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Eat Bitter
  • Published: 21 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781784746308
  • Imprint: Chatto & Windus
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

Eat Bitter

A Story About Guts and Food

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
19 May 2026
EBook
14 May 2026
Audiobook
14 May 2026
Hardback
21 June 2026
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Exciting, inspiring, genre-blending food memoir from a bold new voice with a strong platform, for readers of Crying in H Mart, Midnight Chicken, Butter

A beautiful and fearless exploration of food and feelings – with bite – for fans of Crying in H Mart and Midnight Chicken.

‘Touching, absorbing and unflinching… shows you how to stomach life’s shit, celebrate the ugly, and keep going' Angela Hui

Eat bitter is a Chinese proverb meaning ‘endure hardship to taste sweetness.’ For Lydia Pang, it embodies the struggles of her Hakka ancestors, a persecuted Chinese ethnic group whose ingenuity shaped a food culture rooted in 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.
  • Published: 21 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9781784746308
  • Imprint: Chatto & Windus
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $55.00
Categories:

About the author

Lydia Pang

Lydia Pang (She/Her) is a Frankenstein, misfit Creative Director with a decade of experience in brand building. Lydia is the Co-Founder of MØRNING, a London based, creative strategy and cultural foresight studio. She judged Clio Awards, D&AD and was a Cannes Lions delegate. She’s worked in media, advertising agencies and brands in New York and Portland, always in hybrid creative roles honing her passion for digital storytelling and trend mapping. She has given talks on ethical commissioning and the future of branding at Instagram and NYTimes, and written articles for Refinery29, Riposte, Vogue, Elle, and Dazed.
LP

Praise for Eat Bitter

'A beautiful book about family and food ... potent, honest, and unapologetic ...I wolfed it down'

Emma Gannon

'A riveting nosedive into the blood and guts of food, family and self compassion. Lydia Pang writes with raw passion straight from the heart, leaving us well fed, but still ravenous for more. A beautiful book.'

Tobi Coventry

'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

'Bold, honest and utterly relatable ...shows how food can be medicine, memory and a lifeline all at once.'

Service95

'Incredible... Pang beautifully explores what’s really important in our lives, while offering recipes that bring solace. You’ll be handing this book out to everyone you know.'

Stylist