About the book: Early Mornings at the Laksa Cafe is a mouthwatering and uplifting story about honouring tradition and finding your own way in life, set in family-run restaurants between Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Every morning before sunrise, Lim Ah Hock opens the shutters of his small kitchen on Carpenter Street, lights an incense stick and prepares the best laksa soup in all of Kuching.
According to Lim family legend, the laksa’s secret ingredient – their ancestral broth – was gifted to them by a deity, who promised the family prosperity as long as the broth is passed down through the generations.
But Ah Hock is aging, and the broth’s quality is fading. His only son, Wei Ming, has no interest in the family business, having spent eight years in Hong Kong trying to prove himself as a chef.
Now, he is struggling with gambling debts, embroiled in a love triangle, and the restaurant he has been left to run has lost its Global Restaurants Guild star.
Invited home to Malaysia for his father's 60th birthday, Wei Ming sees a chance to escape his troubles. But when old conflicts resurface and a local businessman threatens to destroy the family legacy, father and son are forced to ask themselves what truly matters.
Early Mornings at the Laksa Cafe (2026) is a Straits Times bestseller.
About the author: Janet Tay is a Tin House Winter Workshop alum whose short stories have appeared in various journals and collections including New Writing Dundee 4, Short Story America Anthology, Vol 1 and Black and Whites and Other New Stories from Malaysia. She has also written journalistic pieces on literature, food and parenting for various magazines and websites. The first act of her full-length play, Reunion, was longlisted for The Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her husband and son.
Rating: 4/5
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