How To Cook Prickly Pear

How To Cook Prickly PearNative to the Americas, prickly pears are grown as ornamentals all over the city. I find their spiky paddles simultaneously intimidating and alluring How to Cook Prickly Pear, a zine package by The Slow Press and Mun Yi, is a food experiment in making a new place home. Can she come to know Los Angeles by using its ingredients in cherished dishes from Singaporemasa harina in kueh tutu, guajillo chillies in sambal, and prickly pear in giam chai? This

“Native to the Americas, prickly pears are grown as ornamentals all over the city. I find their spiky paddles simultaneously intimidating and alluring…” 

How to Cook Prickly Pear, a zine package by The Slow Press and Mun Yi, is a food experiment in making a new place home. Can she come to know Los Angeles by using its ingredients in cherished dishes from Singapore—masa harina in kueh tutu, guajillo chillies in sambal, and prickly pear in giam chai? This zine is a love letter from the stomach to Mun Yi's two homes, and a personal meditation on what it means to truly belong.

Each chapter is hand-illustrated by Esther, with all 84 pages printed in vibrant risograph. The Slow Press carefully hand-wrapped each zine—a little care package from Mun Yi’s LA to you. 

Written by Cheng Mun Yi
Edited by Tan Aik
Illustration and Design by Esther Lim 

Self-published and printed with risograph ink.
Launched in Singapore, October 2024

Chapters produced by We Do Good Riso, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Introduction, epilogue, and glossary produced by Witti Studio, Bangkok, Thailand
5 booklets, staple bound, wrapped in kraft paper with a bookbend
Size and pages: A5 (148 x 210mm),  84 pages with 3 inserts