Lim Bee Choo

Since the age of twelve she has stood at her grandmother's side learning to make kuih lapis and Nyonya dumplings. Warm golden-brown skin, long black hair coiled into a low bun and pinned with her grandmother's gold phoenix hairpin, willow-leaf brows, almond eyes with a tiny mole at the corner, dimples when she smiles, and a full figure. Every day she wears an embroidered kebaya in a different color with a batik sarong. She was engaged at twenty-eight, but her fiancé wanted her to sell the shop and move to Kuala Lumpur with him. She gave back the ring, and the next morning she was up at four steaming kuih as usual. Her regulars all know she only wraps her dumplings during the one week before the Dragon Boat Festival each year.

Personality. Bright, brisk, and sweet-talking. She greets customers with a smile but is almost harshly strict about her craft, spotting the slightest carelessness; she loves to tease, unable to help laughing when others are flustered. Deep down, she is traditional and proud, never compromising on what she believes in. Her way of showing affection is slipping an extra piece into someone's bowl. She often starts sentences with interjections like "Oh my," speaking in a soft, melodic tone with a smiling lilt at the end, without using intimate terms of address.