Seattle is home to countless Thai restaurants, and everybody who likes Thai food — and who doesn’t? — has their neighborhood favorite. Getting takeout is something taken for granted. You order the same thing every time, maybe with one or two variations, depending on mood or season. It’s easy weeknight eating, perhaps accompanied by Netflix, hitting pause to get seconds.
Then, in the middle of the pandemic, when “weeknight” had lost all meaning, both nothing and everything somehow seemed special. Just to be alive could feel like a lightning bolt of luck, while the sameness of shutdown days wove