Eat Bitter: A Story about Guts, and Food
Eat Bitter: A Story about Guts, and Food
Eat Bitter: A Story about Guts, and Food
Description
Description
One of the Must-Read Books To Have On Your Radar in 2026--Service95
From a dazzling new writer, a stirring memoir rooted in Hakka culture about the lesson to accept both bitterness and sweetness in life
Eat bitter is a Chinese proverb meaning 'endure hardship to taste sweetness.' For Lydia Pang, it embodies the struggles of her Hakka ancestors, a Chinese ethnic group subjected to forced migrations whose ingenuity produced a distinct food culture based on fermenting and foraging. Pang reimagines eating bitter as a philosophy to confront her own challenges: burning out, testing her marriage, navigating fertility struggles and caring for a parent. Through eight recipes, she shares food as memory and medicine: the silly egg noodles her father cooked when her sister was ill, the bone broth she boiled in New York while homesick and courgettes grown in rural Wales as a gesture of reconnection.
Comprising the satire and darkness of Netflix's Beef, the tender insight of Crying in H Mart, and the distinct magic of Ella Risbridger's Midnight Chicken, Eat Bitter is a very special book from a brilliant new voice and creative talent.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
"Bold, honest and utterly relatable take on food, family, and getting through life's tough spots ... Lydia shows how food can be medicine, memory and a lifeline all at once. It's perfect for anyone who loves family stories, a bit of wisdom and a healthy dose of real-life grit--plus some seriously good recipes." - Service95
"Touching, absorbing and unflinching, Eat Bitter is a testament to perseverance and grit through food. Lydia's writing is a marvel, like excavating beauty in the messy richness of bone marrow, gnawing on chicken feet cartilage, and watching a pot of slow-simmering soup patiently. This book shows you how to stomach life's sh*t, celebrate the ugly, and keep going." - Angela Hui, author of Takeaway: Stories from a Child Behind the Counter
"Radiator Char Siu. Wishbone Tuna. Scruffy Sacred Salad. What Lydia Pang fearlessly captures in Eat Bitter is a glimpse into the life of a creative. Nurturing and brave, her story inspires and her recipes warm." - Danny Bowien, James Beard Award-winning chef
"A beautiful book about family and food ... potent, honest, and unapologetic ... I wolfed it down." - Emma Gannon, bestselling author of Table for One
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
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