I never would have noticed this place had my sister not raved about the mushroom salad and ginger ice cream she had here. So I decided to try some take-out and came away pretty impressed. Me Dee has been open about a month now and while it does not appear to be heading down the road of a Spoon Thai per se, it clearly aims to rise above the ordinary neighborhood Thai place we've become accustomed to seeing in the Chicago area.
There's little room to eat in here. Two picnic tables and a few counter seats is all, although it's pretty modern and nicely decorated. A large freezer of frozen desserts and a number of packaged Thai snacks on shelves occupy most of the restaurant. I believe the place is co-owned by sisters and the one who cooks apparently cooked at a Thai/sushi place in Rogers Park.
Just about the time my dishes were coming out of the kitchen, I noticed a specials board listing four specials, all in Thai but only two were translated. One which was not translated turned out to be my favorite shrimp paste rice with pork, egg and apples (I think this version substituted mangoes for apples) which I always ordered from Spoon. The woman at the counter (one of the co-owners) showed me the dish which had already been prepared for one of her friends. It looked beautifully plated and I'll definitely be trying their version soon. But today I tried Sunny Sunny and Cracker Chicken Salad.
I first tried Sunny Sunny. This was about 10 quail eggs, lightly fried and served essentially sunny side up with a type of soy sauce (also pictured on their web site):
I liked the delicate quail eggs and the simple but nice flavor when dabbed with the soy sauce. I'm not sure why they also gave me a small package of dried, fried clams and I'm not sure how I was supposed to eat them (probably not even for this dish), but when mixed with the eggs and soy, I enjoyed the eggs even more.
I also tried the cracker chicken salad, essentially chicken larb. Very flesh flavors, nice texture of the chicken, the "cracker" portion were crsipy, fried wonton skins, but it could have used a little more heat and a little more sour. Overall, fresh and refined and good but needs a little work.
The star of the meal though was definitely dessert. Thai tea ice cream made in-house. I got home and opened the container to find what appeared to be a frozen Thai iced tea. I tasted it to find out it tasted exactly like a Thai iced tea but so much better, and it was amazingly creamy. I also purchased a coffee ice cream (must have been a small mix up because I wanted ginger) and it was good, but not nearly as good as the tea ice cream. They make a number of ice creams in house including the ones I tried and banana-coconut, ginger and I believe a couple of others. Here's the tea:
I'll definitely be stopping by to test some more items and to try the shrimp paste rice, but even with the number of excellent Thai options in the Lincoln Square area, this will definitely be joining my rotation, at the very least for their ice cream.
Me Dee Cafe4805 N. Damen
Chicago, IL 60625
773.989.4444
(hours and delivery area listed on the website)
Last edited by
BR on August 16th, 2009, 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.