Published in 2022
8 hrs and 1 min
Angela Hui is the author of the debut memoir, TAKEAWAY: Stores From a Childhood Behind the Counter, out from Trapeze. 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.
What is this book about?
An eye-opening memoir revealing the stories behind living in and running a Chinese takeaway.
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 listeners 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.
