Joe Wong Bak Kut Teh

No. 1 & 3, Jalan Segambut Tepi

51200 Kuala Lumpur

Coordinates: 3.145029, 101.711230

We have a particular penchant for ¹Bak Kut Teh (BKT for short). This cholesterol laden pot of black gold is an obsession is hard to shake. After reading rave reviews online we were hard-pressed not to give Joe Wong BKT a try.

¹a Chinese soup that literally means "meat bone tea", and at its simplest, consists of meaty pork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic) for hours. Additional ingredients may include offal, varieties of mushroom, choy sum, and pieces of dried tofu or fried tofu puffs. Additional Chinese herbs may include yu zhu (玉竹, rhizome of Solomon's Seal) and ju zhi (buckthorn fruit), which give the soup a sweeter, slightly stronger flavour. Light and dark soy sauce are also added to the soup during cooking and garnished with chopped coriander or green onions and a sprinkling of fried shallots, and usually eaten with rice.

If you have been following our blog you would have noticed a trend developing. Living in Subang we used to frequent Yu Kee, while trying out other establishments that serve BKT as well.

Joe Wong BKT is a newly found eatery and is pretty tricky to locate if you are not properly guided by GPS. It shares a mutual premise with the God of Prosperity Temple here in Segambut. After parking our car at the temple premises we walked to the back but not before passing by a few tables hosting a rather noisy session of ²Mahjong.

²a tile-based game played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols that originated in China during the Qing dynasty. It is commonly played by four players. Similar to the Western card game rummy it is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.

The exterior may not be charming or appealing but we did not come here for its aesthetics. What mattered was the herbal broth they prepared.

unassuming

simple

deceptively excellent

Scanning their menu, we decided on a pot of BKT and with the proprietress’ insistence we gave the Herbal Chicken Soup a try as well.

our new-found love: herbal chicken soup

BKT: black gold

to wash it all down

bon appetit

What can we say? Brendan who is a hard person to pleased was completely enamoured with the BKT, while Cat and I fell head over heels for the Herbal Chicken Soup. The taste, aroma and texture of meat was exquisite and although a bit pricy (the entire meal cost us RM57) we would still recommend this place to all and sundry.

Herbal broths have a new name as far as we are concerned: Joe Wong Bak Kut Teh!