Every Wednesday night after she closes her Tucson restaurant, Karuna Farrell hops in her truck and drives to Los Angeles.
Farrell, who owns Karuna's Thai Plate, has been making the trip for 20 years.
She goes to L.A. to pick up supplies for her restaurant and for her sister's Thai market. She fills her truck with canned goods, rice and imported produce like papayas and Thai eggplants, and she returns to work in the restaurant on Fridays.
"It's a little vacation," Farrell says. "To get away from the restaurant and away from Tucson."
While she's on the road, Farrell has a chef who fills in for her. Dedicated customers might notice the difference.
"She doesn't make the food as spicy as I do," Farrell admits.
Farrell, like many Thai people, likes her cuisine flaming hot. But many American tongues can't take the heat.
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That's why Farrell will tone down or ratchet up the spice in her dishes to suit the customer.
Lately, she's finding a lot of like-minded customers. Farrell says more people than ever are asking for extra heat.
"I think they are getting used to the spicy food."
That makes sense. After all, if you can't take the heat you're probably living in the wrong city.
Karuna's is affordable — portions are large, and every menu item (except duck dishes) is less than $8 — but that comes at the expense of ambience. This is not a place you want to take your sweetheart for Valentine's Day.
Customers sit at pink formica tables, and colorful but weathered tapestries hang in the window. Well-worn green utility carpet covers the floor.
It's the kind of restaurant where you can feel free to rearrange the table settings as necessary. During a recent visit, we arrived to find a large vase with tall lilies in the middle of our table, but I moved it to an empty table so we wouldn't be staring through the stems (or overwhelmed by the flowers' smell). Nobody seemed to mind.
Four of us stopped by Karuna's on a recent Monday evening and found a nearly full dining room.
We started with a pot of tea. I ordered the green curry ($7.50), which was a little too thin, but flavorful and full of fresh vegetables like broccoli, carrots and Thai eggplant. You won't encounter Thai eggplant at many restaurants in town, and the imported veggies add an extra bit of authenticity to the meal. The curry was served with a side of white rice.
One dining companion ordered the Pad Thai ($6.50) with pork, crispy bean sprouts and crunchy peanuts. The dish was neither too greasy nor too dry, and the noodles carried a subtle sweetness.
Another ordered the red curry with chicken and bamboo ($7.50), which, like the green curry, was a little thin but just as tasty and full of fresh veggies.
My fiancee, Suz, ordered the Pad Kee Mao ($6.50), vermicelli noodles stir-fried in red curry sauce, fresh garlic, chili, onions, peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, baby corn and hot basil. The dish can come with a choice of pork, beef or chicken, but Suz stuck with just vegetables. She ordered her food spicy — and was it ever.
Some spicy food simply burns, but at Karuna's you don't just feel the spice, you taste it — and the taste lingers in your mouth long after the meal is done. Seriously, people, tread lightly.
Like Tucson summers, Karuna's heat is not for everyone. But the restaurant's prices and portions sure are.
Tucson restaurant review: Karuna's Thai Plate
• Where: 1917 E. Grant Road.
• When: Noon-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, noon-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Mondays.
• Phone: 325-4129
The bill
Hot tea: $1.25
Green curry: $7.50
Pad Thai with pork: $6.50
Pad Kee Mao: $6.50
Red curry with chicken and bamboo: $7.50
Total before tax and tip: $29.25
