When I first started Wythe Notes, I had visions of writing about home-cooked Southern food and the great little Mom and Pop restaurants that prepared it from scratch. Little did I realize that those places are as hard to find as hen’s teeth. Sure, there are lots of places that advertise “home cooking” and “family-style dining,” (a euphemism for “We don’t serve alcohol.”), but most of the ones I’ve tried aren’t very good. We live in an area where you can get fairly good sushi, but you can’t find a decent bowl of grits. In one generation, we may see a style of cooking that has been around for nearly 300 years disappear.

There are many reasons why this is occurring. The profit margin for small restaurants is very thin, usually no more than 5%-10%. In order to compete with the fast food places and the national chains, (and there are way too many of both in Wythe County), small restaurants have increasingly been forced to turn to the Food Service industry with their pre-cooked frozen entrees, and canned vegetables to keep their prices competitive. Mashed potatoes and gravy come out of a box. The current generation has been raised on this crap. One only has to look in others’ grocery carts to realize this is the same food people are eating at home. Not only are folks not learning how to cook, they’re not learning how to eat. It is truly a sad state of affairs.

In my opinion, the best scratch-cooking is now taking place in the myriad Mexican restaurants cropping up all over SWVa. Like the Irish, Chinese, and Italians in past generations, the first wave of immigrants coming to this country, looking for work and a better life is soon followed by small restaurants catering to their tastes. Eventually, this ethnic cooking is absorbed into the national lexicon of food. Mac and cheese, which most folks consider as American as apple pie, was brought here by Italians. But enough pontificating. I want to tell you about Casa Mexicana, my new favorite restaurant located just down the road next to the Laundromat in Ft. Chiswell.

Host Carlos Perez welcomes you to this charming, authentic-looking restaurante which serves some of the best Mexican food that I’ve had anywhere…..including Mexico. A look at one page of their menu gives you an indication of what’s in store.

For those of you familiar with Mexican cuisine, Casa Mexicana offers a variety of salsas including mole poblano , green chile, and tomatillo. The times that Anne and I have eaten there, substitutions haven’t been a problem. Many of the dishes containing pork can be made with chicken and any of the sauces can substituted, just one of the benefits of made-to-order scratch cooking. The enchiladas pictured below contain pork on the menu, but Carlos was happy to substitute chicken.

We started our meal with warm chips and salsa and fresh guacamole, then on to an excellent pork tamale each. I had the chicken enchiladas with green chile sauce and Anne had the enchiladas poblano (made with mole sauce). I can only describe the meal as flat out yummalicious. We split an order of fried cheesecake. It’s offered with a choice of chocolate, caramel, or strawberry sauce. You can have it with one, two, or, like we did, all three. I now understand the true meaning of the expression “to die for.”

So folks, if you’re in the mood for some good, made-from-scratch, home-cooking Mexican-style, take Rt. 52 south at Exit 80 off I-81. Casa Mexicana is located a few hundred feet on the right. Tell Carlos Ron sent you.

A local couple enjoy lunch at Casa Mexicana