Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh

Address Blk 347 Jurong East Ave 1 01-220

Opening Hours Tue to Sat : 845am to 8pm Sun : 845am to 4pm Closed on Mon

After he was retrenched as a maintenance engineer from a German shipping company in Jurong some twenty years ago due to the recession, it was bye-bye to a tidy three thousand dollar monthly salary and lifestyle.

The company’s loss was the makan industry’s gain.

For six months then after, Mr Chua Sim Huat toiled at his brother-in-law’s popular bak kut teh stall in Sin Ming Rd and observed. Methodically, he recorded how the bak kut was chopped, when the garlic and pepper was lowered into the pot and that the ribs had to be in only after the water came to a boil. Doing so before would be disastrous.

Very importantly, he carefully observed how the stock was made, like the percentage of bones to water, garlic, salt and pepper and low heat technique.

He also found out that pork from Australia and Indonesia had distinct differences, due to the feed and breed.

So, armed with the bak kut teh operations manual culled from the intelligence gathering exercise, he was booted out of his brother in law’s stall, with blessings, to strike it out on his own.

Today, twenty odd years on, Joo Siah Bak Koot Teh is itself a household name in this beloved pork ribs soup dish and Mr Chua still operates with the methodic mind of an engineer.

He won’t buy frozen pork as the “taste and texture is lost and there is no shine in the meat”. He will only cut and chop the ribs at the stall front right before customer’s eyes and not prep everything beforehand as ‘it gives the customer confidence in the freshness”. His four pots of simmering ribs are clearly visible to anyone in front of his stall, for visual appeal. One of his three stalls he occupies at this hawker centre is used only for chilling, storing and sorting the pork, so as to separate storage and cooking areas, like any decent hotel kitchen does.

Even customer’s advice are not likely dismissed and discarded. He once tried adding, at a regular’s suggestion, sugar cane powder to the broth for added sweetness. It did not work, adding,“ if I didn’t try, I won’t know.”

So it was back to his brother-in-law’s original Teochew style recipe, soft ribs in a garlicky and very peppery stock that’s lightly salted with some special ingredients added.

When asked what makes customers come back for his bak kut teh, he reveals a diplomatic secret “ the soup must be addictive.”. I have to admit, it is. His style of the soup is way up my alley. Robustly garlicky and countered by a well deserved kick of pepper that lingered but did not irritate. And the ribs, two fat eight-inchers at six bucks, had a roast chicken-like texture that came with a bone “handle” that beckons you to grab and tuck in, caveman style. And I must not omit the hint of fat…ooohh, it was so easy in. His basic soup meal starts at four dollars.

His stewed trotters come chunky for a reason- tearing it apart reveals the soft juicy meat inside, a technique he picked up at his brother-in-law’s stall and admits to feeling lucky to be blessed with this skill. As for sharing it, he says “in due time,” as he does not believe he should “bring it there with me when it is time to go”.

These days, as a Hokkien selling Teochew makan with an engineer’s command of English, Mr Chua is too busy pushing bowls of bak kut teh 12 hours a day, six days week, to be sulking over his retrenchment woes. He hawks almost 100 kilos of ribs each day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And on his day off, when he can, he indulges in his favourite local makan, fish head curry.