When a spark travels 9,000 miles, a distant dream comes home.
A memoir of Macanese food, twenty-three years of silence, and the voice that ended it.
“A deeply personal memoir and cookbook that ably shows that ‘dreams do not expire. They simply rest.’” — Kirkus Reviews
Publishing October 2026
A 5 a.m. Voice, Crossing Oceans and Time
One winter morning I was flipping through television channels, half awake, when a baritone slipped into the silence. A stranger, Macanese, performing on a stage I barely knew existed, singing in the language I had left behind fifty years earlier, from 9,000 miles away.
The last book I wrote was twenty-three years ago. Part of that silence came from the ordinary weight of a life. The other part came from underneath — I did not believe I was a good enough writer.
What began as an improbable flicker called me back to the page.
A year later, those pages became Inspiration from 9,000 Miles Away.
Why Food Carries It
Before the silence, I wrote. During the silence, I cooked. So when the words came back, it felt right to let food carry them.
Macanese cuisine was born of Portuguese ships, Chinese kitchens, and borrowed spices — adapted and improvised not for novelty but for love and survival. Today it risks fading. I spent three weeks in Macau eating my way through what remains.
As an immigrant, I recognized myself in that history — flavor that adapts without forgetting, tradition that bends but does not break, the long practice of knowing when to yield and when to stand firm.
Twelve dishes in this book. Twelve things life had been trying to teach me.
Who This Book Is For
This is a book for anyone who has ever felt a quiet pull, been called by something inexplicable, or believed a long-resting dream might return to life.
If that is you, you are the reason I wrote it.
100% of the author royalties go to children’s literacy programs.
It seems right that the gift that brought me back to words should help put words into the hands of children who need them.
