Sign-In
Cart
Eat Bitter: A Story about Guts, and Food
Hardcover
Culinary BiographiesFood WritingGeneral Racism & Ethnic Studies
Publisher Price: $28.99
ISBN13: 9780063487130
Publisher: HarperOne
Published: May 19 2026
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.75
Height: 1.00 Width: 5.80 Depth: 8.56
Language: English
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.
Also from
Pang, Lydia
Also in
Culinary Biographies
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Guidara, Will
Hardcover
Kitchen Confidential Annotated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Bourdain, Anthony
Paperback
Main, Middle & Gay: A Chef Finds His Place in the World Against All Odds
O'Connell, Patrick
Hardcover
What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture
Meyer, Danny
Hardcover
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
Bourdain, Anthony
Paperback
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks
Wilkinson, Crystal
Hardcover
The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef
White, Marco Pierre
Paperback
El Chef Migrante: La Vida Y Los Tiempos de Lalo García / The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García
Tillman, Laura
Paperback
The Meat Teacher Cookbook: The Ultimate Backyard BBQ Guide for an A+ in Pitmastery
Groark, Matt
Hardcover
Roasting in Hell's Kitchen: Temper Tantrums, F Words, and the Pursuit of Perfection
Ramsay, Gordon
Paperback
The Secret in the Sauce: Kitchen Wisdom and Life Lessons from an Irish Cookery School, with Recipes
McMichael, Kelly
Paperback
Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants
Piepenburg, Erik
Hardcover
Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste
Bosker, Bianca
Paperback
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef (Large Print Edition)
Hamilton, Gabrielle
Paperback
Julia Child's Kitchen: The Design, Tools, Stories, and Legacy of an Iconic Space
Johnson, Paula J.
Hardcover
The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating, and Eating While Reading
Garner, Dwight
Paperback
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should (and Shouldn't) Cook from Scratch to Save Time and Money
Reese, Jennifer
Paperback
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip--Confessions of a Cynical Waiter (Harper Perennial)
Dublanica, Steve
Paperback
Eat Like a Fish: A James Beard Award Winner: My Adventures Farming the Ocean to Fight Climate Change
Smith, Bren
Paperback
The Gentleman's Companion: Being an Exotic Drinking Book Or, Around the World with Jigger, Beaker and Flask
Baker, Charles Henry
Hardcover
Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table
Rodell, Besha
Hardcover
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats
Stone, Daniel
Paperback
The California Pizza Kitchen Story: How Two Federal Prosecutors Changed the Way America Eats Pizza
Rosenfield, Rick
Hardcover
Rambutan: Recipes from Sri Lanka, Accompanying the Acclaimed New London Restaurant
Shanmugalingam, Cynthia
Hardcover
What Could Possibly Go Right?: The Essential Journey to Scale an Enduring Culture (Large Print Edition)
Meyer, Danny
Paperback
From Here, You Can't See Paris: Seasons of a French Village and Its Restaurant
Sanders, Michael S.
Paperback
Beaujolais In My Blood: Growing Up Gay and Well-Fed in a Family-Run French Restaurant
Pitsenbarger, Eric Neil
Paperback
Jean Paré an Appetite for Life: The Inspiring Story of Canada's Most Popular Cookbook Author
Schultz, Judy
Paperback
Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany
Buford, Bill
Paperback
Hunger Like a Thirst: From Food Stamps to Fine Dining, a Restaurant Critic Finds Her Place at the Table
Rodell, Besha
Paperback
We've Always Had Paris... and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France
Wells, Walter
Wells, Patricia
Paperback
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears in Paris at the World's Most Famous Cooking School
Flinn, Kathleen
Paperback
Reflections of a Vintner: Stories and Seasonal Wisdom from a Lifetime in Napa Valley
Kenward, Tor
Hardcover
Gluten for Punishment: Just Desserts for the Heartbroken, Lovesick, and Jilted
Seyler, Julie
Paperback
Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World
Gordinier, Jeff
Paperback
Old Farm Country Christmas: Favorite Recipes, Homespun Crafts, and Merry Memories
Apps, Jerry
Apps-Bodilly, Susan
Paperback
Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat
Achatz, Grant
Kokonas, Nick
Paperback
The Roast Penguin Chronicles: Hoosh, Scurvy Days, Sleeping with Vegetables, and Other Adventures in Antarctic Cuisine
Anthony, Jason C.
Paperback
Poor Man's Feast: A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking
Altman, Elissa
Paperback