Without invitation, Sarah reaches over to pick at my larb gai. When it comes to meals, clothes, and perfume, my friend doesn’t recognise boundaries; she does, however, pay particular attention to the chicken on her fork, unhappy that it has been sliced, not minced. For Sarah, foreign cuisine is a marriage between her two passions: food and...

Down Nicholson Street Mall, past the pho and noodle shops, Cheap n' Chic is closing down. A FOR LEASE sign has been plastered across its windows. The walls, once crammed with goods, are now bared white. Only a few bags hang off the hooks. ...

According to Ba, my biological imperative is to marry and have children. I was dozing before this, but his words shake me up. His voice travels far: he and Ma are having their morning conversation with condensed-milk coffee at the back of the house while I’m in the front, but it sounds like he’s shouting ...