Bak Kut Teh: A Singaporean Or Malaysian Creation? | On The Red Dot: Food Fight - Part 2/4

‘Bak Kut Teh’ a Malaysian dish? Hogwash, declared Singapore when our neighbours made the claim. But as Host Chef Ming Tan would discover, the issue is not as clear as the peppery soup we serve and love.

Malaysia claims that Singapore’s ‘Bak Kut Teh’ is nothing more than spicy pork soup. And that the dish, which must have herbs in it, was named after a Malaysian hawker. But Singapore claims she has eye-witnesses who saw ‘Bak Kut Teh’ being sold in Singapore in the 1900s.

Herbal soup, peppery broth, Malaysia invention, Singapore dish – Food Fight gets down to the bottom of the bowl to find out.

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About On The Red Dot: CNA's weekly programme documents the stories of ordinary Singaporeans and celebrates their resilience, identity and sense of belonging.
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[dtcl]

Much ado about nothing. If the hokkien version is unpopular in Singapore, then don't need to claim anything. Malaysia has their own version, Singapore has their own.

[cherie]

The Singaporean bak kut teh tastes more like the pig stomach soup in Malaysia. As a Malaysian, I'm not a fan of claiming dishes because the two countries have a shared culinary history. I'm tired of these arguments, but it's fun to understand the history behind the dishes. I was today year old when I found out that the SG bak kut teh is Teochew style.

[hyuuganatsume]

I am muslim so I dont eat BKT.. I am here to read the comments 😂😂

[spriinngflowerrs]

Finding the origin takes more than interviewing few people. Creating documentary like this is just like writing essay, you have the freedom to strengthen the side of the argument you want to present. This video clip does nothing to clear the air so why bother making it at all. Moral of story: if you don't understand, don't claim so. There are overlaps of identical or similar food between Singapore and Malaysia (more broadly in Southeast Asia) and have either side claiming on the origin without proper primary evidence and research is unwise.

[hockkeetan]

back then, both Singapore and Malysia are all MALAYA. The Chinese go freely between Pennisular Malaysia and Singapore. My grand father traveled for 7 days by boat from China to Singapore and redistributed to ther places and this was a common way Chinese came to Malaya. So u can imagine, there were no boundaries.The Chinese coolies were moving constantly and likely they shared the dish together. However, from what what was presented here is that it seems BKT origine should be the dark herbal soup with dark soy source where evidences traced back to 20s or Singapore and 30s in Klang while the Singapore teow chew pepper version of BKT started in the 50s. As such, it seems that teow chew BKT is already "muted" to be another type of food away from BKT even though it stil carry the name of BKT wghile the hokkien version is dead in singapore even though BKY may have started earlier in
Personallly, i would prefer the hokkien BKT which is so tastefully favored by herbs and soy souce while the pepper version is too strongly favored by pepper that it become pepper soup, remnding me pork stomach soup my mom used to cook at home.

[leejeremy]

Food is a shared culture. If people want to argue where it comes from, can we said it comes from China since Chinese ppl emigrate from China? Is there a need to dispute to this extent? Just be thankful that we can have so many variety of food available here.

[tkyap]

To know who created it is only a sentiment. Eating it is the experience. Food is food. It can come from anywhere and any person. We eat to enjoy.

[damienchong]

19:02 ur so called evidence of early receipt clearly states kuala lumpur on it
🤣🤣🤣🤣

[isaacchong]

The question of whether Malaysia or Singapore invented laksa, nasi lemak, bak kut teh etc is fairly simple. There would be no such question if Singapore didn’t get kicked out by Malaysia due to political reasons back then. Historically Malaysia and Singapore both shared a same bond together.

[Hyejin.park]

I don’t know why it’s even important to claim which food belongs to which nation . I mean each country surely has their own improvise version . Let’s just enjoy the culinary art rather than creating sentiment . Food should bring people together not the other way around .

[Milo-cfvz]

Singaporean and Malaysian Bak Kut Teh are not the same. Singaporean bak kut teh and a pork intestine soup in Thailand taste exactly the same, both came from Teochew. But Malaysian Bak kut teh, taste completely different.

[johndoerubytosa]

tried both, love both. they have their own tastes

[moslee]

It's important to note that Singapore and Malaysia share mutual culture, and Singapore was once part of Malaysia before gaining independence. Despite this, some may still wonder why Singaporeans sometimes adopt and claim Malaysian culture as their own heritage. It's unclear what message the CNA TV show is trying to convey, and I'm having trouble understanding it.

[BrightestStar]

We have our Indonesian Chinese version of Bak Kut Teh as well. My mom’s version is different from both Hokkien and Teochew versions though. Hers is without adding peppers and herbs. She usually adds pickled cabbages when cooking the soup. While in Singapore, they’re one of the BKT side dishes.

[elimlinrr]

Bak Kut Pepper Teh is a Singaporean invention.

Bak Kut Herbal Teh is a Malaysian invention.

End of argument.

[kn]

As an older Malaysian, many dishes we have here in Malaysia were unheard of in Singapore many years ago……so in my opinion, Singapore is better in marketing, these dishes, that’s all!

[ReviveHF]

There's a similar dish in Mainland China and Taiwan called "Herbs stew Pork Ribs" (藥燉排骨). So, very likely Bak Kut Teh was actually evolved from that dish once the Chinese immigrants arrive in Malaysia and Singapore.

[rjtdrumming]

my dad's recipe is similar with Singaporean, just flat soup using garlic & he was never went to Singapore all his life. Also he was born & grew up in East Nusa Tenggara, that is the west side of Timor island. In Surabaya, East Java, the recipe also similar with Singaporean & they called it, bak kut. So, I think it's the Chinese recipe. But, I must say I prefer the Hokkien one, the Malaysian. I like the herbs.

[MowlousSmileyRambo]

Half bake stories from what I gather this dish origin was called a poor man's dish. Cause its basically dumping what's left all into a pot and stew the thing for consumption. This cooking method date as far back as tree kingdom's time. Kuli all learn from the same source. The only difference is when they settle down in Malaysia and Singapore their recipe is base off what they can get from the dock. Malaysia had much more of a herbal taste and more fat because the kuli gather all the scrap from the bottom of those herbal box as well as what's usually left from scraps of lard for cheap, while singapore scrape from british spice mainly consist of paper corn and left over ribs.

As for the name bak kut teh, well sorry to bust bubbles the bak kut is referring to a common calling of a description, while teh was the shipping company logo that had them marked on all kuli back then as property of it simply represent kuli's food. If you really wanna go down the rabbit hole should go to british archive, they should have their old trading record and most likely you'll be able to find out the actual name of the shipping company responsible for unloading the kulis.

[ImWillyDS]

Great content, can you do bonus part to confirm if Hainan Chicken Rice is actually from China (Hainan), or is it original creation from Singapore?