Dee-Lish Restaurant in Phuket, Thailand

Every morning I say a prayer. Usually I tell Jesus thanks for making me so funny and kind of cute, but every now and then I have to give him a reminder or two. Like, don’t forget to send the man of my dreams today, keep my belt strong against this gut, or send some amazing food my way. For some reason, he hasn’t been listening to the boyfriend request lately. But lucky for me, He does hear the belt and food appeals loud and clear. While frolicking to lunch in Phuket, He came through with the food wish. Monique, Alicia, Brittany, and I had been in Thailand for more days than we could recall at this point and we were loving every humid minute of it. On this sweaty, yet beautiful day that would lead to new adventures we first stopped to get food at Dee-Lish.

Sitting under another fan that struggled to cool the heat, I was fanning myself with the menu. I took a few glances in between the warm breeze to find something to order. For my drink, I already knew what to get. I started off with a Coconut Shake (80 baht, $2). If you couldn’t tell already, this was becoming a drink trend which was quickly turning into an obsession. It was hard not to get it when even at Dee-Lish, it was thick, milky, and the perfect creamy consistency. Even as the heat melted it, it was still refreshing and mouthwatering.

After having a bit of a disappointing plate of shrimp the day prior at Alaha Din, I wanted to give shrimp a second go around. I ordered the Yam Pree Guay (180 baht, $5). The dish was made of prawn and pork with a banana husk salad. Within the entire dish was shredded pork, peanuts, coconut slices, a cut hardboiled egg, and a mint leaf. It was so beautiful. I loved their attention to color detail and the way the palette of browns and yellows were accented by the green mint. Maybe the chef really didn’t care about the arrangement of the colors, but if he didn’t, he damn sure did a great job putting all together.

It only took a few bites for me to realize how much I loved this dish! The coconut sauce had a sweetness to it while the curry was an almost tantalizing spicy pairing. Since you know I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to spiciness, I could tell the coconut helped to alleviate what could be a burning oral situation. Then there was the shrimp, they were huge. They were juicy and completely absorbed the sauce. Part of me wanted to walk the plate down to Alaha Din to show them how the shrimp should be, but I refrained. Then there was the egg. I’m suspect to how eggs taste when their placed with liquid heavy dishes, but my goodness the chef did a great job here. I loved the way the solid yolk just picked up the sauce like a sponge. It was perfect together.

To bring the entire lunch to a close, we all shared the Sticky Rice (180 baht, $5). I was eager to have this one because it’s a traditional dessert in Thailand. I assume sticky rice is to Thailand, the way a Pink’s hot dog is to LA or over-sized pizza is to New York. The warm rice sided with fresh and cold slices of mango was covered in thick coconut milk. It looked like it was going to be an explosion of flavors, but a few bites in I realized I didn’t like it. The cold fruit combated the warm (and somewhat flavorless) rice to the point that they didn’t pair well together. Add to that, it did stick to the roof of my mouth. Then the sweetness of the coconut milk didn’t help bring it all together. Instead it just tasted like a mashup of ingredients that didn’t do anything for me. Was it horrible? No, not at all. But was it something that I would recommend? No, not at all.