Review- Take Away~ Stories From A Childhood Behind the Counter by Angela Hui

Growing up in a Chinese takeaway in rural Wales, Angela Hui was made aware at a very young age of just how different she and her family were seen by her local community. From attacks on the shopfront (in other words, their home), to verbal abuse from customers, and confrontations that ended with her dad wielding the meat cleaver; life growing up in a takeaway was far from peaceful.

But alongside the strife, there was also beauty and joy in the rhythm of life in the takeaway and in being surrounded by the food of her home culture. Family dinners before service, research trips to Hong Kong, preparing for the weekend rush with her brothers – the takeaway is a hive of activity before a customer even places their order of ‘egg-fried rice and chop suey’.

Bringing readers along on the journey from Angela’s earliest memories in the takeaway to her family closing the shop after 30 years in business, this is a brilliantly warm and immersive memoir from someone on the other side of the counter.

Review

When we grow up in areas that are not ethnically diverse, we can sometimes become very insular. Yes, we are taught about the history of Kings and Queens in school, but certainly I was taught very little about other cultures, their traditions, the role food played in their cultural identities. I was always though a curious child, reading my escape and my teacher, my route into other cultures and lives. This has followed me into adulthood and so when I saw Take Away by Angela Hui on sale in Waterstones, I knew it would open new doors for me! Take me not just behind the counter of her parents take away, but into her life as the child of immigrants. Because though we have often walked the same streets, eaten at the same restaurant, we have lived very different lives, within different worlds and perceived the life around us in radically different ways.

So I picked up Take Away to see if it could help me understand a way of life so different to my own.

It could and it did! Brought up in a Chinese Takeaway in rural Wales in the 1990’s, Angela Hui lived for most of her young life caught between two very different worlds, a dutiful daughter of Chinese immigrant parents and a child of the Welsh Valleys. The disparity between these two different worlds often left her feeling as if she was oscillating between both and not really fully belonging in either. Her identity formed from both love and conflict. She faced verbal abuse and racial threats from customers and yet from others friendship and support. Within her family she was being asked to conform to a way of life that sought to keep her separate from that of her friends and asking the impossible of her, for she is and always will be a cultural combination of both. This book showing that in seeking to pidgeon hole her, both cultures ignored her uniqueness as a bridge between both worlds.

This book is a timely reminder that difference is not a threat and that by embracing other cultures we all end up winning. It is is a compelling and tender story of the impact separation can have on our mental health and by liberating ourselves from a narrow minded view of the world, we are enriched and empowered. Angela Hui has gifted us a chance to see the world from a different angle and to be mindful that those who work behind the counter of our favourite Take Away, are not a threat to a cultural identity, but a source of enlightenment and enrichment.

This book can be bought from Amazon and Waterstones.

About the author

Angela Hui is the author of the debut memoir, TAKEAWAY: Stores From a Childhood Behind the Counter, out from Trapeze (2022). She is an award-winning journalist, writer and editor reporting on the intersection of food and culture, the hospitality industry and food justice.

Hui’s writings have been featured in BBC, Eater, gal-dem, HuffPost, Lonely Planet, Independent, National Geographic Traveller Food, Metro, Refinery29, and Vice, among others.

Born in South Wales, UK, she currently lives in East London, where she’s currently the Food and Drink writer at Time Out London. You can find her documenting Chinese takeaways in the UK with her Instagram project: @chinesetakeawaysuk

My Wonderful Reading Year – March 2023 – The Journey Continues.

March 2023 was a month dedicated to reading only my own books and I managed to read a mixture of novels and non-fiction books. Some have sat on my bookshelves for quite a while, others are more recent purchases. All were wonderful reads and reminded me of why I bought them in the first place.

Non Fiction

Mistress of Charlecote- The Memoirs of Mary Elizabeth Lucy 1803-1889. Introduced by Alice Fairfax-Lucy.

I bought this book while on holiday with family and I can still remember sitting by the stream that runs through the park of Charlecote House and then picking this book up in the shop. When I select a book to read, it often brings back memories of the day I bought it and this certainly did. It’s the fascinating memoirs of one of the mistresses who called it home during Queen Victoria’s reign. I loved how it brought not only her life, often mired by tragedy to life, but brought across her indomitable spirit.

Whatever Next by Anne Glenconner

Having read and enjoyed Lady In Waiting I was delighted to see that the author has written another book focusing on her remarkable life. Whatever Next is another fascinating read and I loved not only her honesty, but the opportunity to take a peak behind the curtains of a world so very different to my own.

The Instant by Amy Liptrot

I was drawn to Amy Liptrot’s writing when I first read The Outrun and wanted to see where life next took the author. What happened next is detailed in The Instant, a powerful retelling of her journey to banish loneliness and find love. Equal parts fascinating and moving, the author gives us a deeply personal look at the emotional landscape she navigated day by day.

Take Away by Angela Hui

This is a fascinating look at life not just behind the counter of a Chinese Takeaway, but a culture very different to my own. I was mesmerized by the complexity of negotiating a life as the child of an immigrant in the Welsh Valleys. Caught between two contrasting worlds, Angela Hui details not just the pain this caused, but the joy of being the child within a culture where food was how love was expressed. An added bonus being each chapter ends with some of the recipes she loved most.

Fiction

Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

This was the book chosen by the book club I attend and I was delighted to find out I already owned it, having sat unread on my kindle for a few years. Thank god for Amazon telling you, you had already purchased it! It is a beautiful story about love, family and friendship and I really enjoyed it. The characters are easy to love and the story a tender tale about the cost of love.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

There is so much to love about this book. The story is beautifully written and the characters, especially Elizabth Zott are iconic. It is not just a story about the fight of women for liberation from the kitchen sink, it’s about family and the many forms they can take. A novel that is equal parts humour and heartache, reflecting the very human experience of life in it’s entirety.

The Invisible Library by Genevive Cogman

Reading The House on the Cerulean Sea in February I was reminded how much I love fantasy novels and yet had not really read this genre for a while. So finding The Invisible Library where it had languished for a few years, I decided to dive in and I’m glad I did. Magical and fun to read, I am looking forward to reading the rest in the series.

The Many Selves of Katherine North by Emma Geen

The Many Selves of Katherine North was an interesting read. I enjoyed the story and the narrative in which the complexities around identity were explored. Not a total success for me, but it made for an interesting and enjoyable discussion in the book club I attend.

I wonder what April will bring?