A mouthwatering and uplifting debut about legacy, tradition,and striking out on your own, set in family-run restaurants between Malaysiaand Hong Kong.

Every morning before sunrise, Lim Ah Hock opens the shuttersof his small kitchen on Carpenter Street, lights an incense stick and preparesthe best laksa soup in all of Kuching. According to Lim family legend, thelaksas secret ingredient – their ancestral broth – was gifted to them by adeity, who promised the family prosperity as long as the broth is passed downthrough the generations.

But Ah Hock is aging, and the broths quality is fading. Hisonly son, Wei Ming, has no interest in the family business, having spent eightyears in Hong Kong trying to prove himself as a chef. Now, hes struggling withgambling debts, embroiled in a love triangle, and the restaurant hes been leftto run has lost its Global Restaurants Guild star.

Invited home to Malaysia for his fathers 60th birthday, WeiMing sees a chance to escape his troubles. But when old conflicts resurface anda local businessman threatens to destroy the family legacy, father and son areforced to ask themselves what truly matters.

About the Author

Janet Tay is a Tin House Winter Workshop alum, and her shortstories and journalistic pieces on literature, food and parenting have appearedin various collections and magazines. The first act of her full-length playReunion was longlisted for The Windsor Fringe Kenneth Branagh Award for NewDrama Writing. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her husband and son. EarlyMornings at the Laksa Cafe is her debut novel.