Actually the older generation only knows the origin of Bak Kut Teh. To be frank, I don’t know how earliest in the 19 century it started, but my generation in the 1960s (Bak Kut teh haven’t started yet) whereby Cantonese is famous & specialised in brewing soups. During that era, a lot of Cantonese sells that called wild life soup ( means wildlife amphibian or animal eg cobra pythons snake, crocodile, wild boar, 4 leg lizard, tiger, dog, turtle, pig brain soup etc whatever animal’s the back face the sky brew into herb soup) or in Cantonese 野味路檔 both selling in Spore & KL Chinatown.During that era, a lot of Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka do know how to speak Cantonese fluently & love the canton herb soup also. My family quite frequently patronised the wild boar herb soup ( 藥才野豬湯), the soup almost taste the same of today KL version of Bak Kut Teh except is more peppery by adding lots of pepper corns. So the origin of Bak Kut Teh actually was derived from the Cantonese Wild boar herb soup. I remembered the boss of Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh down in Keppel road had mentioned that there are 3 style of BKT which is firstly the Cantonese herb style, second then come the Hokkien style which is less herb & more peppery, then 3rd came the Spore Teochew invention of white peppery style started selling in the 1980s beyond in the street. So that is the origins & evolution of Bak Kut Teh, so the Hokkien learned the recipe from Cantonese wild boar herb soup & by adding more pepper corns hence rebrand it as Bak Kut Teh, same as olden time called cantonese economics rice now call chap-chai fan or cai fan. For those born beyond 1975, I don’t think so they have ever heard of Canton wildlife herb soup becoz it was banned from selling by the government after 1975 & all the stall disappeared. But I had to said, that old era of Cantonese herb soup was fantastically good that till today I can’t forget taste but crave for it.
黑肉骨茶 VS 白肉骨茶!哪一种才是你的最爱? | 大马滋味 Malaysian Flavours EP2