Bak Kut Teh 
From Singapore Hotels & Singapore Lifestyle
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Bak Kut Teh (Chinese: 肉骨茶; Hanyu Pinyin: ròugúchá; POJ: bah-kut-tê) is a soup dish served in Singapore. In Hokkien and Teochew, "bak kut" means "pork rib" and "teh" means "tea". The soup forms the base of this dish and is made from pork bones that have been boiled together with whole garlic, white pepper corns, star anise, cloves, cinnamon and soya sauce for hours so that the broth takes on fully all the tastes of the various ingredients. The end product should have juicy and tender meat with a flavourful (and slightly spicy) soup. Generally, Bak Kut Teh is cooked in a clay pot with pork ribs, varieties of mushroom, lettuce, and dried Taufu Pok.
The herbal version of the soup (usually made by the Cantonese) contains a variety of five or six Chinese herbs. The Hokkiens tend to add more dark soya sauce to the soup to give it more colour, so for these, the soup is darker than others. The Teochews, however, will cut back on the soya sauce but include a generous dose of pepper.
To go along with the Bak Kut Teh, some places also provide Yu Char Kway (strips of fried dough; - 油炸鬼 in Hokkien or "You Tiao" - 油条 in Mandarin). This is usually cut up into small pieces that you can dip into or soak in the soup. The Yu Char Kway and the Taufu Pok being absorbent, will enable you to taste the broth without being diluted by rice. The moment you bite into the Yu Char Kway or the Taufu Pok soaked in the broth, the broth would be squirted all over the mouth, giving you an unforgettable gastronomic experience. A type of preserved vegetable known in Singapore as (Kiam Cha, 咸菜) is sometimes also served. Other places will serve the dish with steamed white rice. Dark soy sauce is used as a condiment, sometimes accompanied with chopped chilli padi to give that added taste to the pork ribs.
In Singapore, there are three types of Bak Kut Teh. The Hokkien, who prefer saltier food, use more soy sauce, which results in a darker soup. The Cantonese who has a deep soup-drinking culture, add medicinal herbs to create a stronger flavoured soup. The most common being the Teochew style, which uses more white pepper in the soup.
So where does the tea come in, you might ask? Traditionally, the Chinese drink tea (usually "Oolong"), while eating Bak Kut Teh as they believe that the tea would help wash the fat and oil down better, and aid in the digestion of the fats that come together with the consumption of the pork ribs. However, these days, you usually have to ask specifically for the tea which will be served in a small teapot with which you fill tiny cups.
At some places, you can also order other dishes such as stewed pork trotters, pig kidney and liver soup, and pickled lettuce that has been boiled and fried with garlic, dry chilli, star anise and lard.
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