My boss, Allison, Pelf Yeen and myself so happened had to go to a place together and after finishing what we were supposed to do, we headed out for lunch.

Seeing that we needed to pass by Cheng and recalling that there’s a bah kut teh restaurant that I wanted to try but yet to, I suggested it and most of us agreed, except for 50%-vegetarian Pelf Yeen. She only eats chicken and fish, the white meat. Sad, right?

SH (Shun Fatt) Bah Kut Teh Restaurant, said to be a branch from somewhere else, and this particular branched could be the 17th or 19th. Why not 18th? There’s a branch in Bachang and that branch is the 18th, according to the signboard, that is.

As it was lunch time, there were quite a lot of customers, occupying most of the tables at that moment.

Garlics, cili padis, dark soy sauce with red chilies. A must, in every bah kut teh meal, together with a pot of Chinese tea.

Since the invention of gas stove, many has ditched charcoal fire but in this particular restaurant, they use charcoals to boil / cook your pot of bah kut teh. Yes, old school style. While using charcoals will give you a smoky smell to your already fragrant dishes, it is not easy to control the heat and fire. Slightly bigger, there goes your food. Anything too small, you get uncooked food.

The pot of bah kut teh, surprisingly, tasted nothing like bah kut teh. The soup was way too clear for bah kut teh, it was almost like those noodles soup. Taste wise, it was more of herbal soup with somewhat slightly stronger angelica (当归) taste. Honestly, after patronizing a few bah kut teh stalls, I wouldn’t call this as bah kut teh.

However, my boss like the soup though.

For the non pork eater, we ordered a small pot of chicken cooked in sesame oil.

The aromatic sesame oil was simply irresistible and I quickly dug in once I took my photos. While it wasn’t the best, it was definitely delicious. Just the right amount of oiliness, with thick soy sauce for the flavour and sesame oil for the fragrance. Yummy! However, it is either they used a very skinny chicken or they simply chopped the meat. There were bones everywhere, I found myself chewing on the bones more than the meat itself. Probably they should have diced it into chicken cubes instead of chopping it like minced meat.

While it wasn’t entirely disappointing, their bah kut teh is definitely not my kind of bah kut teh. However, I got to applaud them for using pork ribs instead of those pathetic sliced meat and meat balls yet proudly declaring it as bah kut teh. It always give me the WTF-feeling whenever I order bah kut teh yet seeing meat balls floating on the soup like some fish balls.

Will I return? Nope.

Just not my kind of bah kut teh lah! It’s an acquired taste kind of bah kut teh. You can try, if you want to. Probably, you, like my boss, would like it!

Sis JiNz promised that she would call if we were to meet up on Saturday but after hours (and days) of waiting yet not even a miss call, I knew we were not going to meet up already. Hence, my brothers, Ah Yong, Ah Kit and I spent hours having our late lunch and walking around Equine Park Jusco on a lovely Saturday.

As mentioned in my post before I took my long break, I was craving for a good old bah kut teh. After reading Hot-Screensaver’s post on a bah kut teh shop at Equine Park, I decided to give it a try.

Yap Beng Restaurant is said to be a branch originated from Klang. How true and authentic their claim is, I don’t know. It’s not very difficult to find as they are the one and only bah kut teh restaurant in that area. It’s just opposite Equine Park Jusco, the commercial area where you can see two really huge food court on the outside.

Upon seated, you are given a basket of various types of Chinese tea. Just pick the one you want to drink and help yourself with the teapots, cups and hot water. Initially, we were drinking hot Chinese tea but by the end of our meal, we were drinking iced Chinese tea and iced 100 plus. Ha!

The price list.

1 serving of dry bah kut teh - RM8.50
1 serving of wet bah kut teh - RM7.50
1.5 serving of dry bah kut teh - RM13.50
1.5 serving of wet bah kut teh - RM12.50
1 serving of vegetarian bah kut teh - RM5.00

Deep fried shark meat - RM12
Stir fried shark meat - RM12 (Large), RM8 (Small)
Stir fried vegetable - RM7 (Large), RM5 (Small)
Sambal Prawn - RM12
Stir fried stingray - RM12

We ordered 1.5 serving of dry and wet bah kut teh each, a plate of stir fried vegetable, stingray ala dry curry style and also sambal prawns. We wanted to order shark meat but there wasn’t any available on that day. Well, with so many dishes, I don’t even know whether we were eating seafood or bah kut teh.

Stir fried vegetable. A little oily and the vegetable wasn’t as crunchy as it supposed to be. Oh well, I ordered this because we wanted to have a more balanced diet. -coughs-

The stingray cooked in dry curry style was a little disappointment. The stingray was chopped into too many small pieces and you can’t get the taste and texture of a stingray should have. The curry powder wasn’t sufficient enough to give us the kick too. For the price of RM12 and the amount of stingray we had, it’s not really worth it.

However, I give a thumb up for the sambal prawn. For RM12, they were really generous with the amount of prawns in this dish. I doubt my mum even cooked so much prawns at one go. It was really worth the money paid. The level of spiciness may not be up to my standard / level, but taste was good.

It was my first time trying the dry version of bah kut teh and certainly, it might be my last. I felt a little cheated as I think the more proper name for the dry version should be pork ribs cooked in dried chilies (kung bou 宫保), but a little milder in terms of spiciness. Damn it! After all the hype of reading and hearing about the dry version, it turned out to be this.

For its counterpart, its nothing but good, old and authentic bah kut teh. Boiled for hours with lots of herbs, spices, various parts of porks and bones, the soup turned out thick, tasty, full of flavour and absolutely delicious. It might not beat the ones in Klang but for a small town like Serdang and Sri Kembangan, they are certainly going to win hands down. They didn’t use pork ribs but rather lean meat (siew yuk 烧肉), a little pork stomach, some bean curd skins and a few pieces of vegetables. It would be even better if they have FUCK (Fried U Char Kueh) and golden mushroom (金针菇).

The bill came up to RM62.80, with a can of 100 plus, a packet of Chinese tea leaves (RM2) and three bowls of rice. The rest you can add them up yourself with the price list above. Well, we left the restaurant as a satisfied customer and a full stomach. Definitely, I will be visiting them again if I am around the area.

Operating hours? Lunch and dinner, I guess.