39 minutes ago, huiray said:
Ah.
Well, for myself I recognize four main types as it relates to Malaysia and Singapore – Hokkien (herbal, dark soy sauce added), Canto-Hoklo (even more herbal w/ more stuff than the "just Hokkien" version, and with oyster sauce etc added in), Klang (somewhat like Canto-Hoklo/Hokkien but with greatly reduced liquid, almost a sauce rather than soup)**, and Teochew (very lightly herbal or not al all but with vast amounts of pepper (usually white)). In Singapore the two main categories would amount to Teochew vs Hokkien. In M'sia the main versions would be Klang vs Canto-Hoklo, in my recollections, at least at the time I grew up in SE Asia, but all four types were found and it depended on which stall or shop you went to. I believe the BKT in Thailand and Java/Indonesia would also be slightly different but I am not sure of how they differ. (Although the Thai-Chinese in Thailand would largely be Teochew; whilst the Indonesian-Chinese often would be of Hakka extraction...(closer to Hokkien?))
** and which I associate with including luo han guo (Momordica grosvenorii/Siraitia grosvenorii) in the panoply of stuff added in - or at least the shops in Klang that I would be brought to by my father when visiting Klang and we had BKT there...)
If you are interested a simple google search for this dish will return more than a million results for one to browse through. The Wikipedia article isn't a bad one to look at too.
There are old threads on BKT even here on eG – here is an old one, where the OP THREW AWAY THE SOUP!!!!! (I lost my eyebrows when I first read about that a couple years ago)
I have posted several times here on different iterations of the dish, both "stripped-down"/basic spiced ones, Teochew ones, full-on Canto-Hoklo ones, and more subdued Hokkien-like ones. As examples, see here, here, here, here, here (scroll down), here (scroll down), here (scroll down), here. There are others. The simple-spiced one (just star anise, cinnamon/cassia, cloves, garlic) might be the most approachable one for folks not used to herbal soups but who wish for a bit more complexity. Mind you, cinnamon/cassia in savory dishes is still, to this day, frowned on by many folks who cook in the Western idiom.
I haven't used the commercially available BKT packages (from Chinese groceries) for years. I assemble my desired mixture of herbs and spices and what-not myself (yes, I keep and replenish supplies of the herbs/spices used) and vary them according to my mood.
Quite interestingly we do not use store bought herb blends ourselves. My mom says "who knows how long they've had that prepackaged and what's really in it!" I have my own stash of Chinese herbs for the herbal soups, honestly it's the same herbs that pop up for most of the other herbal soups just different quantities. Your herb blend is pretty much similar, except the quantity of the cloves and star anise, we only put no more than a dozen cloves and 3 star anise. Cinnamon, black cardamom and mandarin peel is the same. The only difference with ours as far as spice blend is we have coriander and cumin. My mother's side is of Hokkien descent that settled in the Philippines. BKT was limited in the Chinatown area and specialty restaurants. So most Filipino Chinese families normally have to make their own. You guys are so lucky in SG or Malaysia, get hungry at 11pm, just go outside and hit a hawker stall on the street. Lol
I remember that post where Ah Leung threw away the soup. I was a member back then(I left and just recently came back after 7 yrs), everyone lost it "YOU THREW AWAY THE SOUP!!!" Heh
