E X P Mexico.com

Casa Thai - food and ambience

Good ethnic food is hard to find in Mexico. Perhaps major cities such as Guadalajara and Mexico City are a bit more “international,” but Cuernavaca is sorely lacking in even just half a block of Chinatown. There is a Sushi Itto by the shopping center Galerías, but the rest of Cuernavaca is uniform in its cuisine. Maybe I’m generalizing too much, but Burger King and Italianni’s don’t count either. Therefore, when I heard that there was supposedly a really good Thai restaurant somewhere in this enchilada-infested city, I organized a group of friends and planned an evening to…Casa Thai.

Casa Thai is an earthy little restaurant with a simple, chic and not ostentatious front at Tepozteco 100 corner with Estrada Cajigal, Colonia Reforma, near Avenida Teopanzolco.

The inside of the restaurant is stunning – the main seating area is comfortable and spacious with a view of the Thai/Asian décor. The coolest part though is the upper level seating – a platform, more like a boat deck, suspended over a swimming pool of water. The only thing missing are the colorful fish enjoying the crumbs off people’s plates. I would have liked the design even more if my seat weren’t backed right up against the edge, a few more glasses of wine and I could have taken a dip.

The owner, chef Patricia Inestrilla, with whom my restaurant-connoisseur co-worker is already buddy-buddy, is a friendly Mexican woman who spent 20 years living in Canada. Our fellow diners that evening were foreigners – a mix of Europeans, Americans and Canadians -  all of them English speaking.

Not to sound like a complete snob, but I really miss seeing different nationalities. I mean, I come from a middle-class white family and went to an almost all white university and really only ever ate Vegetable Fried Rice at the sketchy, local Chinese restaurant, but still.

In the United States, as a general rule, Chinese food is prepared by Chinese people, Indian food by Indian people, Mexican food by Mexican people and us Spanish-language majors, and Italian food by my grandmother. Here, it’s obviously all prepared by Mexicans. Besides lacking the “real feel” of a true ethnic eatery, those of us who are expats or who have traveled to other countries know what it’s like not to have access to just the right ingredients. My Australian friend grumbles about not being able to get “real” curry, though she was sweet enough to say that Casa Thai “did ok considering the ingredients available.”

Casa Thai has a wide menu, offering all ranges of proteins from seafood to tofu. I ordered a chicken dish with a sweet, tangy tamarind sauce and sticky white rice, and my boyfriend ordered a seafood version of Pad Thai.

I enjoyed the visual stimulation everyone’s dishes provided – the bright green of snow peas, the dark rusty red of various flavorful sauces. Though the food was oh-so-satisfying for someone who has been on a tamale diet for waaay too long, the meal wasn’t hearty enough to soften the blow to my wallet. The owner tried to press spring rolls on us, but 60 pesos for 2 spring rolls couldn’t tempt our sad, curry-deprived stomachs. And my meal was 99 pesos – no soup or salad or fortune cookies or agua de limón or anything. Add a bottle of wine and there goes the week’s grocery money. Everyone enjoyed the meal, but it’s unfortunate to say that we definitely won’t be going back anytime soon.

So while Casa Thai will be on our list of more expensive, delicious eats here in Cuernavaca, I would loooove to import some people (since my culinary skills are less than impressive) to make REAL ethnic food the way it should be – cheap, plentiful, and always with a mystery as to the origin of the meat.
[ad#june-post-ad]