Malacca Day 1a - Tangkat

Free and Easy Malacca - Day 1 Itinerary

1) Drive up to Malacca/Tangkat through Tuas (~3hr)
2) Breakfast at Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh
3) Lunch at Family Heritage Cafe
4) Shopping and R&R
  - Dessert at Pahlawan Melaka Megamall
5) Dinner at Melaka Plaza
  - Pork Porridge
  - Wok & Pan
6) Menara Taming Sari
7) Massage


We start off early on a Saturday morning around 7+am.  The drive up to Malacca (aka Melaka) was smooth - quick or immediate clearance at Tuas customs, smooth traffic on the highway.  For rest stops,give the old Yong Peng a miss.  We choose a bigger scale rest stop before Yong Peng which has a big hawker centre with lots of stalls and most importantly, clean toilets with lots of cubicles and toilet paper.

Tangkat - Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh (家家)
Finally reached Tangkat for our breakfast (or brunch) Follow the way to Tangkat Hospital.  Turn right along Jalan Payamas towards Tangkat Hospital and turn left at the muddy car park of Jia Jia Ba Ku Teh.

View from Carpark

From the kitchen, you can witness the preparation, basket of marinated and fried chicken feet, pig trotter to be chopped and some organs in the bucket. The environment wasn't that clean and there are lots of houseflies, avoid it if it will spoilt your appetite.

Food In Preparation

It will take some time for the bak ku teh to be ready.  While waiting for the food, you can buy otak from this friendly uncle who operates just at the side of the coffee shop.

Otak at the Coffee Shop

Coffee shop settings with more 10 tables. Seems like booking is possible for their regular clients where they get the table setup before they arrive. They have a open kitchen at the front to do the final preparation before serving. Ingredients ordered will be added to a claypot and heat up, topped with fried beancurd and vegetables.

Dinning Area & Preparation at the Front Kitchen

We ordered a pot of tea (茶王) and get ready the black sauce for our Bak Ku Teh.  Their black sauce is very thick and nice. Pour it to the saucer with chilli only as it gets watery if mixed with the garlic. Only topped up with garlic after dipping in the sauce.

Chilli, Garlic and Black Sauce & Tea

Finally our Bak Ku Teh was served. Piping hot herbal soup with pork ribs, pork belly and pig liver, each ingredient cost RM8. Mushroom, vegetables and fried beancurb were "complimentary".
The herbal soup was very soothing, not overpowering with herbal and have a nice sweet after taste. Pork belly was excellence with the thick black sauce with chopped garlic. Pork liver were tender, you will need to quickly eat them up before they turned dry in the claypot.
The waiter topped up the Bak Ku Teh soup with a small bowl. The refill was not as clear and my lunch kaki find that the sweet aftertaste was not as strong, maybe because the refill soup is without the additional meat taste.

Bak Ku Teh
Rating: 4.5/5

We ordered a pot of Pig Trotter as well.  The pig trotter was not as nice as their bak ku teh.  The pig trotter skin was chewy with collagen but the vinegar was a bit sharp.

Pig Trotter
Rating: 3.5/5

What really draw us here was not so much of their bak ku teh but their chicken feet!!  Their chicken feet was one of the BEST that we've tried. The chicken feet was marinated (saw some orange peel) and deep fried. It is then fried with their secret sauce and steamed before serving.
The chicken feet was slightly chewy and not soggy or watery type.  The thick thick flavourful sauce cling to the chicken feet nicely and the raw garlic and chilli add oomp to the chicken feet. Yummy!

Chicken Feet
Rating: 4.75/5

Jia Jia Bah Kuet Teh 家家肉骨茶
38, Jalan Kemajuan, off Jalan Payamas, Tangkak, Johor
GPS: N2.272500, E102.544500
Hours: 7:00am to 2:00pm


Other Tangkat Delicacies 


Tangkat Beef Noodles
If your stomach still have some space, you can try the Beef Noodles at Jalan Solok which had also start up a branch at Malacca.

Tangkat Hua Bee
There is a a traditional bakery Hua Bee 和美 just a few stalls next to the Beef Noodles which sells nice traditional snack.


Tangkat Map

View Tangkat - MonsoonTravel in a larger map