Enjoying Thai Food @ Tops Thai Tom Yam Coffee House, Taiping

Last Friday, my sister and I took a ride in our friend's car to Taiping. Our friend needed to send her mother back to Taiping after her mother came to visit her in Ipoh. It was a rare opportunity for close fellowship so we were happy to keep her company especially on her way back to Ipoh.

We started our journey around 11 am. I sat in front with our friend as the driver  and my sister sat at the back with auntie (our friend's mother). In the car, my sister was having the conversation with auntie in the Hokkien dialect. My command of the Hokkien dialect was very limited, and I couldn't hold a proper conversation in Hokkien, my conversation will be like "rojak", mixed with a little Cantonese, Hokkien, English and Malay. My sister was doing quite well and only interrupted here and there when she was struggling with certain words. All the time, we were making fun and laughing at our own mistakes and keeping auntie amused. She ended up being our Hokkien tutor. 

Since I was seated in the front passenger seat, I was free to take pictures of whatever I found interesting. We have just entered the tunnel between Ipoh and Taiping. It was not a very long tunnel and very soon we were out on the other side.

There was a stretch of the road where the traffic slowed down. We found out later down the road that there was some repair work that caused the slowdown of traffic. We passed by this long carrier and saw this nice golden car.

Upon reaching Taiping, mother and daughter were discussing where to go for lunch. My sister asked for something light and a place where we can get different variety of food to choose from. My friend's mother suggested we can try this food court in Taiping Lake Garden. We went in and found most of the stalls closed and only opened for business in the evening. We got into the car and drove back to town looking for food.

Auntie suggested we go for Thai food, and our friend said that she hasn't been there, so here we were at Tops Thai Tom Yam Coffee House.

From afar, it looked like it was closed. It was only as we walked closer, we were able to see the "OPEN" sign on the glass door.

From the menu on the wall, everything looked nice and delicious. All of a sudden, I felt my hunger pang. A waitress brought the menu and helped us with out order.

I was busy talking and forgot to take picture of tom yam soup before our friend started to scoop the soup into individual bowls. So I ended up taking picture of tom yam soup in small bowl. I think this is the White Tom Yam Soup.

We guessed there is coconut milk in the tom yam. Hmmm....slurpss...Very appetizing. Thumbs up for this tom yam soup.

Fern Spikes (Paku Pakis) salad dish. Very tasty and different from the usual salad. This is good too.

Fried Pineapple Rice, a great disappointment. Tasted like some curry powder has been used, so different from the pineapple rice that I have tasted. We didn't leave any behind as we do not like to waste food. Each one took a share and finished it.

Fried Rice Vermicelli, a bit bland and oily. We did the same with this too, no wasting of food.

Fried Transparent/Glass Noodle (Tang Hoon in Hokkien). Ahh! This is the best compared to the fried pineapple rice and fried rice vermicelli. Can thumbs up for this.

Grilled Fish Cake (Otak Otak), I prefer the Penang Otak Otak. Given opportunity, we may come back but we will order different dishes. Lunch was a treat from auntie and I think it is about MYR 70+ (approx. 20 USD).

Address: Tops Thai Tom Yam Coffee House,

*  100, Jalan Taming Sari, Taiping.

*  94, Jalan Kota, Taiping.

After lunch, our friend took us to Aeon Shopping Mall in Kamunting. All the walking and shopping made us tired and thirsty. Our friend wanted to buy some kueh back for her family in Ipoh and we decided to have some ice kacang at the Taiping town food court.

We ordered 4 bowls of ice kacang, MYR 1.80 per bowl (approx. 0.50 USD). Ipoh ice kacang costs about twice the amount, but with more ingredients. After finishing our ice kacang, our friend sent her mother back to her house. After unloading auntie's luggage, we started our journey back to Ipoh. We reached Ipoh about 6.30 pm and that ended our half day trip.

Honor your father and your mother,

as the LORD your God has commanded you,

so that you may live long and that it may go well with you

in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 5:16, New International Version-NIV)