Bak Kut Teh is a meat dish cooked in a broth with herbs and spices and is popularly served in Klang but we were invited to Tong Shui Hou Bak Kut Teh Restaurant which is located at No. 51-G Jalan Puteri 2/3 Bandar Puteri 47100 Puchong Selangor to try out this Hokkien dish.
From the name of the restaurant i.e. Tong Shui Hou; it literally means good soup broth. With that, we start to wonders what is so special about the soup broth that this Bak Kut Teh restaurant has to offers. The setup of this restaurant is very simple and being open for more than 1-year-old, the place is very clean to dine in with a very straight forward menu.
According to the owner/chef, he is a strong believer of using the top ingredients to cook his dishes. Not only that, even the simple condiments like the Soya Sauce are of premium quality and the garlic is manually chopped. That is how important; quality is to this chef as we will find out from our tasting of all the dishes for the night.
Our review started off with the Claypot Bak Kut Teh (RM 14.00); this broth is a special recipe that is being tuned from the Klang version but with a stark resemblance to its Kuala Lumpur counterpart. It is not too strong but retains the flavourful aroma of the herbs. Served in a Claypot, the customer can order their choice of meat that goes into the Claypot.
The next dish is the Dry Bak Kut Teh (RM15.00); frankly speaking, I am not a real fan of the Dry version; as for me, I like the soup based version. But here, when the dish arrives at our table, we could smelt a strong flavour of the dry squid. Usually, this dish is cooked with small pieces of dry squid which make this dish very flavorful. The chef told us that, he would grill the dry squid and then blend it to a fine powder form and a spoonful is added into it when cooking this Dry Bak Kut Teh. The final result, it gives a much stronger flavour and aroma to this Dry Bak Kut Teh. The sauce was good to the last drop.
After that, we had the special Lala Bak Kut Teh (RM 15.00). At most places, we are usually served either the Seong Tong version or the Herbal version, but for a change, we were served with Bak Kut Teh broth which is infused with the Tong Kui. A nice change though as the broth was good with the white rice.
The next dish is named the Halogen Pork (RM 14.00). According to the Chef, this is a very traditional Hakka dish; in which the Pork is braised over a number of hours to get to the fork tender texture. We were surprised when told that these braised pork dishes does not have any condiments like star anise or cinnamon and other spices; which are traditionally used to braised pork. Another one of the dishes that goes superbly with white rice.
Another dish that is perfect with the white rice is the Taro (Yam) With Pork Belly (RM 13.00). The combination of the roasted pork belly which was perfectly done and sandwiched between the 2 piece of the taro was a real treat.
This next dish is the Hakka version Claypot Pig Trotter With Vinegar (RM 15.00). This Hakka version is a sweeter and less sourish type as compared with the version which I like which has a stronger vinaigrette taste which we are more accustomed to.
I personally like the next soup which is the Claypot Pepper Pig Stomach Soup (RM 12.00). To me, a nice pepper soup has to have that distinctive strong pepper taste and aroma. Here, the Chef secret recipe is in the use of top grade Sarawak Pepper (which gives a strong pepper sensation and taste), which he personally grind it to make this soup. For those that loves a stronger version, you can ask for the add-on pepper which is grounded Sarawak Pepper for you to add in to give you the extra strong pepper .
The last dish is the Peanuts Chicken Feet (RM 8.00). The peanuts are of the Braised type and have a soft texture, sweet taste and cooked with the Fried Chicken Feet.
At Tong Sui Hou we like the Shallot Oil Rice as it was very aromatic and was perfectly matched to most of the dishes that was served to us.
One of the real deal here is that the Chef takes great pain to prepare his dishes using the good quality ingredient, an authentic cooking style that takes more preparation time to ensure the wholesome flavours that give you a comfort feel, taste and satisfaction like you used to enjoy during your village days. Tong Shui Hou Bak Kut Teh Restaurant @ Bandar Puteri Puchong is opened daily from 3pm to 11pm.