Skyway Malaysian Restaurant

Pork rib tea: It's good for what ails you.

Beloved on the Malay Peninsula as well as in the Middle Kingdom, the Chinese herbal soup better known as bak kut teh (small; $6.95) is flush with pork belly, pork intestine, and meaty bits on the bone. At this Malaysian restaurant they're plunked into a rich soy broth also populated by dried tofu squares and black mushrooms; seasonings including cilantro and a raisinlike "Chinese herb" for which I couldn't get an English translation. (It might have been the tiny fruit from star anise, though the distinctive pod was nowhere to be seen.) In New York, the herbal soup typically arrives at the table much as shown above; in Singapore, when I've "gone out for bak kut teh" (the way you might "go out for brunch"), it's more of a production.

Also shown below: achat ($4.95), a spicy-tart cold salad of carrot, cucumber, cabbage, pineapple, and long beans, with turmeric, sesame seeds, and sugar; sambal ikan billis ($8.95), tiny anchovies with bits of bell pepper and red onion in a (wearying) spicy shrimp-and-tamarind sauce; and fat pearl noodles ($5.25) stir-fried with shrimp, squid, chicken, pork, and bean sprouts (extra hot sauce is essential).

Skyway Malaysian Restaurant
11 Allen St. (Division-Canal Sts.)
212-625-1163

Comments

[Dave Cook]

Via email, a reader comments:

I think the raisinlike "chinese herb" you mentioned below and from what I can see in the bowl (if it's the red small fruit) is wolfberry and I think also called Goji berry. I was told they contain lots of antioxidants, I have seen it for sale online and the chinese supermarket.

On reflection, I replied to the email, that seems right; it did have a (dried) berry-like texture.