Why soup refills?

In most serving games your job ends when the food reaches the table. At a bak kut teh shop it keeps going. Many bak kut teh shops in Singapore top up your soup when the bowl runs low, often at no charge.

Bak Kut Teh Rush turns that into the game. You take orders and serve them, but every seated customer’s bowl is slowly going down. Tap the soup pot, then the bowl, to top it up before it runs dry. New orders and low bowls pull you in two directions at once, and choosing what to do next is where the fun is.

A bit of real bak kut teh history

Bak kut teh is Hokkien for “meat bone tea”. There is no tea in the soup. It is pork ribs simmered for a long time in broth. The tea is the pot of Chinese tea served with the meal, which many people drink to cut through the rich, fatty soup. Restaurants that specialise in the dish often brew it in small pots, kung fu style.

Singapore has two main styles. Teochew bak kut teh is a clear soup, peppery and garlicky, made with white pepper. Hokkien bak kut teh is darker, with Chinese herbs and more dark soy sauce. There is also a Cantonese style that leans on medicinal herbs. The shop in this game makes the Teochew kind.

The dish is believed to have come from Fujian in China with Chinese immigrants. In Singapore it became a filling breakfast for coolies who worked along the Singapore River, and by the 1960s it was a popular street food. Where bak kut teh as we know it began is disputed. In Malaysia many people say it started in Klang, and in 2009 a Malaysian minister called it a Malaysian dish. That claim has never been proven either way, and the question is still open.

The sides in the game are ones you will find at Singapore shops: steamed rice, you tiao (fried dough sticks, cut up for dipping in the soup), salted vegetables, braised peanuts, tau pok and braised pig’s trotters. Many people also dip the meat in dark soy sauce with cut chilli.

The family in the game is made up. Grandpa Boon starts with a pushcart, his daughter Auntie Mei moves into a coffeeshop stall, and you open the restaurant. They are not based on any real shop.

How to play

• A customer sits at a table and their order appears under the shop. Every order gets a bowl of bak kut teh. Tap the sides they asked for, then tap Serve.
• Tap a table that is ready to order to switch to its order.
• As customers eat, their bowls go down. When a bowl’s bar turns yellow, tap the soup pot, then the bowl.
• Smiles: 2 for an order right first time, 1 if you fix it, and 1 for every top-up before the bowl runs dry. From Level 4, serving before the green patience bar runs out earns 1 more.
• A dry bowl only misses that smile. The customer waits for their top-up, and nobody walks out.
• Stars per level come from the share of smiles you collect. Finishing always earns one star and opens the next level. Pause any time with the ❚❚ button.

Ten levels in three eras

Levels 1 to 3 are the pushcart: one or two tables, slow bowls, and one new side at a time. Levels 4 to 7 move into a coffeeshop stall with more tables, patience bars and customers who want two top-ups. Levels 8 to 10 are the restaurant, with pots of Chinese tea, up to six tables and bowls that empty faster.

Tips

Top up first, then serve. A yellow bowl has only a few seconds left. A waiting customer can wait a bit longer, and the sides you have picked stay on the tray.

Lowest bowl first. If two bowls are yellow, top up the one with the shorter bar.

Read the order in parts. Check each side against the order before you tap Serve. Tea always comes last in the sentence.

Ignore the last bowl. A customer on their last bowl doesn’t want more soup, so spend your time elsewhere.

Your turn

The pot is on and the first customer is on the way. Open the shop, serve the first bowl, and see how long you can keep every bowl full.