55 recipes, 17 stories, 11 countries and flavours that span across sub regions from the Horn of Africa to South East Asia. The idea to create the cookbook A taste from home – recipes and stories from refugees living in Malaysia came from a need to put a human face on refugee issues in Malaysia – through a common unifying interest: food.  Eating is as much a ritual of gathering people together and sharing it with others, as it is about human need – and it’s as much a passion in Malaysian culture as in all the countries refugees are coming from.

Having fled war and persecution in their home countries and finding themselves living in an unfamiliar environment, they often turned to the one thing that gives them a sense of normalcy, routine and comfort: the preparation of traditional home cooked meals. These wonderful people didn’t just share their traditional recipes, but also their stories and their identity, customs and diversity. This cookbook is a tribute and recognition of the resilience of people who happen to be refugees due to unwanted circumstance and through their food they are able to maintain their pride, self-worth and connection to home.