aly's wonderland

10 Things to Eat before I’m 30:

No.1 – Bak Kut Teh @ Uncle Jerry’s, Kepong Baru

You can imagine the looks of horror on my friends faces when I said to them, “I’ve never tried Bak Kut Teh before”. Shock. Horror! I was damned forever in their eyes. I would be until I rectified the problem.

“How Aly? How is that possible?” whined Terry.

My ‘confession’ happened about a year ago, and since then for one reason or another, the god’s have kept me away from Bak Kut Teh. My friend Mary, Queen of all good food in Kepong, made me promise that I would try it. “But Kepong is so far…” I complained. “Can’t we just eat here on Jalan Ipoh?” She looks at me disapprovingly. “We can… but it’s your first time. It needs to be the best.”

So I started 2010 with a mission – to eat 10 things I haven’t tried before I hit 30. That gives me 9 months, and 9 more items to find. I have a feeling the next one will be Salted Egg Yolk Crab (I hear you screaming “what!  She hasn’t tried salted egg yolk crab???”).

So number one on the list: Bak Kut Teh.

Day one back at work of 2010, Terry waltzes into the studio and I pounce. “Let’s go eat Bak Kut Teh this week.”  He replies faster than a speeding bullet,” OK! Thursday! Come, it’s about time…”

Come Thursday, I head to the office at 7pm, wait for Mary and Terry and our other friend Sheela. We jump in the car, Mary shows me a shortcut off Jalan Ipoh and BAM! We’re in Kepong, in under 10 mins. I couldn’t believe it. I was always under the impression that Kepong was miles away. “It is,” she tells me. “If you don’t know the shortcut. Then it’s a looooong way round!”

Well, having discovered the shortcut, we could go to Kepong to eat everyday if we wanted to! I’m getting ahead of myself, purely because I was so excited at the thought of meaty, juicy, fatty, melt-in-your mouth ribs…

We rocked up to Uncle Jerry’s in Kepong Baru, apparently run by his son.

The exact location is hard to describe, but it is a few doors away from a 7/11 along the main road, and near a pasar malam. We sit down under the stars and I let them do the ordering. They keep reminding me that they can’t believe it’s taken so long for me to try it.

*I must say that it was a dark night and lighting was dim, so my photos do not do justice to the food.

Moments later, the first of the food arrived. Golden-brown, deep fried strips of dough, a wet version and a dry version, accompanied by herbal soup.

Very fluffy, I think they’re called Yu Char Koay.

Shortly after, the Bak Kut Teh arrived.

The dry version was loaded with meat, beancurd, juicy mushrooms and a whole egg.

The dry version was my favourite…a thick, sticky and apicy sauce coated hearty ribs that just fell of the bone.

Eaten with the fragrant onion rice, a douse of chilli padi and garlic in soya sauce, it was hard to stop.

I had two bowls of rice and threw the ‘no carbs on weekday’ rule out the window.

The normal BKT, in herbal broth, was delicious and very aromatic.

You could taste that the herbs and spices had been boiled for awhile, and the flavours blended together like poetry. It was loaded with shitake mushrooms that added to the flavour, and topped off with crispy fried beancurd.

I found the meat in this one a lot leaner and not as tender as the dry BKT. It was still incredibly tasty though.

In an attempt to balance out the fatty meal, we had very tasty stir fried Iceberg Lettuce.

For my first experience, it was really good. Everyone says you have to go to Klang for good BKT. Why bother when there’s one waiting for you in Kepong? I have nothing to compare it to, but my friends do and they swear to me that Uncle Jerry’s is one of the best.

It showed to. Here’s our table when we started…

And here it is when we were done…

Every bowl was empty. Licked clean.

So, back to the 10 things to eat before I’m 30:

No. 1 – Bak Kut The. Done!

I have a feeling I’ll keep on eating it many more times before the 9 months are up!

Ooh, and I googled it and finally found an address! I hope it’s the right one…

Uncle Jerry’s Bak Kut Teh

Address : Persiaran Mergastua, No. 8, Kepong Baru, 52100 K.L.

Contact : 016-929 981