chinese tea cups

They serve chinese tea just like in the bak kut teh (BKT) shops in Klang. An assortment of tea sachets is presented, badly colour coded with writings in a language I can barely read let alone understand.  Pick a card, any card.  Thankfully, there are some familiar romanised words and I reach for my usual favourite.  There are kettles of boiling water on the side, placed on gas stoves for us to fill and refill our teapots.  The location of a longkang beside the tables is ideal as one can pour any used water directly into the drain.   It is a thoroughly efficient and practical system.  Drinking chinese tea is, of course, important when consuming BKT as the chinese believe that it can help wash away the oil and ease digestion.

But we’re not here to talk about tea.  Neither are we here to talk about the dusty road (before the straight and glossy Guthrie Corridor Expressway came about) which heavy vehicles ply on their daily trade.  This is the story of one bak kut teh place, just 3 minutes away from Bukit Jelutong, a little obscure and quite easily overlooked if one caught some dust in the eye from a passing lorry (in an attempt to save fuel by turning off the airconditioning).  Finding it is easy if one looked for the right signs.  No, not the well camouflaged signboards along the way.  If you’re ‘lucky’ enough to see them, you would be led straight to the new highway and in a blink of an eye, you would find yourself in Rawang where you’d be wondering why you didn’t wind down those damned windows to save fuel.  Take the old road instead and after passing a couple of traffic lights, you will see an Esso petrol station on the left.  You will find Subang Teow chew Claypot Bak Kut Teh directly opposite the petrol station.  As I said, 3 minutes from Bukit Jelutong.

BKT

The claypot BKT here is uncomplicated.  There are two types of items in it – pork meat (and the requisite amount of fats) and foo chuk (bean curd sheets).  Garnishings don’t count, of course.  The meat is tender and flaky, indicating a long period of preparation, and the soup is light and slightly peppery and a little salty in flavour, unlike the hokkien version which has a stronger herbal taste.  It all boils down to personal preference.  Me?  It depends whether it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  After all, why should one be so rigid?

foo chuk

In his blog, KY highly recommended the foo chuk.  He was right.  The foo chuk still retained its crunch and was not soggy despite the soaking in the herbal BKT broth.

The bill for 2 came up to RM29 (together with tea).  Not bad for a weekend breakfast, a reminder of my days in Klang and the numerous weekend breakfasts with my parents and my brothers and our regular guests – uncles and aunties who knew how to start the weekend with a delicious traditional breakfast.

Other writeups can be found here: Masak-masak, Julie the Biscuit and Small Kuching.

Subang Teow Chew Claypot Bak Ku Teh
Lot 653 & 655, Jalan Subang, Cherakah Subang
40150 Shah Alam.

Tel: 019-261 5303, 012-335 9219

Open Tuesdays to Sundays, breakfast and lunch only.