Bakut Teh Teapots

Bakut teh tea set

There is a famous dish in this part of the world called 'Bakut Teh' which means spare-ribs soup in local dialect. To make this dish, you need to get some pork ribs and boil them in specially prepared herbs and spices with plenty of garlic. The dish is eaten with rice and occasionally some salted vegetable. Usually people go to the hawker centre (market place where local dishes are served for a reasonable and affordable price) to have this dish. This is a favourite dish for most Singaporeans when they eat out in a local market. The pork ribs are fresh and the soup is very tasty with the traditionally herbal flavor. The soup can be replenished with no extra cost.

Spare ribs soup

The next time you go to a hawker stall to order this dish, you can also ask for the Chinese tea that comes with this dish. The vendor will bring a small kettle next to your table to boil water for brewing the tea. It is best to have the tea that blends with this dish, hence the name 'Bakut Teh' where bakut means spare ribs and teh means tea in the local dialect. Of course, the vendor also supplies you with a small teapot and 4 small cups and a small packet of 'Wuyi Yancha' or Goddess of Mercy tea. It is a pleasant experience to sip fragrant tea in small cups at the same time enjoy your favourite local dish, if you have not done so. Local people practice the Teochew style kungfu tea drinking where small teapots and cups are used. As the teapot is small, you need to brew tea many rounds using hot boiling water from the kettle placed next to where you sit. When the teapot is soaked and bathed in hot tea, it will season well. These teapots in these hawker stalls have developed a nice patina due to many years of usage. Some teapot collectors will go to these places to enhance their collection. I usually bring along my own teapot and puerh tea whenever I go for this dish. It costs me only one dollar to pay for the hot water. It gives me satisfaction to brew my own tea using my own utensils while enjoying my favourite spare-ribs soup. Over time, my teapot can also develop a nice patina. As these small teapots are used ceremonially with this dish, I like to call them 'bakut teh' teapots. My collection of 'bakut teh' teapots, some are made by known potters, others are just teapots of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

 

 

 



The tea set in my office