Our Grab driver hailed from Kepong and shared that he is a fan of Hing Kee Bukuteh there. Kepong used to be one of my old haunts too over two decades ago, long before the days of blogs. We had good bak kut teh back then in Kepong too, so I was curious to check out our driver's suggestion. I also wanted to see how is Kepong today.
Oh... The Kepong of today is beyond recognition to me. The Kepong I knew was some terrace houses, shophouses, and lots of mobile food stalls operating along and around the car parks. There was a popular street side bak kut teh stall we liked but I never took down its name.
Today, there are huge apartment blocks, Metro Prima MRT station, Aeon Mall and many more rows of shop houses. Don't see anymore mobile street hawkers.
Hing Kee Bukuteh along the main road, Jalan Kepong is 5 minutes walk from the MRT station.
There are two outlets. The original parent outlet and the larger branch another 2 minutes further up the main road.
Hing Kee's menu, everything on one page.
I remembered our driver was raving about the 生煲肉骨茶, so we went for that at RM29 per serving.
We didn't order the popular dry version as we were already full from the whole day's eating and tasting since day break. Have to keep this for next time 🎗️
When our order came we felt a bit of remorse as there was more meat than expected 😅 We had been food hunting, eating and drinking since morning 😅
We ordered two servings as there were two of us. One serving to share is more than enough, actually. We pressed on.
First, try out the soup.
It was murky, brownish, slightly viscous, slightly slick (most of the grease were strained away). Robustly savoury salty overlaying the taste of herbs and spices. There was the underlying "kum kum" sweetness of licorice (what Cantonese call "kum tim" 甘甜 ). I am not a "kum tim" fan but the savoury saltiness moderated it well.
The amount of meat in the claypot was slightly intimidating.
But, I felt relieved with the first bite.
The meat and visceral fat were fall-off-the-bone tender (but not mushy). Not only that, it tasted fresh and sweet, and balanced by savoury herbal "kum tim" sweetness from the soup.
It was neither Klang style nor the peppery Singapore style. I hesitate to say KL style without trying more bak kut teh in KL.
But, it was delicious which is most important 👍
Any initial regret about over ordering was soon forgotten as we chomped our way merrily through the six meaty ribs. Though slightly heavy on saltiness, we loved the taste of the pork ribs.
They have "oil rice" and plain boiled rice. We opted for the oil rice which was lightly greased, had a savoury taste that complemented the pork ribs well.
We finished all the pork ribs despite our initial reservations. It was delicious and well worth the calories 👍
Our total bill came to RM71 with rice and herbal tea.
Restaurant name: Hing Kee Bukuteh
Address: 121, Jalan Kepong, Metro Prima, 52100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Nearest MRT: 5 minutes walk from Metro Prima station
Tel: +6012 523 3599 📞 +603 6262 3794
Hours: 4 pm - 2:30 am (opens at 3pm on Sat, Sun & Mon)
Written by Tony Boey on 13 Jun 2024
The zi char stall next door is quite good too. Can try their wat dan hor or yuan yang, fried eggs with bittergourd, lala soup.
ReplyDeleteIf your schedule (& tummy) allows, can also try Chan Chan YTF (https://www.facebook.com/CCYTF/?locale=ms_MY). It's also in kepong & about 10/15min away from Hing Kee. Their fried egg with bittergourd is my fave besides their ytf, as the wok hei is very strong
They are actually more famous for their dry bakuteh than their soup one (I thought this was below average)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely swing back again to have the day one! Portion is quite generous.
We were very full by the time we got here. Definitely come back for the dry BKT next round
DeleteHing Kee has a branch which opens for lunch not too far down the road near RHB bank. The food there is also pretty good.
ReplyDelete