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| The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food | 
 enlarge | Author: Jennifer 8 Lee
Publisher: Twelve
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
Buy New: $12.05
You Save: $12.94 (52%)
New (51) Used (17) from $11.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 6271
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0446580074
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5951
EAN: 9780446580076
ASIN: 0446580074
Publication Date: March 3, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Early PAPERBACK! The publish date is not until 3-23-09.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Educational and lively May 17, 2008
I am tremendously fond of what Americans generally accept as "Chinese" food. I have long heard that what Americans refer to as Chinese food is alien and unknown to residents of China (that fortune cookies aren't Chinese in origin I had known--but not that they had a direct ancestor that was popular in Japan). Jennifer Lee's "Fortune Cookie Chronicles" recounts the history of Chinese food in American culture in mouth-watering detail.
I was intrigued about the voyage she made to General Tso's birthplace, only to find no Chinese there had ever heard of the famous (American-born) chicken dish named in his honor. The Kikkoman / La Choy argument of exactly what constitutes soy sauce ["There's no soy in La Choy"] was fascinating. A key hint I gleaned about evaluating the worthiness of a Chinese eatery: see if Chinese themselves patronize it.
Also enlightening was the chapter that revealed the popular practice of Chinese immigrants who arrive on U.S. soil explicitly to labor in Chinese restaurants. I've often pondered that, unlike any other ethnic establishment, there always seem to be Chinese owning and operating eateries that concentrate on that cuisine. After all, one would hardly expect the local Italian place to feature Italian-American only staff, or the neighborhood Mexican restaurant to have only Mexican-American workers.
The plight of one particular Chinese family, in their attempt to run a successful Chinese establishment, was particularly heartbreaking, with multiple generations divided across continents because the parents could not handle raising three offspring while investing 15 to 18 hours of each day in operating the business.
Jennifer Lee is a voice of authority on this material despite having been born to immigrant Chinese who did not themselves run a restaurant. The miles she logged across the globe for her research are significant, as is her breezily informative writing style which gets various points across (i.e., Chinese immigrants, especially the restaurant-working bound, have exceedingly difficult times) without dipping into preachiness.
I enjoyed "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles" immensely and recommend anyone who enjoys American Chinese cuisine (which, as it turns out, has representative restaurants worldwide [and in some of the least likely places--like the island of Mauritius!]--despite its "inauthentic" nature!) should pick this volume up and learn more about it.
 Where was the editor? May 10, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book was amusing and is a great source for dinnertime trivia but it suffered from the lack of a good editor. Sometimes the chapters felt more like magazine installments with information jumping back and forth or getting unnecessarily repeated. Lee's experience as a newspaper reporter keeps the writing style light and easy to read but there was sometimes a lack of historical perspective which undermined the credibility of her story. Try telling milkmen, icemen, butchers and grocers that food delivery was innovative in the 1970s.
It's a good book but, with a little more help, it could have been a great book.
Whoever would have thought that Chinese food could be heartbreaking? May 8, 2008
Before I went vegetarian four years ago, I could be found at our local Chinese restaurant's buffet, or at the Chinese fast-food equivalent at local malls. I was a fan of crab rangoon, lemon chicken, sesame chicken, crispy fried noodles, beef and broccoli, sweet and sour chicken, eggrolls, and fried rice (these days, my "splurge" at Chinese restaurants is a bowl of steamed brown rice). When I heard about Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, I had to read up on the origins of "Chinese" food as sold in America.
I wasn't a complete newcomer; I knew, for example, that fortune cookies originated in Japan, not China, and my experiences with a Chinese dormmate in Quebec showed me that traditional Chinese food was light years away from its American (and Canadian) counterparts (the giveaway was the frog legs on the Chinese buffet in Quebec). I found my Chinese friend cutting up a whole chicken in the dorm kitchen, boiling it and complaining that Americans (and Canadians by default) didn't understand "real Chinese food." Fair enough.
Lee's fascinating detective work traces the origins of classic dishes such as General Tso's Chicken (yes, there really was a General Tso, but his "chicken" is purely American) all the way to China. Hint: Chinese do not deep fry large chunks of meat and slather them in mysterious, gooey sauces loaded with MSG and corn syrup. Nor do they ornament everything with broccoli. She also discusses the origins of P.F. Chang, Panda Express, and the several American businesses that exist solely to prepare strangely soyless soy sauce and carryout containers.
She chronicles the creation of the far-flung empire of Chinese restaurants that have conquered the globe, and even searches out the "greatest Chinese restaurant in the world," traveling to Dubai, Mauritius, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Australia, Peru, Canada, the US, and Brazil in search of the perfect combination of authentic food and an authentic Chinese dining experience.
I found it curious that in light of the numerous recalls regarding toxic Chinese products, including tainted / poisonous produce, meat and medicines, that Lee fails to mention if this stigma affects imports of Chinese foodstuffs, or of Americans' opinions towards Chinese-owned establishments have changed. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles made an interesting counterpoint to A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy.
Lee's insider status (the child of Chinese immigrants, she is fluent in Mandarin and was raised on both her mother's traditional Chinese cooking as well as American Chinese) allows her unprecedented access to the mysterious world of Chinese restaurants, with their rituals of buying and selling, procurement, and recruiting, as well as to poll Chinese on their opinions of what real Chinese food consists of (and their opinions of American Chinese food such as General Tso's Chicken). Her Chinese also allows her an interview with one of China's last Jews of Kaifeng.
Another fascinating sidenote is the devotion of two chapters to kosher Chinese food, and some of the scandals that surrounded a high-profile case (the Great Kosher Duck Scandal of 1989). (My own personal view of Chinese at Christmas will forever be cemented by the classic (and non-PC) ending of A Christmas Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)).
Most heartbreaking were the stories of illegal immigration from China's Fuijan region and Fuzhou city. Families were torn apart by hazardous human smuggling at an exorbitant cost (according to Lee, the price in 2006 was upwards of $70,000 a person). Once landed in the US (assuming they evaded immigration authorities), they gravitated towards Chinese restaurant jobs that didn't require them to know English, working 12-hour days to send home money in order to send for their families, who would become trapped in the same cycle. Their children (whose English was much more advanced) would then be the "face" of the restaurant, responsible for phone orders, dealing with vendors and repairmen, and waiting tables. Older immigrants who failed to master English and who immigrated illegally are trapped in the Chinese restaurant world, with a black-and-white worldview limited to how far a city was via bus from NYC. Chinese deliverymen are routinely subjected to violent holdups, even murder (Lee devotes a chapter to a high-profile case where a Chinese deliveryman went missing in NYC).
All in all, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles was a fascinating read that lovingly traces the origins and evolution of Chinese food on an American (and international) scale, including the human costs involved in starting and running Chinese restaurants.
 There will soon be a fun and enlightening read in your future. May 2, 2008
I love this book. The book brings an appreciation for the struggles of immigrants and how they have greatly enriched the U.S. through their expereince and culture. What is "authentic" to cooking in China may not be "authentic" to a Chinese person cooking in the U.S. and both are valid.
Great book! April 25, 2008
What a great book! The author gives all kinds of insight into the America's Chinese restaurant industry, and she does it in a fun, easy-to-read style. Bravo!
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