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What are your stand-out memories of food from childhood?

My mother had this really great soup she’d make with tomato,

chicken and sour greens. I was running around the house once

and accidentally collided with her as she was holding a whole

potful, and she tipped it right over me. I was maybe four and I

had to be shoved into a cold shower for about half an hour. I

just remember lying on my front on the bed for two hours, just

sobbing. My mum was like, “This is why you shouldn’t run in

the house”. Tragic.

Where was a place you often ate while growing up?Igrew

up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. My mum was

very protective, but luckily we lived right across the road from

a shopping centre. So that was my haven. It sounds bogan,

but my memory of food and growing up is of food

courts: Chinese take-out, kebabs, McDonald’s.

I think, to this day, that’s why I find shopping

centres comforting, even though most people

consider them purgatory.

Your playSingle Asian Female(which premièred at

Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre earlier this year) is set

in a Chinese restaurant. Is that an environment

you’re very familiar with?My siblings, when I was

growing up, had to work at most of my dad’s

restaurants. And I did for a bit, but I’m so terrible at

hospitality that I just resigned, because I caused the business

too much strife and was giving customers the wrong change.

What would you eat from your father’s establishments?

When my dad had a Thai restaurant on the Sunshine Coast,

my favourite dish was probably the tom yum soup with prawns.

That was always the go-to for me. I’d always get the tom yum

and prawns with a side of rice, and mix the rice into the soup.

I never got sick of it. Even when I go to Thai restaurants now,

I’ll still get a tom yum. There’s something comforting about

a soup, even though I was literally burnt by one.

In your final year of high school, your work was published

in the anthologyGrowing Up Asian in Australia. Had you

always wanted to be a writer?When I was younger, I always

wanted to be an actor, and I remember my brother [Benjamin

Law] saying, “Writing is the genesis of most forms of art, so it’s

a good tool to have in the future if you want to branch out into

other things”. I’m grateful he gave me that advice, because as

a writer, I just have so much more control and agency over

my projects – and I knew I wouldn’t be getting acting work,

because I was Asian-Australian. So it got to a point where

I thought, “I’m just going to make my own work”.

You did that withHomecoming Queens, the SBS show on which

you co-wrote and featured. Your character is called Michelle and,

like you, has alopecia. When did you realise this condition was

going to dramatically change your life?When I hit my 20s and

lost my hair for the third time, I was like, “This is something

that is going to stay for the rest of my life”. I was going through

long periods without hair, and it was quite a shock. It’s been

a gradual process coming to terms with that.

Are there some upsides, like getting to rock awesome wigs?

When I have wigs, I don’t have to worry about bad hair days.

And also I don’t need to buy a lot of hair products, so I save a

lot of money that way. And at the end of the day, taking off the

wig is like taking off your bra. It’s like, ah, the day’s done!

Homecoming Queensalso draws on your co-writer Chloë

Reeson’s experiences with cancer. What have been the responses

to that?A nurse at a children’s hospital in Brisbane messaged

me and was telling me about the young women on her ward,

and that they all watched the show. She said they’d laughed for

the first time in months. She said that even though it wasn’t

a huge thing, it meant a lot to them.

The show is up-front about your hair loss. Was it

empowering to show this on-screen, or did you have

to talk yourself into it?I did a TEDx Talk about

having alopecia, and it was a coming-out experience,

for the lack of a better phrase. For me it’s been

empowering, because I’ve done it on my own terms.

It’s really tricky with interpersonal experiences,

especially if you’re hanging out with mates and

they want to go to the beach, or you’re starting

a new relationship – there’s always a point where you have to

“come out”. Talking about it so publicly is a constant process of

putting it out there, so I don’t have to keep explaining myself.

You were recently in Hong Kong with your family. What did you

eat while you were there?We had a great hotpot night with

these huge vats of soup, which were about a metre deep and

filled to the brim with seafood. I also love how McDonald’s

in different countries have different menus – in Hong Kong,

they had a taro soft serve.

Does cofee or tea power your writing sessions?I’m a massive

tea person. I like the taste of coffee, but I can’t really drink it

because it gives me heart palpitations. In winter I like to have

a proper English breakfast tea with milk and some bickies, and

I’ll use that to settle in when I’m reading.●

Homecoming Queensis currently

showing on SBS on Demand. The play

Single Asian Femaleis published by

Currency Press. For more Michelle

Law, visit michelle-law.com

“Taking off

the wig is like

taking off

your bra. It’s

like, ah, the

day’s done!”

GOURMET TRAVELLER 33

How I eat

INTERVIEW LEE TRAN LAM. PHOTOGRAPHY ROB SHAW (SHOT AT BAMBINI TRUST RESTAURANT & WINE ROOM)