肉骨茶 Bak Kut Teh @ 銘香肉骨茶 Restoran Ming Siang Bak Kut Teh SS14

1 June.2022 Dinner

@ 銘香肉骨茶 Restoran Ming Siang Bak Kut Teh SS14 (click here to Google Map)

No. 40, Jalan SS 14/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor

GPS Location: 3°04'21.2"N 101°35'26.8"E
肉骨茶 Bak Kut Teh rm$15 👍👍😋😋 7/10

干肉骨茶 Dry Bak Kut Teh rm$15 👍👍😋 6.5/10

Total bill: rm$43.60 (for 2 persons)
Budget: rm$20 - rm$25++/person
Payment: Cash  
Cuisine: Chinese

Pork free: Pork, Fish

Alcohol free: no Beer here

Air-Conditioning in Restaurant: Fan only

Internet Wifi speed: No

Digital Nomad Work-friendly Cafe: No

Electrical outlets for Digital Device: No  

Free Drinking Water: No

Menu prices: Net 

Order & Delivery: Tale Service

On-line Delivery Service: Not sure

Indoor Seating tables:  12+tables (3-5ppl/table) 

Outdoor Seating: None

Drive Through: No

Take away : Yes

Dine-in: Yes

Happy Hour: N/A

Parking: MBSJ  

Photos taken using: Samsung Note 8
Thoughts: SS15 is well known for its parking woes especially along SS15/4 where there are easily 10 or more Bubble Tea shops along this one street alone! And more so in the evenings, the trees on both sides on the roads of SS15 and SS14 split by NPE are notoriously known for its hundreds or maybe thousands of crows. 

While there is the SS15 Bubble Tea street, SS14 is known for its 肉骨茶 Bak Kut Teh street along SS14/2:

Da De Bah Kut Teh 大德古早味肉骨茶 (14, SS 14/2)

Restoran Chuan Chiew 泉洲肉骨茶 (18, SS 14/2)

New Hiang Kee Bak Kut Teh 新香記肉骨茶 (32, SS 14/2)

Ming Siang Bak Kut Teh & Curry Fish Head 銘香肉骨茶 (40, SS 14/2)

Ah Ping Bak Kut Teh 阿彬(鐵人)肉骨茶 (42, SS 14/2)

Kee Hiong Klang Bak Kut Teh 奇香吧生肉骨茶 (50, SS 14/2) 

Restoran Yu Kee Bak Kut Teh 有記瓦煲肉骨茶 (54, SS 14/2)

Restoran Chuan Klang Bak Kut Teh 全師傅吧生肉骨茶 (66, SS 14/2)

Xin Kee Bak Kut Teh 新記肉骨茶 (78, SS 14/2) 

Some open as early as 8:30am/9am like 全師傅 Restoran Chuan and 泉洲 Chuan Chiew, while other from Lunch; a single location for an All-day Long Bak Kut Teh. Albeit, beware of bird poops accumulation if you decide to park under the trees along SS14/2 in the evenings! Maybe it is better to park along SS14/2A (the next road), but not a problem as all the shop lots here have 2 entrances. 

Budget for Bak Kut Teh here is about rm$20 to rm$25 per person, and usually more people sharing may be slightly cheaper. 

SS14's 銘香肉骨茶 Restoran Ming Siang Bak Kut Teh may not be the most popular Bak Kut Teh compared to next door corner shop lot 阿彬 Ah Ping; but 銘香 is also popular for its 咖哩/亞參魚頭 Curry/Asam Fish Head serving along with your usual Bak Kut Teh meal. The standard Bak Kut Teh is Claypot soup or dry variant, and a single serving of claypot BKT at rm$15 per pax; and the claypot comes with 豆腐卜 tau fu pok and 生菜 lettuce with option for 金針菇 mushrooms and 油條 fritters (additional costs); but soup add-on is FOC. 

