On a recent sunny Sunday, five saffron-robed monks sat cross-legged inside the temple of Warren’s Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center chanting in trance-inducing unison as a kneeling man made an offering to his deceased loved ones.

Outside, the rhythmic pounding of a wooden mortar and pestle against the firm flesh of shredded green papaya hypnotized hungry onlookers waiting in the summer sun while banana slices sizzled in a large wok of hot oil.

Every so often, the smoky-sweet smell of grilled pork wafted over from the other side of the yard beyond the row of tent-covered seating.

“Thai tea is almost out!” warned Lawan Chandruang to the queue lined up in front of her table at the papaya salad station.

It’s not an uncommon refrain to hear or an uncommon scene to witness on this patch of grass behind three prosaic houses lining Ryan Road just north of 12 Mile — so unassuming you’d zoom right past if you weren’t looking for it.

For nearly 20 years, the MBMC has hosted a seasonal, twice-a-month Sunday market where vendors come to sell their homemade Southeast Asian fare — mostly Thai and Laotian dishes not commonly found in local restaurants, as well as produce and herbs grown by ethnic Hmong — to anyone looking for a taste of those faraway lands.

For many who come, it is also the taste of home.

“At the beginning, it's just like we (are) lost,” says Chandruang, one of the temple’s founders and current vice president, who immigrated to the United States in 1975. “It’s just hard to live here without knowing a lot of people around us. But now we felt home a little bit because of small temple and have all these people come enjoy their summer.”

Tom and Laura Menoroth have been vendors at the Sunday market for four or five years now, selling fried rice and crispy sour fish, among other rotating dishes. They both came from Thailand in the early '80s but met and fell in love in their adopted home state.

“It’s beautiful," Tom Menoroth says. "We can get like the same from my country here. I know everything in here. It’s easy to go around. Feels like home.”

That sentiment is echoed by attendee Pim Rhodes, who was born in Thailand but immigrated with her family to the U.S. at the age of 5. She no longer speaks the language, but values the connection to her homeland the MBMC provides.

“This is ground for a lot of Thai people to come together,” says Rhodes, a candidate for this year’s Miss Asia Michigan scholarship pageant. “Not only does it bring the actual people who’ve come from the country itself, but they’re able to share with their spouses and other relations and share all this authentic Thai food. And the thing is, the more people that come here the more they can actually enjoy and share with other people and the more the community grows.”

A small community establishes deep roots

The exact number of Thai people living in metro Detroit is hard to pin down but is very small, especially in relation to the community’s outsized cultural impact — particularly when it comes to restaurants.

According to a 2014 report by the non-profit Global Detroit, there were just under 23,000 Southeast Asians living in Metro Detroit, the smallest of the four Asian regions the report examined, representing about 11% of the total Asian population. And Census figures show that Michigan’s Asian community represents just 3% of the state’s population. By that math, about 33,000 Southeast Asians call Michigan home and Thais represent just a fraction of that number. (The temple's abbott puts the total number of Thai people in Michigan at 3,700.)

The same report also shows that more Southeast Asians migrated here before 1990 than their counterparts from elsewhere on the continent, and Southeast Asians also boast the highest home ownership rates among Asians, reflecting an “investment in the community and a sense of permanence.”

That sense of permanence helps to explain why this small temple serving just a sliver of the local community was built in the first place.

According to an MBMC brochure, the temple dates back to 1992, when members of the local Thai community purchased the first of three homes that now make up the three-acre temple grounds. At the time, the closest place to practice their faith was some 300 miles away.

“The Thai people in Michigan on the weekend they get in car and drive to Chicago,” explains Thanaphat Tukaeo, the abbot of the temple since 2009.

His predecessor, Chuen Phangcham, was the first Buddhist monk to come to Michigan, making regular visits to the grounds in Warren to teach mindfulness meditation. In early 1997, the MBMC was officially registered as a legitimate temple under Phangcham. Tukaeo was recruited from Thailand in 2004.

“That was very hard for me, because new culture and new language, new weather, unlike Thailand,” Tukaeo says. “Thailand very hot. First time I came here in wintertime. First time I saw snow. I stay inside. About three months I don’t go outside at all!”

Phangcham died of cancer in 2008 and Tukaeo became abbott in 2009, undertaking a series of expansions that included a new kitchen and larger temple hall.

Despite the small community, the temple's need for growth reflects the MBMC’s inclusive ethos.

“I service the people with the teaching of mindfulness meditation and service all ceremonies for everyone — not only for the Buddhists, not only for the Thai,” Tukaeo says. “My master, his purpose to build this temple for everyone. This (is) an open door for everyone to come practice. Just come to practice mindfulness meditation and go. Don’t need to convert them to anything. Don’t need to change them. They can believe what they want and just come to take something from mindfulness meditation.”

