“Like food, songs too can speak without words,” writes the Seattle-based author at one point in this offbeat memoir. “A melody stirs a memory as a dish summons nostalgia. Both speak the language of the heart.” This creative book isn’t merely about the author’s love of music, though, but also her love of cooking, and how she found her way back to culinary masterworks that she experienced in childhood (she immigrated from Hong Kong to the United States nearly 50 years ago). She also discovered that her passion for writing, which she’d put aside decades ago, was not a dying dream but an awakening of herself and her talent. This rediscovery of who she was occurred unexpectedly when she witnessed a Macanese singer on a Hong Kong singing competition show called Midlife, Sing & Shine! His talent and passion for his art touched the author greatly, she says; she goes on to explain how she came to learn more about the singer, German Ku, and found that his career somewhat paralleled hers, especially in how they both faced adversity, yet never quit. Cheng takes a philosophical perspective on what she sees as the similarities between music, food, and writing, and how this insight led her to delve deeply into Macanese culture and cuisine, creating a kind of homecoming for her. She was inspired to express herself in a cookbook, which she’s crafted in a highly original style in these page. The philosophical interludes do tend to be a bit repetitive at times, but she effectively expresses how she’s “come to see Macanese cuisine not merely as food but as a language that speaks of resilience and adaptability.” She not only expresses to readers how she found her joy again, but also how, more broadly, “Joy matters.”