Facing challenges in an increasingly colonial world, Chye Hoon, a rebellious young girl, must learn to embrace her mixed Malayan-Chinese identity as a Nyonya-- and her destiny as a cook, rather than following her first dream of attending school like her brother. Chye Hoon begins to appreciate the richness of her traditions, eventually marrying Wong Peng Choon, a Chinese man. Together, they have ten children. But by the 1930s the cultural shift towards the West has begun, and Chye Hoon is in danger of losing the heritage she so prizes as her children move more and more into the modern Western world.

The author alternates chapters on growing up as a Mennonite in Pennsylvania with experiences she and her husband had as teachers in the Congo.

Dynamic, opinionated, gritty, and charismatic, Chimate Chumbalo successfully navigated male-dominated factional politics, experimenting with different strategies to create for her people the society that she wanted for herself.

A simple spice can open up meditations on love and life. In food, we find connection to one another, like a homesick student searching for the perfect cup of teh tarik. Yet, paradoxically, food is a polarizer, like a Muslim convert craving a pork bun. From tracing the origins of our hawker food to a love letter for Ipoh told in local favourites, these works are an eclectic mix of the Malaysian obsession with food. For all our differences, Malaysians find commonality in one thing: we want you to be well-fed. Savour these small packages of good writing, covering a wide array of foods to please every palate, from laksa and sambal telur belimbing to french fries and Bru coffee. Come for the carbs. Stay for the whole menu. Featuring work by award-winning author Elaine Chiew, DK Dutt Memorial Award founder Dipika Mukherjee, and celebrated professor and poet Dr Malachi Edwin Vethamani.

In Japanese-occupied Malaya, lives are shattered and a woman discovers her inner strength in a world ravaged by war. Following the death of their matriarch, the lives of Chye Hoon's family are turned upside down. Now that the British have fled and the Japanese have conquered, their once-benign world changes overnight. Amid the turmoil, Chye Hoon's daughter-in-law, Mei Foong, must fend for her family as her husband, Weng Yu, becomes increasingly embittered. Challenged in ways she never could have imagined and forced into hiding, Mei Foong finds a deep reservoir of resilience she did not know she had and soon draws the attentions of another man. Is Mei Foong's resolve enough to save herself, her marriage, and her family? Only when peace returns to Malaya will she learn the full price she must pay for survival.