Quite a few Mexican restaurants have opened in Phuket in recent years. The few that I have eaten at have been, in my opinion, fairly mediocre at best. I was born in Texas and spent a number of years living in New Mexico as well as sampling regional varieties from the northern Mexican states. I can count only three restaurants that had tasty, semi-authentic Mexican fare in Southeast Asia — the Longhorn Saloon in Chiang Mai, ¡Viva! in Siem Reap (Cambodia) and the Sunrise Tacos chain in Bangkok. I hope to visit a few other Phuket Mexican restaurants in the near future.

It is rare that I find something inedible at 7-Eleven as most of the sandwiches and microwavable meals here are surprisingly yummy. A recent “find” was a package containing two Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches which I became addicted to for a brief time until they stopped stocking them. So, when I spotted a “Chicken Burger with Mexican Style Sauce” on the shelf in my local Seven, I just had to try it.

I was sorely disappointed. I cannot even describe the taste of what I had hoped would be a nice salsa. To me, it tasted a bit like what durian smells like (disgusting, in other words). Truly awful. I will avoid any 7-Eleven meals including “Mexican Sauce” for all eternity.

Bonus:

Trees outside of Dibuka Restaurant on the edge of Limelight Avenue, Thanon Deebuk in Phuket Town.