SOUP

AUNTY FRANKLEE ★★★½
205 RUSSELL STREET, MELBOURNE, (03) 9650 4336
LICENSED AE MC V EFTPOS
MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 12.30PM-3.30PM, 4.30PM-10.30PM, THURSDAY-SATURDAY NOON-11PM, SUNDAY NOON-10.30PM
GRILLS: $11-$16; BAK KUT TEH: $10-$23; DESSERTS: $4

Food. It's not just for eating, it's also for debating. Just ask an Israeli about hummus, a Turk about coffee, or a Malaysian about bak kut teh, a pork rib "tea" that's beloved throughout Malaysia and Singapore and has countless variants on a basic formula: pork on the bone boiled in a herbed broth.

There's peppery Teochew-style, richer and darker Hokkien versions and a less soupy "dry" Klong bak kut teh. Everyone with a BKT opinion seems to agree on one thing: it's delicious, fortifying and an essential part of Malaysia's culinary identity. Indeed, when a dish has its own acronym, you know it's important.

Melbourne's cheerful and winning Aunty Franklee makes a hero of the Hokkien-style bak kut teh that the owners, twin sisters Fiorn and Francesca Lee, grew up on in Sabah, in eastern Malaysia. They cook meaty pork bones for three hours in a broth that's light but herby, stocked with cinnamon, clove, aniseed, fennel and pepper, along with garlic, prunes and angelica root. It's rounded, complex and lightly lip-sticking. The pork is sweet and tender, though still with plenty of chew. It arrives at the table bubbling furiously in a claypot cauldron.