From my grandparents who told me that Bak Kut Teh founded abt 100 to 150 yrs ago by the 1st Hokkien migrant who settled down around Telok Ayer as Koolies unloading cargo from the Tongkang to the godown along Singapore river as spices from Indonesia and India came in gunny sacks those koolies uses hooks to hook bags like pepper, cinnamon, star anise etc those days koolies are very poor survived on a few dollars a day earning doing back breaking hard work and yet got to squeezing money to send home to Hokkien to feed their families They can only afford on big bowl of white rice with soya sauce and Chinese Tea desperately 夹缝中要求生存no choice they sweep those spilled spices to boil soup to go with the plain rice in order to go with the bluntness subsequently the British build a called IRON MARKET along the river side that sell pork veg chicken etc those koolies are too poor to afford pork but instead they gathered those unwanted discard pork bone to boil with their spices to make it tastier latter on they begin to buy 杂骨sticked with some meat sweeten the soup a bit I heard during Sunday they jointly buy pork ribs to pamper themselves compliment with CHINESE TEA This was the history of the Originated Bak Kut Teh Later the version was copied by the Msian in Klang who improvise with lots of add in stuff making it more like Bak Kut Teh肉骨大杂烩 A very clear cut tell tales sign bakuteh in Singapore until today are not comes with all sorts of throw in it is authentically PORK RIBS SOUP side dishes are after added in I visited Klang 10 yrs ago Ah Tau even incorporate Seafood Bakuteh whom the nephew came to Geylang Lor 15 joint venture with my friend operate under Klang Ah Tua Bakuteh eventually it’s no more operating THE ORIGINATED BAKUTEH HISTORY