La Casita Azeteca – Easthampton Mass

For many Americans, Mexican food is refried beans and rice, tacos, enchiladas and quesadillas. Tex-Mex, in other words. Nothing wrong with Tex-Mex, which developed along the border between Texas and Mexico, but it’s not Mexican. For that, locally, there’s LA CASITA AZTECA, which specializes in cuisine from the Oaxaca state in southern Mexico.

La Casita Azteca (58 Cottage St., Easthampton, 203-5050) opened last fall in the building vacated by the Pirate’s Den. Set back from the street, it’s fronted by a long sidewalk flanked by grassy spaces with tables, flowers and a small stage. Inside, the restaurant is painted in shades of red and orange with purple highlights. The counter houses an array of sodas, both Mexican and American, beers (many Mexican beers) and Chilean wine, and a large menu is overhead.

You are likely to be overwhelmed by the menu at first, especially if you aren’t familiar with Oaxacan cuisine. My advice is to get some chips and salsa and something to drink, grab a table, and spend some time looking over one of the printed menus.

Oaxaca is known for its food, especially its moles. La Casita Azteca has mole negro, the dark mole flavored with chocolate, sesame seeds and various chilies. I order mole negro a lot, but to be honest, no matter where I get it, it is not one of those flavors that makes me want more. At La Casita Azteca, the flavors I do want more of are those of the Pilte de Oaxaca, chicken sautéed with garlic, tomatoes, jalapenos and hoja santa or acuyo, two names for a leaf much used in Oaxacan cooking. Related to the sassafras plant, it gives a distinct flavor to the dish.

Another dish I want more of is sopes — thick, crisp cornmeal cakes. At La Casita Azteca you can order them topped with chicken, beef and chorizo, or vegetarian-style with beans. The cakes have a deep corn flavor and a nice hint of heat.

There’s a misconception that Mexican food is blindingly hot. But like Thai, Indian and other spicy cuisines, Mexican food in the United States is usually toned down. In my macho youth I preferred spicy foods, but these days what I look for is the taste of the chiles, and a heat level that is noticeable but doesn’t obscure the flavor of what I am eating. That’s the level of spice you’ll find in many of La Casita Azteca’s dishes. You can ask for hot sauce on the side if you like.

The menu also lists tacos, corn tortillas wrapped around beef, chicken or chorizo, tacos de cazuela, which add pineapple and jalapenos to the mix, and tacos dorados, which add sour cream and guacamole. The quesadillas are corn tortillas folded around various fillings, including zucchini blossoms and huitlacoche. The latter, pronounced whee-tla-KO-chay, is a fungus that grows on corn and it was highly prized by many indigenous groups. Variously described as a mushroom, a Mexican truffle and corn smut, it tastes like a chewy shiitake. I’m not overly fond of it, but, like many things, it is good to try it just so you can say you did.

There are fish dishes as well: pescado a la Veracruz, with jalapenos, green olives and raisins, a combination I particularly love, and camarones en salsa de acuyo, shrimp with cilantro and hoja santa. I have also had posole at La Casita Azteca, a stew of hominy, pork, guajillo peppers and onions that is touted as the best cure for a hangover. These days I don’t often require that kind of help, but I would want it spicier and hotter if I needed to chase away the night before.

Most dishes come with Spanish rice and beans. The rice is colored with some tomato, and also includes green beans, carrots, peas and corn. The beans are pintos, prepared fresh at the restaurant and cooked with vegetable oil rather than lard because, as owner Antonio Lopez says, “There are many vegetarianos in this area.”

Lopez, a native of Oaxaca, learned to cook when he owned a restaurant in Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico. There he had a woman chef who, he says, could make anything. As he began incorporating Italian and other cuisines into traditional regional foods, she translated his ideas into finished dishes. He owned the restaurant for three years before emigrating to the States in 2006. His wife is from this area, and he followed her here. After working for Atkins Farms for a stretch, he found the space in Easthampton and opened La Casita Azteca in October.

It is slowly building a following. Lopez likes to sing, and last week he closed the restaurant for a private party and ended up performing for the guests on the outdoor stage. The restaurant has its quirks — service can be slow and Lopez says he would like to add wait staff. I’ve read online reviews that range from rave to dislike, but my experiences have all been positive.

While many of his ingredients are imported and bought from a supplier in Hartford, Lopez has an arrangement with Dave’s Natural Garden in Granby to supply as many fresh vegetables as possible during the growing season.

Dishes range from $6.50 to $11.50, with most somewhere in the middle. Desserts are $2.50 to $3.50 and include a Flan Napolitano flavored with dulce de cabra, like a dulce de leche made with goat’s milk.

La Casita Azteca is open Monday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Originally published Daily Hampshire Gazette, June 5, 2009