Just like many foods, 肉骨茶 Bak Kut Teh is another one of those long time food debates of whether it is a 新加坡 Singapore thing or a 馬來西亞 Malaysian invention, and there are many stories about it.
The Malaysian popular 巴生肉骨茶 Klang Bak Kut Teh, is often said to the the 福建口味 Hokkien version, with a more herbal flavor as it is prepared using a variety of 草藥 herbs and 香料 spices, with a mixture of 醬油 soy sauce to create a darker broth. The story is that the Klang or Hokkien version of BKT was "invented" by a 李文地先生 Mr Lee Boon Teh in the 1940's (a man from Fujian, China), known as “肉骨 Bak Kut” only until they associate him with the dish, and added “Teh” to become “Bak Kut Teh”. 李先生 Mr Lee Boon Teh posses the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine and experimented with several types of medicinal herbs that are beneficial to the body and mix them with pork for cooking. In 1945, 第二次世界大戰後 after the World War II, Bak Kut Teh founder 李文地 Lee Boon Teh started selling Bak Kut Teh in a attap house near the pier by the riverside of the 巴生橋底肉骨 Klang Suspension Bridge. At that time, his customers were 碼頭的搬運工人 porters at the pier. 李文地的七個兒子和許多孫子 Lee's seven sons and many grandchildren now run numerous different Bak Kut Teh brands in Klang, Kuala Lumpur, all over Malaysia and in Singapore. Although 李文地 Lee Boon Teh may have invented the herbal version of the 巴生肉骨茶 Klang Bak Kut Teh, But Mr Lee came to 巴生 Klang from 福建 Fujian only after the Second World War which ended in 1945, that's nearly half a century after Bak Kut Teh (probably the Teow Chew version) appeared in Klang!

And so, another version of its origin is that, since 克拉碼頭 Clarke Quay was established by the British in the mid-19th century, Bak Kut Teh originated in the island of Singapore way back in between 1860 and 1920 (long before Mr 李文地 Lee Boon Teh arrived in Klang!), several decades ahead of 李文地巴生肉骨茶 Lee's version of the herbal flavored BKT in Malaysia's Port Swettenham (now 巴生港口 Port Klang). It is also very likely that it is invented by maybe 潮州移民 Teochew immigrants who migrated to Nanyang from Henan 河南省 and Shanxi 山西省 via the ports of 中國福建省 Hokkien/Fujian Province of China. And it is interesting to note that the 潮語華人 Teochew-speaking Chinese in Singapore constitutes about a fifth of the Chinese Singaporean population, making them the second-largest 閩南語群體 Southern Min dialect-speaking group (otherwise also known as “福建 Hokkien”.) On top of that, Teochew is also generally considered to be a Hokkien dialect with a lot of similarities; and the word "肉骨茶" pronunciation as "肉 Bak 骨 Kut 茶 Teh" literally translates from the Hokkien dialect as "肉 Meat 骨 Bone 茶 Tea". in Singapore. And, that is why some say that the 新加坡肉骨茶 Singapore Bak Kut Teh is the "潮州 Teowchew" version of the Bak Kut Teh, and 潮州肉骨茶 Teowchew BKT which is characterized by the 淡白色 pale white color broth, and the 味道辛辣 taste is peppery and 大蒜味 infused with garlic. It is therefore distinctly different from 巴生肉骨茶 Klang BKT, which is more 草藥香料風味 harbal flavored with 醬油 soy sauce for a darker broth! 

Food today: 6.5 / 10 👍👍😋

Price: 5 / 10 😐
Value for Money: 6 / 10 👍
Service: 7 / 10 👍👍
Ambiance: 4 / 10 😐😐
Parking: 5 / 10 😐
LRT/MRT/BRT/MTR Transport:  3 / 10 😐😐😐 (1km from SS15 LRT station)

Website: not found
Facebook: not found
Telephone: +6019-220 2691
Operation hours: 10:30am - 10:00pm

肉骨茶 Bak Kut Teh rm$15 & 干肉骨茶 Dry Bak Kut Teh rm$15

The Shop

 

@ 铭香肉骨茶 Restoran Ming Siang Bak Kut Teh SS14