China Book Club: 'Chinese Parents Don't Say I Love You' by Candice Chung

A memoir of using food to express emotions that Candice Chung and her family have been conditioned to never show.

With a 13-year relationship coming to an end, food critic Candice finds herself losing not only her first love but also her restaurant review partner. And so when her parents offer to be her new plus-ones, she faces a dilemma: is it better to eat together in polite silence or to try to broach how, for the past decade, they've managed to drift so profoundly apart?

Through shared meals and culinary adventures, Candice and her parents begin to break their silence. Yet when a new relationship begins to bloom, it forces her to try to address what still remains unsaid. To do so, she must find a new vocabulary - a way to unscramble what her family has been trying to express all along. Not through words, but with food.