It's a story that will be familiar to immigrants all over the world - and not just those from China - those who leave their place of birth behind to build a home in a new country, often struggling to survive. My story is about my grandmother, my mother and myselfi three generations of independent Chinese women whose lives take in Guangzhou in southern China in the 1920s, colonial Hong Kong in the 1930s, the horrors of the Japanese occupation and a changing England from the 1950s to the present day. Like all families, we've been caught up in the times we lived in, shaken by the unpredictable and devastating upheavals in the Far East in the twentieth century, but the women in my family have always come through and lived to tell their tales.

...

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 I93Os H0ng Kong and finally to the West. 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 to the UK in the 1950s, she eventually opened her own restaurant 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.

Preface

1 The Litde Sack of Rice - Gu~ngzhou, China 1918-1925

2 Soy Sauce Delight - Hong Kong 1925-1930 .

3 Bitter Melon - Guangzhou, China 1930

4 Jade and Ebony - Hong Kong 1930s-1950s

5 Firecracker Chan - Hong Kong 1930s--1950s

6 Lily Kwok's Chicken Curry - Somerset and Manchester,UK 1950s

7 Lung Fung - Manchester, UK 1959-early 1960s

8 Mabel's Claypot Chicken - Manchester 1959-1974

9 Chips, Chips, Chips - Manchester 1975-2003

10 Buddhas Golden Picnic Basket - Hong Kong 2002,Guangzhou 2003

11 Sweet Mandarin - Manchester 2003

Afterword

Acknowledgements