From left: Yeap, Parichart and Su Ni (Photo: Patrick Goh/The Edge)
Imagine this: in the heart of Isaan, Thailand’s poorest region in its northeast, a group of students are walking home from school. One of them, a young girl, notices a pineapple cookie slip out of the hands of the child in front of her. To many people, it is nothing extravagant — just a small treat by a run-of-the-mill household snack brand, further reduced now that it has touched dirt. But to her, it is a delicacy. Using her foot to conceal this fallen titbit from the sharp eyes of others, she lingers behind until her peers have trudged ahead, before scooping up the nibble in her hand, quickly dusting it off and popping it into her mouth to savour a rare moment of indulgence.
If you are close to the family behind Thai Select-awarded beef noodle haunt Mama Lek at Wisma Cosway in Kuala Lumpur, that might be one of the many stories you would have heard about owner Parichart Salakamud. The youngest of nine siblings (hence her nickname Lek, which is Thai for “small”), she did not come from much. Her family, like many in rural Isaan, could barely afford necessities. When they were children, she and her siblings did odd jobs, from sorting trash to mixing concrete, to help shoulder the household expenses. However, it was when she joined her mother in selling produce at the local market that she first felt something new — the joy of sharing food with others, an initial spark that would evolve into a passion for feeding those around her.
But coming from a disadvantaged background, Parichart had no opportunity to explore her personal interests. At the age of 14, the bustling city of Bangkok and its promise of better wages beckoned. Over the next few years, she worked as a maid and petrol station attendant, then a shoe factory employee, before finally becoming a hotel masseuse — a job that led to her meeting her future husband, a Kelantanese named Aw Tai Seng. After getting married, the couple moved to Aw’s hometown of Kota Bharu in 1994 to start a family, and their daughter Aw Su Ni was born two years later.
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Back then, the Thai food scene in Malaysia was not what it is today, and a homesick Parichart soon found herself missing the flavours of home. “When she moved to Kelantan, there wasn’t really any authentic Isaan food around, so she had to make it herself,” her daughter mentions.
Parichart’s love of cooking resulted in her first hawker stall in 2006. But operating the stand while raising a young child proved difficult to balance. Wanting her to rest, Aw urged her to focus on the family, so she agreed to close up shop and started a home-based Thai chicken rice business, supplying food to local coffee shops while having the flexibility needed to attend to the household.
In 2021, while Su Ni was working in hospitality in another state, her father passed away from complications of liver disease. The heartbreaking loss of husband and father momentarily reunited mother and daughter. “I’m an only child, so my mum was by herself. When I went back to work, I realised I couldn’t bear to leave her alone,” says Su Ni, recalling that this prompted her to quit her job and return home. Looking to start anew, she and partner Eric Yeap, whose own father had died a few months before hers, relocated to KL, with Parichart joining them soon after.
Writing a fresh chapter came with tests, but it also rekindled a dream that had been tucked away for years. “I tried working in property for a while, but it didn’t suit me. That’s when my mum suggested we try operating a hawker stall again because she still had all these recipes and didn’t want them to go to waste,” says Su Ni.
Their new booth in Setapak Prima Food Court, specialising in Thai beef noodles, quickly earned a following for its deeply satisfying taste and kind service. And it was not just the local foodies who started to notice. “The Thai Embassy came to try our food anonymously,” Su Ni recounts. “We didn’t even know it was their representatives! It was only after they had eaten and asked my mum if they could enter her into the Thai Select Awards that we found out.”
That was only the beginning. With the aid of an angel investor (a customer at their Setapak stall), they were able to move the business into the current cosy unit at Wisma Cosway. The restaurant, which officially opened in mid-April and listed on the 2025 Thai Select register, was their confirmation that with patience and hard work, dreams can come true. “When I was little, we used to say we were going to open a restaurant together,” Su Ni recalls. “And we still see many of our long-time regulars who live in Setapak but work in the city.”
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Just a stone’s throw from Bukit Bintang, the eatery is a slice of Thailand in the middle of KL. Lively Thai music plays as customers chatter away over large bowls generously filled with savoury broth, springy noodles, a succulent selection of braised beef slices, tripe, tendons and meatballs and a sprinkling of fragrant herbs. Palates that can tolerate some spice will enjoy the milky, yet refreshingly sour and aromatic tom yum variations, while those who do not eat beef can savour dried-squid-infused chicken soup offerings that come topped with cabbage, radish, coriander and crispy fried garlic.
The quintessential homemade taste — something many of us can only associate with grandma’s cooking — is the result of years of fine-tuning recipes that have been passed down through generations, the sort that are slowly being lost to time as younger people stop learning to cook and opt to eat out instead, either because they are afraid of failing or just cannot be bothered. Parichart urges youths to not be intimidated by the kitchen, though. She recommends starting with simple methods to make what you personally like to eat, much like how she began to cook the Thai dishes she missed after settling down in Malaysia. Once a basic skill set is established, recreating old family recipes is sure to be less daunting.
While the food at Mama Lek is undeniably delicious, it is the people behind it who have diners leaving with both stomachs and hearts full. The staff’s welcoming attitude and the way Yeap, Su Ni and her mother are fully engaged in tending to customers from opening until they close for the day are impossible to ignore. This warm, homey atmosphere is only further emphasised by the bits of memorabilia that decorate the space — from the matriarch’s very first recipe book, worn spine held together by a strip of masking tape, that perches on a shelf next to the entrance — to the framed black-and-white photograph hanging on a wall inside. In it, a young girl from Isaan peeks out from among a group of adults towering over her, her eyes lit with curiosity as they dart around their surroundings. She did not know it yet, but an exhilarating journey of trials and success, love and loss, all defined by pride in her traditional culture and cuisine, would lie ahead.
Lot G-37, Cosway Guesthouse, Jalan Raja Chulan, KL. Mon to Sat, 11am to 5:30pm. Contact (011) 2773 8871 or visit @mamalek.my on Instagram for more information.
This article first appeared on Aug 18, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.
