Mama’s Restaurant

Mama’s restaurant looks much like any other small neighborhood restaurant in Bangkok. About the size of a two-car garage, it opens to the front and is floored in concrete. When morning comes and the tin doors roll open, the restaurant spills out onto the street: little boxes of laundry detergent, bags of peanuts, packages of mosquito coils, candles, Mekong whiskey, and whatever else daily life in Bangkok may require. A faded old Marlboro poster and a neon Coca-Cola sign that no longer works help advertise—in case there is any doubt—that food is served inside.