MBMC hosts meditation sessions twice a day, from 6 to 7 in the morning and the evening. Sessions are open to anyone for free, though donations are accepted and encouraged.

This open-door policy appears to be working.

The next phase of expansion, which has already broken ground, will see a new temple building erected next to the current one to “accommodate the ever-increasing number of people attracted to Buddhist meditation, to observance days and festivals, and will provide space needed so that Thai cultural events (music, dance, language) can be offered,” reads a fundraising brochure.

The Sunday market has also expanded since it began with a few temple members selling food in 2003. It started to grow after 2010, when Takaeo solicited vendors from the community to come provide their homemade food. He says he maintains control of who and, more importantly, what type of fare gets sold.

“Not like a flea market,” he says. The primary focus is food that is not served in restaurants.

The market now runs from late April to early November and is held on the first and last Sunday of the month. It’s both a way to draw new people to the temple and to raise money for it. Food costs are covered, but vendors donate all profits to the MBMC, effectively participating in a bi-monthly fundraiser.

Sunday Market elevates a quiet stretch on Ryan

When you arrive, the smell of pork on the barbecue is often the first sensory confirmation that you're in the right place. Follow your nose to the tent near the back, where Ghean Sirikannika and her husband Doug Monasterski dutifully man three charcoal grills.

"We started out with one small barbecue then two small barbecues," Monasterski says as he brushes skewers of marinated meat with a slick white coating of coconut milk. "Then pretty soon we couldn’t keep up with the demand. Then we got these two large ones and we just added a third because we were falling too far behind."

The couple have been vendors at the Sunday market for about seven years and will often go through 500 to 600 skewers of pork in the roughly three-hour period the market is open.

“She’ll sit downstairs for three days from morning to night skewering these," Monasterski says of his wife.

All that work is for the temple.

"It's like my family here," Sirikannika says when asked why she does it. "And better than sitting at home."

Chef Hassan Musselmani, who runs the Drunken Rooster food truck and has appeared on Gordon Ramsay's cooking show "Hell's Kitchen," has been coming to the Sunday market since last year.

“This is really good stuff, man," he says of the pork skewers. "There used to be a 45-minute wait for skewers. It’s one of the best things here so it’s worth it, you know? That’s the first thing we did. We just walked in and were like, ‘Let’s go order that.’”

In addition to the prepared food, there are also vendors who sell fresh Southeast Asian produce, but Tukaeo only allows it if they grow it themselves — no repacked goods from the grocery store.

Dang Chang is an ethnic Hmong from Laos who came to the U.S. in 1980 after fighting the communists in Vietnam. He grew up Shaman, like many Hmong, then became a Buddhist but now identifies as Christian. Still, he's happy to help raise money for the temple.

"They grew up in Laos and always farmed," explains Chang's daughter, Kaying. "It never got out of their system. Every Hmong family has a garden in their back yard."

She says her family rents a small plot of land in Romeo that's shared between a number of other ethnic Hmong. They grow things like pepper plants and Thai eggplant for themselves and sell the surplus at the market. They also cultivate seedlings for their fellow gardeners and the market allows for much easier distribution.

"Instead of my dad delivering to all of them, they can come grab it here," she says.

In many ways, the Sunday market has become a central hub for not just Thai folks, but the broader Southeast Asian community.

And like the temple itself, it is very welcoming to all outsiders.

If you go ...

Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center Sunday market

LOCATION: 29750 Ryan, Warren.

CONTACT: 586-573-2666 and mbmcmichigan.org.

HOURS: 10:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. the first and last Sunday of each month from late April through early November. (Check website for exact dates.)

STYLE: Open-air food market specializing in Thai and Laotian food plus fresh Hmong-grown produce

STANDOUT DISHES: Papaya salad, Thai beef noodle soup, grilled pork skewers, spicy noodle salad with shrimp, crispy rice salad, khao man gai

PRICE RANGE: Most items are $10 or under. Cash only.

DRINKS: No alcohol. Thai-style tea and iced coffee available, plus other sweet drinks.

RESERVATIONS: First-come, first-served. Takeaway friendly.

ACCESS: No barriers.

PARKING: Free parking on grounds and at the doctor's office just south of the temple.

NOTE: The next regular Sunday market is scheduled for July 28, but the temple is holding a special celebration on Sunday, July 14, for its annual remembrance day of MBMC founder Cheun Phangcham. The public event includes a free Thai food luncheon beginning at 10:30 a.m. All are welcome.

Send your dining tips to Free Press Restaurant Critic Mark Kurlyandchik at 313-222-5026 ormkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKurlyandchik and Instagram @curlyhandshake. Read more restaurant news and reviews and sign up for our Food and Dining newsletter.