Sweet Mandarin - Hardcover

Helen Tse

3.66

452 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091913616 ISBN 13: 9780091913618

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2007

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Spanning almost a hundred years, this rich and evocative true story recounts the lives of three generations of remarkable Chinese women. Their extraordinary journey takes us from the brutal poverty of village life in mainland China, to newly prosperous 1930s Hong Kong and finally to the UK. Their lives were as dramatic as the times they lived through. A love of food and a talent for cooking pulled each generation through the most devastating of upheavals. Helen Tse's grandmother, Lily Kwok, was forced to work as an amah after the violent murder of her father. Crossing the ocean from Hong Kong in the 1950s, Lily honed her famous chicken curry recipe. Eventually she opened one of Manchester's earliest Chinese restaurants where her daughter, Mabel, worked from the tender age of nine. But gambling and the Triads were pervasive in the Chinese immigrant community, and they tragically lost the restaurant. It was up to Helen and her sisters, the third generation of these exceptional women, to re-establish their grandmother's dream. "Sweet Mandarin" shows how the most important inheritance is wisdom, and how recipes - passed down the female line - can be the most valuable heirloom.

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Review:

"Read this book. It is the story of an amazing family - three
generations of Chinese women and their sweet and sour, hot and bitter
lives" -- Xinran, author of The Good Women of China

"The hiss of the wok and scent of stir-fried vegetables
practically leap out...an excellent read" -- First Magazine

"a griping tale of struggle, laughter, love and food...a must read
book." -- Ken Hom

"a heartrending and tender story of three generations of Chinese
women who transform their lives" -- Wall Street Journal

"an amazing and charming read" -- Woman

"fascinating stuff" -- Metro

In our world of many cultures we seem to focus on those things that separate us. The two very important things that connect us worldwide are family and food. Wherever we go we all wish to be family, and food is the common thread that connects us all. The Tse Family and their beautifully written book, Sweet Mandarin, clearly demonstrates we are all family; and that simply, home-cooked food is the best way to show your love to your family of relatives and friends. In good times and sad times food connects us all. -- Art Smith

Sweet Mandarin is a banquet of family stories that
take us from a small Chinese village to cosmopolitan
Hong Kong and urban Manchester. Along the way, the
ingredients of special dishes and a rich life are
added: a homemade stock of hard life, a pound of
tragedy, a spoonful of daring, a dash of curses, and
dollop after dollop of sheer will. This is a family
memoir of survival and victories, luck and
determination, and perpetual mounds of dirty dishes
waiting to be washed. "
-- Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

Book Description:

A modern day Wild Swans - an extraordinary, moving account of the lives of three generations of Chinese women

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