Eat Bitter: A Story About Guts & Food

“Eat bitter” is a Chinese proverb meaning “endure hardship to taste sweetness”. For Pang the phrase also embodies the struggles of her Hakka ancestors, a persecuted ethnic Chinese group whose ingenuity shaped a food culture rooted in fermenting and foraging. And as she relates in this flavoursome memoir – perfect for those who loved Crying in H Mart and Midnight Chicken - it is also a philosophy she has used to “pick truth from her teeth” in stomaching her own challenges, from burning out and navigating fertility struggles to caring for a parent. Interspersed are eight recipes redolent of her memories.