Cantik Manis - A Sweet Treat by Rahel Stephanie

Named after a beloved Indonesian sweet that translates directly to “pretty and sweet”, the zine moves through memory and recipe in equal measure, reflecting on sweetness as a narrative of beauty, gender, and the politics of perception.

Playful, flirtatious, and full of intention, what begins as a tribute to a childhood favourite opens into a wider meditation on visibility and voice. Traversing across nostalgia to exoticisation, food is positioned as a subject to articulating the complexity of being-in-between cultures, and contexts.