Ping Hai Seafood Bak Kut Teh Take 2

National Day Post: Firstly I want to wish all Malaysians a Happy National Malaysia Day which falls on the 16th of September.

Thanks to a friend who came back from Japan to visit family, we took the opportunity to bring them to Ping Hai Seafood Bak Kut Teh in Klang. The last time I went there, it was only just the two of us so ordering a variety of dishes wasn’t really possible. Our group was so large that we needed two tables, one for the kids and one just for the adults.

Seeing that we have a larger group, we could order both the seafood bak kut teh and also the dry bak kut teh.

The dry bak kut teh wasn’t too bad, it had the familiar taste which frankly you can get it at any of the more popular bak kut teh stalls in PJ without the need to drive all the way to Klang. I did see a lack of ladies fingers but there were a bit around. Perhaps the choice of meat that they provided to us seemed a little more on the leaner side. I wished there were more pig intestines in it as well.

Bak kut teh without any youtiao seems incomplete. Thankfully they had some which both the kids and adults could finish.

The star of the night is definitely the seafood bak kut teh. Knowing that they saw us in a larger group, they decided to give the ones with the crabs and prawns. Frankly, I would have been happy with just the clams and fish meat inside it. Also this time around there was a little less kick (less chilli padi in the soup base).

What makes a seafood bak kut teh unique is the taste of seafood in its warm soupy broth. The addition of chillies gives it a kick and during one of my first experiences with the dish, my friends would ask for extra chilli. This meant I had to keep on drinking iced chinese tea in order to balance out the spiciness. Still, it was that spiciness that gave me that distinct memory of the dish, aside from waking up at 5+am in the morning and heading all the way to Klang in order to not arrive at a restaurant that was sold out.

Anyway I digress. What could have been better was the exclusion of crabs and prawns (my personal preferences) and sticking with clams and also fish meat which I didn’t remember seeing this time.

Conclusion

As this was my second time there, I still felt satisfied especially since this is one of the few places that serves seafood bak kut teh. Read about my other review of Yun Heng’s seafood bak kut teh here. It will be my go-to whenever I do have a craving for seafood bak kut teh and I feel brave enough to traverse through traffic and a 45 minute drive all the way there.