The Origin of Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh is undoubtedly one of the most popular Malaysian Chinese dish everywhere. Klang is particularly famous for Bak Kut Teh where you can find many shops and hawker stalls selling Bak Kut Teh in its many variations.


If you are a Bak Kut Teh fan, here's a trivia for you - where do you think is the origin of Bak Kut Teh? Undisputably, most will insist it is a Malaysian dish (perhaps some Singaporeans might differ on this) but where exactly is it from? Some people remarked that it must be from Klang as this is where Bak Kut Teh is most famous. Well, this is partly correct. According to the most plausible version of the story, Bak Kut Teh was invented by a gentleman from Quanzhou of the Fujian province in China. The secret recipe was passed to a friend who later went to Klang and became the first person to commercialise and sell Bak Kut Teh. The dish went on to become a famous dish and was copied and improved many times over. So according to this version the Hokkiens were the inventors of the dish. The Teochews came later and the main visual difference between the Hokkien and Teochew version of Bak Kut Teh is that the Hokkiens use dark soy sauce and thus the soup base is characteristically darker in colour. It is up to the individual's taste buds which one tastes better.


Bak Kut Teh was originally served in an octagonal bowl of short depth. Later variations tend to serve the dish in clay pot which we think only serves to keep the heat. Some swears it adds to the taste while others (traditionalists) seem to think it is just another gimmick to provide product differentiation. One thing for sure, the clay pot version usually comes added with extra ingredients like straw mushrooms, lettuce or abalone into the dish. Perhaps the traditionalists are right, it's just a gimmick for an excuse to charge more. What's your view?