We’re all creatures of habit in some ways and, when it comes to food, I’m probably guiltier than most. Take my almost weekly Chinese fix. Up until recently, I had been ordering my Chinese food from the same San Miguel source for over ten years. Now, agreed, there wasn’t a lot of choice for many of those years, but I wasn’t doing a lot of looking. 

Then, a couple of years ago I heard that this guy Franco Davalos had moved to town. He’d opened up a low-rent spot way, way out on the west side of Colonia Olimpo. The name of the place, Asia Orient Express, was a bit of a mouthful, but I tried a few of their mouthfuls and I liked the food. I tried them again a couple of months later and I swore they had gotten even better. 

Last year, Asia Orient Express made a smart location move to a much more convenient and classy spot on what’s now known as restaurant row. But I still wasn’t quite ready to leave my old faithful. That didn’t happen until two weeks ago when my reliable wasn’t so reliable. The first time I was put on hold for what seemed like forever. The second time, their phone number was occupado the entire night. There was no third time.

My Kung Pao and my General Tao had a new home. At Asia Orient Express.

Now I don’t eat Thai food anywhere near as often as I do Chinese, but for Thai I’ve also had an allegiance to one place in San Miguel de Allende. And this relationship goes back over 20 years. It’s difficult to explain what happened to us. I think I just got tired of the same old, same old. The restaurant needs a spark. Perhaps a new dish. A special of the week. Some enthusiasm in our communications.

So, last week, I wandered. I tried a new place for Thai cuisine. The same place I had adopted as my new home for Chinese. With nine other guys, I went to feast on Thai at Asia Orient Express.

We started with one of the freshest, crispest, tastiest spring rolls I have ever had. Now I’m not a big fan of veggie rolls (I have an aversion to healthy) but I do like rice paper wrappers and, dunked in the peanut sauce, there was sweet harmony between all of the components.

One of my favorite Thai dishes is tom yum soup but, like its sister soups, pho and ramen, tom yum is a meal in itself. I asked Franco Davalos if he could do some mini-bowls, about a third of a serving each. Franco is a very agreeable guy; he said yes.

The taste of kaffir lime leaves, coconut, lemongrass, garlic and chiles all working together was wonderful. The generous sized shrimps had obviously been added at the last minute to keep them firm. I watched Joe, sat next to me, lift his bowl and drain the dregs.

We were ready for the mains. Franco had four he wanted to show off and, one by one, they were brought to the table.

First out was the beef panang. I watched the guys’ faces as they handled the heat. Some splashed right into the curry. Some sipped gently. But none were ignoring what was in their spicy bowls. They had wide smiles on their faces as they looked back at me.

Asia Oriental Express followed with serving plates of pad Thai (of course), drunken noodles and Thai basil chicken. The only complaint I heard was about the quantity.

“So many good tastes left in the bowls and so little room left in my belly.”

I thought about what makes the restaurant’s food different, what makes it special.

The first thing was the freshness of everything. The color and the crispness of the vegetables was superb and when I saw who was seated at another table, I knew why. I asked Franco to pose with her, her being Deborah Richards, the woman who owns Chinaberry Farm, the woman who took locally-grown fruit and vegetables to new heights in San Miguel.

The second thing that I think makes Asia Oriental Express special is what I’ll call attention to detail. When I was in the kitchen, one of Franco’s staff was deveining shrimp. It’s a time-consuming task removing what we politely call the digestive tract and I have been to a lot of much, much higher-end restaurants that skip the laborous cleaning.

The third thing I’ll mention has to do with taste, actually tenderness and taste. Asian restaurants traditionally do not purchase expensive cuts of beef and, most often, use msg to enhance the flavors. Now I’m never 100% sure that Chinese Food Syndrome actually exists but I do know that Asia Orient Express does not use msg. So how does the restaurant get the beef in that panang curry to be so easy on the chew yet so beefy. Franco Davalos explained it to me.

I don’t think my old reliables for Chinese and Thai used msg either. And I must admit I am more than a little sad saying goodbye to them but Asia Orient Express has taken the standards up a notch for takeout or delivered Asian and, if you compare their cozy yet classy courtyard to the others, it’s also up a couple of notches for the pleasures of eating out.

Asia Orient Express is located at the rear of Salida a Celaya #6 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is open from 1:00 to 8:00 pm on Sundays, Noon to 8:00 pm on Tuesday through Saturday.