Today I did not bring any food from home. I wasn’t sure if I would be hungry or not.
Last night I had the case of the munchies. I ate a good dinner did I not? I was full but later my stomach had other ideas. Luckily I had reinforcements.
In the form of pork rinds! Well, this was a life saver.
They were very crunchy and fresh and tasted mildly like chee yau char. If you are curious, the texture is like keropok.
When my shipment arrived (just two cannisters, not a whole crate hah..hah…) I immediately put them into the freezer to maintain freshness. These things can go rancid if kept at room temperature for too long.
These are now my new “potato chips” and of course I shall try not to cultivate a snacking habit.
At lunchtime, I decided to pay a visit to Jia Bao Bak Kut Teh @ The Starling Foodcourt. When I took this photo some days ago, the stall looked very deserted.
However, today there were many customers. There was a young lad manning the stall and he appeared to be kelam kabut with the many orders.
There was an old couple ahead of me and the auntie is the type of auntie who will ask 1,000 questions about everything on the menu. She asked the young man “Is this fresh, ah?”, pointing to the menu.
What was she expecting? “No lah auntie, this one leftovers from yesterday”? hah..hah..hah.. The young man replied “This is cooked today”. This reminded me of my auntie who will always ask the fruit vendor at the market “Is this sweet?” Of course the vendor will say it is. Haiz.
Finally when it came to my turn, I ordered the Mixed Cut and Mixed Intestines. Very quick, precise and to the point. No need to ask this and that. I could have done an auntie and asked “Your mixed cut got what, ah?” heh..heh..heh…
There you go. Bak Kut Teh, no rice. If you are wondering why on earth I took fork and spoon, well, there was a customer who took his own sweet time at the cutlery counter. So I simply grabbed what was within reach and got out of there.
This is the Mixed Cut which consisted of a small piece of pork leg and some pork belly and lean meat. Alas there were some non-carnivore items in there namely tau pok (just two oieces) and enoki mushrooms. Not an issue at all.
This is what I was really looking forward to – the Mixed Intestines which was a mix of big and small intestine.
I was pleased to note that the intestines were very well cleaned and had none of that unpleasant smell.
Between the big and small intestine, I prefer the big one.
As for the BKT broth, I would say it is quite strong on the herbs, not quite the BKT that I like. I won’t say that it is bad, just too herbal-ly for me. But having said that, this is a good back up for me for those days when I don’t bring any food with me and I get peckish during lunchtime.
To their credit, I did not suffer any ill effects from drinking the broth and I did not become thirsty. So this stall has my support.
I am publishing this post early because dinner is my usual beef tendon soup which you have all seen a hundred times already hah…hah…hah…
