The Noodle Stall Chronicles

By K.T. Hoshi

A noodle stall on a dying space station. A cook who refuses to sit down. And the community that refuses to let her fall.

Ayaka Tanaka has run her noodle stall on Kepler Station for fifteen years. She knows every regular by their order, resolves disputes with extra chili oil, and hasn't taken a day off since the last millennium. The station orbits Jupiter. The broth simmers at exactly the right moment. And Ayaka holds it all together, one bowl at a time.

Then her body gives out.

Forced into surgery on a distant moon, Ayaka must do the one thing she's never allowed herself: let go. What follows is an experiment in trust, as a ragtag crew of misfits, a loud Martian hauler, a neurodivergent accountant, a grieving bureaucrat, a Europan engineer who lives in a tank, and a seventeen-year-old girl with more courage than sense, take turns keeping the stall alive.

Each brings their own chaos. Each discovers something they didn't know they were missing. And when a billionaire arrives to decide whether the station is worth saving, it isn't the spreadsheets that convince him. It's the soup.

Perfect for readers of:

- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
- A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Content includes: Medical crisis, grief and loss, workplace burnout, interspecies romance, zero-gravity emergencies, and enough chili oil to clear your sinuses from orbit. Cozy sci-fi with teeth.

"There are no perfect noodles. There's only the person you're making them for."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GRV4DRMP
• ISBN13: 9798251269697
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"