For true Thai feasts with time-honoured flavours, Tummour Malaysia promises one of the Klang Valley's most authentic renditions of our northern neighbour's recipes, serving everything from Khong Chicken Soup to Tum Yok Thad Platters in Empire Shopping Gallery.
Tummour Malaysia traces its roots to Thailand's homegrown Tummour family of restaurants, running since 1989 with Bangkok-born and overseas outposts. This year, Tummour embarked in Malaysia for the first time, launching its first restaurant here in Subang.
Tummour Malaysia is pork-free and alcohol-free, but its mainly Isan-inspired recipes - bursting with spicy, sour, sweet and savoury synergy - rely on the original foundations, ratified by Tummour in Thailand, ensuring precise flavours prepared to order.
Fun fact: Tummour's name means 'to pound and pestle' - the traditional culinary technique can be seen in action here, as the kitchen brigade crafts beautiful salads, seasonings and sauces.
Tummour welcomes customers to a cosy, spacious setting in Empire Shopping Gallery, convenient for fast, fuss-free lunches or long, leisurely dinners, comfortable for solo meals or indulgent get-togethers with family and friends.
For the ideal introduction, start with soup: Tummour's Khong Chicken Soup (RM28.80) harnesses about 10 distinct herbs, bringing rich aromatics to a clear broth that's brimming with a lively tanginess, child-friendly with customisable fieriness.
The Tum Yok Thad Platter (RM26.80) is spectacular for sharing, a papaya salad that's fairly ferocious in firepower, to be tossed with a multitude of ingredients, including two types of chillies, two types of Thai vermicelli (one more tender than the other), salted egg, palm sugar, prawn crackers, anchovies and Thai vegetable leaves.
The Thai Spicy Squid (RM28.80) is excellent for easing into Tummour's spread of seafood, cooked with a variety of Southeast Asian spices, two kinds of chillies, onions, fish sauce, soy sauce and the final secret weapon of rose rice, supplying a nutty bite to the ensemble. This is a marvellous, mouth-watering marriage of the bounty of both sea and land.
The Steamed Spicy Glass Vermicelli (RM43.80) surfaces strikingly with plump, princely prawns, showcasing sheer succulence to sink our teeth into.
Tummour's Yellow Curry Soft Shell Crab (RM40.80) is a crowd-pleaser, with the full-bodied crunch of the soft-shell crab contrasting confidently with the fluffy creaminess of the fragrantly earthy-sweet curry. Bonus points to Tummour for serving big, brawny crabs.
We're instantly hooked on Tummour's fish too - the Tilapia with Thai Chilli Paste (RM48.80) is delightfully deep-fried instead of conventionally steamed, infusing a crackly edginess that fits the fleshy fish fabulously. Even the accompanying sauce is a memorable attraction, thick and tantalising with Tummour's secret mix of nine ingredients.
Chicken with Cashew Nuts (RM25.80) is a safe choice for customers of all generations, chunky and crunchy, expertly executed here, sweet and salty with the funky fish sauce that heralds Thai cuisine instead of the oyster sauce that marks Malaysian Chinese cooking.
For more fowl fun, the Tummour Chicken Wings (RM17.80 for five pieces) are finger-lickin' great, seasoned for half a day with a bold marinade that results in robust-tasting meat, balanced with uplifting plum sauce, elevated high above fast-food fried chicken with ketchup.
Beef with Mala & Jaew Sauce (RM45.80) is jazzed up with the juiciness of Australian Angus beef, served on a steaming-hot plate. The meat is deliciously coupled with a duet of zesty jaew dipping sauce as well as Szechuan mala powder with a Thai spice mix, conveying the unmistakable spicy sharpness of mala but more nuanced of being simply tongue-numbing.
Deep Fried Morning Glory (RM24.80) fulfils the fibre for this feast - wholesomely lovable leaves, crisp and crowned with prawns, peanuts, chillies, shallots and spices galore, dressed with honey plum sauce for the Thai flourish.
The Tummour Yoghurt Jackfruit (RM8.90) is a cooling dessert to refresh our palates, smooth and scrumptious, decadent-textured as ice cream, showered with sliced jackfruit and peanuts.
For beverages, the Tummour Thai Tea (RM6.80) and Lemongrass Fruit Tea (RM15.80 per jug of watermelon, orange and apple) are recommended.
LG21, Lower Ground, Empire Shopping Gallery, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor.
Daily, 10am-10pm.
