran, named Yap Beng. Not bad, but the wait was torturous. come to think of it, been sooo long since I hear from you! busy?

J2Kfm said...

oh really ah?
but of all the times I went, only one time I came out disappointed for lack of flavour.
probably to each its own, =P

HairyBerry said...

i find their innards soft, which was excellent! and the soup was well-flavoured. goes well with the rice.

J2Kfm said...

yup, Nic, agreed wholeheartedly. Oh, I can polish off a whole claypot had I wanted to!!!! and the yau char kwai goes soooo well with the soup.

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

4 person eat 3 person portion..OMG, that is a sin!..

if you were to ever go out eat klang bkt with me or my friend..minimum 2 person portion per person..

Anonymous said...

i m now quite a regular there, how come i never had fried onions on my rice? btw, i don't like their selection of tea, prefer to use my own tea leaves :D and sometimes the rubber smell there is extremely strong

J2Kfm said...

joe : aiya, I was not the one doing the ordering ma. hehe ... some more breakfast only, must save space for lunch! 2 person portion per person?!!! *faint*

xin : oh, for this outlet, you've gotta request for the fried shallots. other outlets they'll serve them together

soo sean said...

For me too, one person portion for one person is definitely not enough. I always order the dry bah ku teh and the soup bah ku teh....miss it so much!

J2Kfm said...

soo sean, you're probably right. but breakfast being breakfast, I'd rather keep some space for more to come. :)

Smiley Tiger said...

Dudes , I beg to differ . Having live in Klang for the last 29 years , oh actually 30 if not for 1 year abroad. I must say that this is the most over-rated BKT. Only frequent by those from outstation. Probably just due to convenience since it is just located right after the Klang toll along Federal Highway. There are hundreds of BKT shops in Klang and you should drive a little more deeper into South Klang (once u crossed a river , that is south Klang) and try out few more outlets over there. One of my fav is located in Taman Sentosa behind the old KFC.I won't advertise the name of the shop though for being fair. I don't sell BKT , but I find there's a need to correct this misconception spread by 'external' ppl , these bloggers. 1 fellow blogger linked to another and so on and so forth. And btw , what make u think Klang is a notorious place ? The ppl here are warm and friendly , second to none in Msia probably with the exception of Penangite. And you started your writing with the tag "unclean surroundings" , can you pls name the example ? What about KL ? Pudu and surrounding areas are filthy dirty can we label KL as dirty as a whole? Chill out dude , be fair in your comment ..

J2Kfm said...

hi Smiley Tiger, how un-befitting the nick may be. :)
chill dude. it's just my personal opinion, and fyi I'm not even staying in KL nor Klang ok?

notorious refers to the jams (which you gotta admit, from the time i blogged about this, until today, they're still at it, building the flyover right smack in the town area, causing massive jams).

so ok, you may think Klang is 'clean' in your own terms, but i did not compare this with KL nor Pudu. and this shop is recommended by a Klang fren of mine, who had been staying there since he was born. does that make his tastebuds inferior to yours then?

and fyi, he's NOT a blogger.

i've tried MANY BKT outlets in Klang, trust me on this. from the usual claypots to the ones in bowls, wet or dry, big bones small bones, you name it.

but this one is simpler, satisfying, although a bit expensive. not that it's accessible or what nonsense. I tried those in housing areas, in Teluk Pulai, Pandamaran, etc.

taste is a rather subjective matter, Tiger. before leaving your comment bashing on other people's preference, PLEASE understand this. thanks for your time.