During my last trip back to Malaysia, I stopped by Kluang, a city in the state of Johore. It’s always great to go places, enjoy great eats, new cooking, and the trip did just that for me. Kluang is famed for its Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Tea Soup) so I had many meals of it. I also discovered a brand new kind of Bak Kut Teh using a totally unexpected and remotely distant ingredient: cuttlefish.
If you are a Bak Kut Teh connoisseur, I am sure you are skeptical, very skeptical. I don’t blame you, that was exactly my initial reaction when I heard of it. Cuttlefish in a herb-infused pork bone soup?! That doesn’t sound too appetizing.
But a kopitiam (a Malaysian slang for coffee shop) packed full with throngs of patrons for this specialty couldn’t be that wrong. The shop specializes in traditional servings of Bak Kut Teh with pork ribs, intestines, etc., but the cuttlefish one is what drives fans coming back and begging for more. At the very first taste of the piping hot cuttlefish Bak Kut Teh (served in a clay pot) , I was converted right there and then. Never mind the skeptics and nay-sayers, you just don’t know what you’re missing out…
Click for more
{ 51 comments }
