The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
If you think McDonald's is the most ubiquitous restaurant experience in America, consider that there are more Chinese restaurants in America than McDonalds, Burger Kings, and Wendys combined. New York Times reporter and Chinese-American (or American-born Chinese). In her search, Jennifer 8 Lee traces the history of Chinese-American experience through the lens of the food. In a compelling blend of sociology and history, Jenny Lee exposes the indentured servitude Chinese restaurants expect from illegal immigrant chefs, investigates the relationship between Jews and Chinese food, and weaves a personal narrative about her own relationship with Chinese food. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles speaks to the immigrant experience as a whole, and the way it has shaped our country.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Readers will take an unexpected and entertaining journey—through culinary, social and cultural history—in this delightful first book on the origins of the customary after-Chinese-dinner treat by New York Times reporter Lee. When a large number of Powerball winners in a 2005 drawing revealed that mass-printed paper fortunes were to blame, the author (whose middle initial is Chinese for prosperity) went in search of the backstory. She tracked the winners down to Chinese restaurants all over America, and the paper slips the fortunes are written on back to a Brooklyn company. This travellike narrative serves as the spine of her cultural history—not a book on Chinese cuisine, but the Chinese food of take-out-and-delivery—and permits her to frequently but safely wander off into various tangents related to the cookie. There are satisfying minihistories on the relationship between Jews and Chinese food and a biography of the real General Tso, but Lee also pries open factoids and tidbits of American culture that eventually touch on large social and cultural subjects such as identity, immigration and nutrition. Copious research backs her many lively anecdotes, and being American-born Chinese yet willing to scrutinize herself as much as her objectives, she wins the reader over. Like the numbers on those lottery fortunes, the book's a winner. (Mar.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
We’re in something of a golden age for food journalism, with exposés like Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, odysseys like Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, histories like Mark Kurlansky’s Salt, and quirky memoirs like Julie Powell’s Julie and Julia. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a bit of each, and reviewers held it to similar standards. Most critics felt that it made the cut as a unique exploration of food, culture, immigration, and identity. A few critics, however, while thoroughly enjoying the book’s quirky, fascinating anecdotes and histories, felt like there was something missing. Lee, well-known for both her city-beat reporting for The New York Times and her salonlike parties, could have made herself a stronger character in the book to give it more unity. Despite this complaint, every reviewer had to admit that something about the subject matter and its author was irresistible.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
Review
'The book is an addictive dim-sum of fact, fun, quirkiness and pathos' - Mary Roach, author.
Customer Reviews
An Interesting And Educational Read
I have been eating chinese food and fortune cookies all my life. It is amazing how much I didn't know about the subjects. Until now! The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is loaded with odd and interesting tidbits including the origination of fortune cookies, Chop Suey and the relationship between fortune cookies and state lotteries. To sum it up, this is a fun and educational book. Buy it, you won't be disappointed.
Triple 8 all the way...
As a product of 1980's NYC Chinatown as well, I found myself having to pause while reading this book and interject my own similar memories to those that Jennifer describe.
Her writing style is flowing and intriguing. What is nice is that a chapter can be read every night and is practically concluded in itself. This is not to say that the book doesn't hold your attention. It does. Rather, to start the next chapter is to have to read all of it before reaching for the bookmark, as Jennifer takes you in another direction and another interesting chronicle.
To those who have read this already: I do have a authentic bottle of Kikkoman (lower sodium) in my fridge. I give the fortune cookies to my daughter, because Maria's bakery in NYC's Chinatown has the perfect light dessert. Never knew what General Tso's chicken or chop suey was til I left NYC.
If you're curious about things from lotto numbers in your fortune cookies to who actually invented them. If you wonder about those little packages of soy (or dark salty water) and duck sauce that come with your take out. You owe yourself a laugh and a read of this book.
Delightful Look at "Authentic" Food Culture
In The Fortune Cookies Chronicles (2008), Jennifer 8. Lee explores how dishes like these and Chinese food in general has "ceased to be ethnic" (19) and yet arguably and identifiably Chinese at the same. As one American military officer in Iraq noted, "What could be more American than beer and take-out Chinese?" (26). In order to understand how Chinese food can be both Chinese and American at the same time, Lee takes the readers throughout the United States and China to find the origins of some of our most popular dishes, and she travels around the world to find the "greatest" Chinese restaurant in the world.
Rather than a standard history of the little cuisine that could, Lee explores how Chinese food pushes the boundaries of how we define concepts like assimilation and authenticity (256-257). Lee posits that the old definitions of assimilation which emphasize minority populations blending into majority populations, the success of Chinese food demonstrates that convergence is the key to assimilation. And what actually constitutes authenticity? Potatoes are a staple in Irish food, but they are undeniably a New World food. Indian curries are enhanced by New World chilies. Lee considers all of these examples (including Chinese dishes like General Tso's chicken) to be "native foreign dishes" (257). Foreign in their inspiration, native in their creation. There are reasons why foods lend themselves so easily to blending of cuisines and ingredients. Lee points out that when people first come into contact with each other, language may be a barrier, but food lends itself immediately to opinion and evaluation (258). Food practices also tend to be one of the aspects of heritage that survives culture contact. Lee suggests that her grandchildren someday may not speak Chinese, but they will know how fry dumplings (258). Rather than the melting pot analogy that all school children are taught, stir-fry may be more apt; "our ingredients remain distinct, but our flavors blend together in a sauce shared by all" (259).
I found Lee's writing to be accessible and entertaining while at the same time theoretically interesting. While much of the book explores particular dishes, controversies, and the migration of Chinese restaurant workers, Lee keeps all of these topics grounded in her efforts to understand how food can be authentic and foreign at the same time. Lee does not hit the reader over the head with anthropological and sociological theory, but the concepts are there, grounded in the lived experiences of the people that Lee interviews and describes.
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