Foong Tak Sing Claypot Bak Kut Teh @ Taman Connaught

A Disney Story Gone Bad

  You're cold, your clothes wet from rain and you forgot your umbrella. The only thing you need and could think of is a nice hot meal, you walk into the shop and you sit down with your friends who awaited your arrival. Recommended by them this place and yet there was that tiny doubtfulness in you, could this fill the void ? Out comes a claypot with steaming hot air arising from it and two separate dishes were served, one 'Yao Zha Guai and the other 'Tauhu Pork'. The broth beige in colour with strips of cabbages swimming in it and pieces of pork ribs surrounding it like buoys.

 

Yes, this is what you need after the time you spent in the train trying to breath any clean air amidst the stench of sweat. This is what you need after the energy you used trying to push through from start to finish. With the ladle you pour the soup onto the rice like it was a baptism, forging a tightly knit bond. Together with a piece of pork rib you welcomed it into the mouth. Nothing. Just emptiness there like the void you were hoping to fill and you see some of your friends enjoying it, could it be that I missed something ? Again you try and still it was lacking something, almost like a valentine's day surprise except without the candlelight dinners, the sweet romantic music and the date. That was what it was pure disappointment.

  Bak kut teh is a broth boiled together with pork ribs, pork intestines, bean curd skin, cabbages and some traditional herbs into a hot, aromatic and mouth-watering dish. What holds all these together is the broth like I said before, the aroma in this bak kut teh is nonexistent and just steaming hot air. The soup is the crucial part of bak kut teh as it is the essential part that brings taste in the ingredients by letting it be absorbed. There was no taste of herbs in it and the warmth that we have come to love is absent in it. If it is weak then its counterparts will be too, the meat made a valiant effort to save the day but it was not enough as it bore no flavour. The rest of the bak kut teh was a big empty claypot with no pork intestines and I can already hear the screams in the people who are reading this now blasphemy they would say. Some people that shan't be named said to me once, 

"Gabe, you know what's the best part of bak kut teh ? 'Yao Zhar kwai'(Fried dough)" he said filled with confidence

"haha yea" I replied reluctantly while my irrational side told me to run away.

Fried dough is a condiment that does not contribute to the taste of bak kut teh but pork intestines however carry the taste in them that when you chew into their chewy texture the juices squirt into thy mouth. The pork intestines are nobles in court while the fried dough the handmaidens are there to just compliment the nobles. 

  The only thing you could take away from that is a full stomach but what point is there to it ? Just like the tauhu pork you are filled with the broth but the broth is bland. The vacant spot you hoped to fill with comfort is gone, your taste buds disgusted by your decision and your day ended with defeat. 

Makan meter: Meh

Foong Tak Sing Claypot Bak Kut Teh

12, Jalan Waras 1,
Taman Connaught,
56000 Kuala Lumpur,
Wilayah Persekutuan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia