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The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

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FEATURED ON TED.com and The Colbert Report.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 Wendy's combined. Former 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.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

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About the author

Jennifer 8. Lee

4 books235 followers
Jennifer 8. Lee, the daughter of Chinese immigrants and a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese herself, grew up eating her mother's authentic Chinese food in her family's New York City kitchen before graduating from Harvard in 1999, with a degree in applied mathematics and economics, and studying at Beijing University. At the age of twenty-four, she was hired by the New York Times, where she is a metro reporter, and has written a variety of stories on culture, poverty, and technology. Her middle name "8" connotes prosperity in Chinese. She lives in Harlem.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 918 reviews
May 30, 2022

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Happy AAPI month! My project for this month is trying to read as many of the Asian-authored books I have on my Kindle that I hadn't been able to get around to for the rest of the year. THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES has been on my to-read list for the longest time because it's a collection of linked essays about the history of Chinese food in the United States.



First, a caveat: this was published in 2008 so it comes across as a little dated. Some of the statistics about immigration and demographics are probably no longer accurate now, but that's because it's a product of its times and not bad writing. Second, it bounces around a lot from subject to subject as a lot of other readers have complained. I think that was pretty typical of nonfic at the time, because that meandering style was kind of popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, but it doesn't really work quite as well here.



The hook for this story is about this year where there were 110 Powerball winners. When people looked into it, expecting fraud, they found out it was because the Powerball numbers were a match for the numbers on the back of a Chinese fortune cookie fortune. Everyone who played those numbers who got fortunes produced by that factory won. From there, the author does a deep dive into the history of American Chinese food, delving into the stories behind popular menu items like General Tso's Chicken, Chop Suey, Peking duck, fortune cookies, and even the takeout boxes themselves.



My favorite part of the book was actually near the end, when the author goes to the most famous Chinese restaurant in a variety of countries (Brazil, South Korea, Mauritius, UAE, etc.) and talks a little about how the culture they are in influenced the take on Chinese. I also liked the chapter on Peking duck, which talks about kosher Chinese food and the relationship between Jewish people living in New York and Chinese cuisine. I was a little disappointed that chain restaurants that do Chinese, like Panda Express or Pick Up Stix, weren't talked about, as well as the ubiquitous but entirely inauthentic dish, orange chicken, but I guess in a book like this it's hard to cover everything. The book also covers Japanese history a bit, talking about how the Chinese fortune cookie is probably Japanese in origin.



I think people who like nonfiction books about food will really enjoy this book. I certainly liked it a lot and thought that Lee was a great writer and had an engaging writing style. I just wish there had been a more uniform aspect to the book, though, as it jumped around a lot and some essays were better than others.



3 to 3.5 stars
Profile Image for Lena.
Author 1 book384 followers
April 1, 2008
This is a very tasty book.

Jennifer 8 Lee is a first generation Chinese-American who became obsessed with the interface between Chinese restaurants and American culture after learning that over 100 people had gotten five out of six winning Powerball numbers by playing the lucky numbers that came with their fortune cookies. Her obsession has resulted in a delightful cultural history with a tiny bit of personal memoir thrown in.

Before reading this book, I had no idea that there are twice as many Chinese restaurants in America as McDonald's, that chop suey is a wholly American dish, and there are serious claims that the Japanese actually invented the fortune cookie. In chapters with titles like "The Greatest Culinary Joke Played by One Culture On Another," and "The Kosher Duck Scandal of 1989," Lee offers up a fascinating buffet of information about the widespread cultural impact of this ubiquitous industry.

Though much of this book is lighthearted in tone, there are a couple of chapters addressing the very real hazards faced by those who pay upwards of $70,000 to human smugglers for the privilege of cooking chow mien in America. A story of the tragedy that befell one family when the clash of cultures proved too much for them to bear is terribly sad, and her discussion of the high mortality rate of Chinese deliverymen in New York is sobering.

Despite these heavier sections of the book, however, Lee makes it clear that the Chinese restaurant has been a very good phenomenon for both the workers who depend on them for their livelihood and the Americans who count on them for tasty, semi-healthy food. Lee is a talented writer, and while reading the book I had that lovely experience of both learning a great deal and being highly entertained. I must warn you, however, that this book will without a doubt make you very, very hungry for Chinese food.
Profile Image for Melody.
149 reviews7 followers
March 22, 2015
The basic premise behind this book is an interesting one: using American-Chinese cuisine as an object lesson, Jennifer 8 Lee wants to show that Chinese-ness is a cultural value that can fuse with almost any other culture and yet still remain distinctively Chinese.

Unfortunately, the book is terribly edited. It's at least 100 pages too long, repetitive, and poorly organized. She ends the book two full chapters before it actually ends, which makes the final 30 or so pages of the book feel utterly extraneous. Lee is a fine writer and clearly has a personal investment in the topic, but the editors needed to help her decide if she was writing a cultural history or a memoir. Right now, the book suffers from a lack of this distinction.
Profile Image for Lincoln Lo.
8 reviews
April 7, 2008
Wow... It was such an interesting read. I will recommend this book to anyone who is 1) Chinese American 2) ate at Panda Express or Pick-up-Stix 3) wonder who actually wrote the fortunes in fortune cookies. I started reading the book with limited expectation as to how much it could enlighten me. After reading it, I realized that the book has actually taught me a lot about the origin of things that we don't understand about "american-chinese" food that sometimes may not be important enough for us to find out. The surprise is, after you have learned the origins of all things insignificant, you begin to see how the culinary culture of American Chinese food gets established, and along the way, it has shaped some aspects of the American Chinese culture too. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, best quote from it:

"willingness to try new foods is a lucid reflection of one's curiosity about and acceptance of other cultures..."
Profile Image for Donald.
32 reviews1 follower
February 29, 2008
Everyone knows I like Chinese food. This delightful book explores the history of American-Chinese food, from chop suey to fortune cookies to General Tso's chicken.

What might appear to be a rather dry topic, turns out to be hysterical. For example, not long ago, over 100 people won Powerball all over the country. How could this statistically impossible thing happen? Fraud? Nope--people were betting using the numbers suggested on fortune cookies! (Something I will begin to do, I might add :-)Chop suey was so popular at the turn of the 20th century in New York, purveyors were on the NY Stock Exchange. The dish became the most popular food in America, despite it not being Chinese at all. Lawsuits occurred because Chinese in San Franciso and New York claiming rights to the recipe.

And as for General Tso's chicken, General Tso may have liked it, but the dish completely is an American concoction. The author traveled to Tso's hometown in China to figure it out.

And, P.F. Chang's famous upscale Chinese Restaurant chain? It's owned by an American so clueless about Chinese culture, that the decor symbolically represents "death". No culturally knowledgeable Chinese person would walk into the place for fear of what would happen to him. I can tell you what would happen- he'd get sick over how bad the food is for the price he pays.

There are chapters on the best Chinese Restaurant in the world, the Jewish Chinese connection, why Chinese food is more American than American pie and so on. I read sections of it to Bette as I work through it, savoring each culinary chapter.

I've contacted the author and we might do a dual program at the 93nd Street Y this year.

I'd loan it, but Li Jin wants to read it next after Bette. It will take some time to get out of the Siegel circle.

What fun!

Profile Image for carrietracy.
1,409 reviews20 followers
July 5, 2008
I waited longer for this book than any other I have ever reserved at my local public library, including the final Harry Potter book. When I finally got the book, I understood why. Despite the tantilizing topic of Chinese food, the book is actually not very engaging. Each chapter told a different story, but within the chapter the writing jumped all over the place. I also felt that the style was a bit lacking in places, as though I was reading a high school student's thesis rather than a professional journalist. The chapter that suffered most from this was The Greatest Chinese Restaurant chapter, where Lee did not seem to have any idea what she was really looking for and bores the audience with her ramblings on the merits of completely dissimilar restaurants and how she can't possibly compare them, but she will. I kept waiting for her to either offer factual proof of her theories, or at least voice her opinion, but frequently throughout the book she simply presents all sorts of ideas to the reader without bothering to follow them through to completion. There were interesting bits and pieces throughout, and the subject of Chinese food is one that many will find tasty, but overall I was not impressed.
Profile Image for Bernard Lavallée.
Author 8 books352 followers
January 30, 2023
This is a 3.5 for me. This is a well researched deep dive on the history of chinese-american food. The author follows the trails of iconic food items on chinese restaurants' menus, such as general tso and fortune cookies. She also talks about the connection of different cultures with Chinese food, like the jewish community in the USA. Through her quest, she meets owners of different Chinese restaurants or big corporations and tells their life story, which is more about geopolitics than food.

I especially liked the first half of the book, which read like a novel. However, I felt it lost steam afterwards, especially in the chapters on her search for the best Chinese restaurant in the world which seemed like something the editor forced her to do to get a hook for marketing.

It tackles important subjects such as racism, immigration and identity, all through a food lens. All in all, it fits perfectly in the food/race litterature that is expanding nowadays (but this one was written in 2008). It's a great introduction on the subject.
913 reviews423 followers
November 6, 2012
Eh. I don't know how much of my lukewarm reaction to blame on my life context at the time. I struggled to read this book during a seven-day stretch with four kids home from school, no electricity, mile-long gas lines, etc. Not that I don't realize how lucky I was that things weren't worse for me in the aftermath of the serious storm we just experienced. But sticking strictly to the book, I think it may have required a more engaging read to provide me with the distraction I desperately needed. Or maybe it's a good thing that I didn't feel compelled to read this by (sorely inadequate) candlelight.

The author, an American-born Chinese woman (ABC, as she calls it), makes a nice comparison between her hybrid cultural identity and the uncertain origins of so-called Chinese cuisine in America. She explores the various aspects of the Chinese food we know and love -- soy sauce packets, Jews and Chinese food, whether Chinese individuals would recognize chop suey or General Tso's chicken, and many chapters on fortune cookies which admittedly got a bit tiresome for me -- their origins, their production, their distribution, who writes the fortunes, etc. This was one of those lightweight nonfiction reads that started out mildly entertaining and got old when I was only about 2/3 through.

It's possible I would have enjoyed this more had I been in a better mood when I read it, so I'm giving it three stars even though I think my reaction is probably more of a two.
Profile Image for Eliana Chow.
327 reviews4 followers
June 3, 2023
An utter delight to read. Good journalism teaches you something, taking you beyond your doorstep and back again, all while paying close attention to narrative in all its little, characteristic details. I may be emotionally biased because of my personal resonance with the topic and its history, but regardless, this is incredible writing.

I’ve been feeling the ache to understand my family’s American and Chinese roots more since 公公 died last year. A lot of wrestling happens at such junctures, and it’s unfortunate that it takes lament to reopen a once-intentionally locked box born out of ABC confusion and, yes, a fair amount of rebellion. Books like these help me tap into something even more collective than family. They bridge a gaping chasm between my Chinese and American identities constantly called into question. (Always too something or not enough something.) Especially when one considers the intergenerational trauma of fleeing one country’s oppression only to be excluded in more prejudiced ways than one (some legal, some social) from the presumed country of refuge or “personal freedom,” which hilariously means not as much if anything in a collectivist society. Even more complicated when you bring the family’s Christian faith into that mix. Yet there’s this undercurrent of values we somehow manage to soldier on with. And always the gathering around a dinner table to savor both the familiar and the strange. Always a glimpse of heaven in what one deems to be daily bread.



(While reading the last 50 pages, the Spotify-generated coffee table jazz playlist I put on shuffle decided to bop out a rendition of “Pop Goes the Weasel.” It seemed apropos, this heralded bending of culture and genre.)



Some standout lines:

“When Americans look at the [takeout] box they see something Chinese. When others look at the box, they think of America” (142).

“So why don’t Americans like negative fortunes? we asked him. The priest considered the point out loud for a bit. Finally he gave me this observation: ‘Because they don’t like to think about the past’” (286).
Profile Image for Selena S.
69 reviews
October 16, 2021
I learned a lot of interesting one-off stories about the origin of fortune cookies, “chop suey”, etc; that General Tso is a real person; how fortune writing is outsourced because it’s so hard to come up with so many; that 1 company produces most of the takeout boxes you see today and that most soy sauce packets in America contain no soy (ok, unsurprising)… probably really a 4.5/5 because the author said stuff like Din Tai Fung is the some of the best Chinese food and described mochi as “rice taffy”. I just lost my mind. 😂
April 19, 2022
I’d give it a 4.5 — I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned a LOT from it. I love writers who can take me through the histories and impacts of something in a sweeping and engaging way, and what topic is more accessible than fortune cookies and American Chinese food? I’ll be thinking about this book every time I crack open a fortune cookie or order from a Chinese restaurant.
Profile Image for Lauryn.
81 reviews5 followers
April 25, 2023
On the syllabus for Asian American culture, cuisine, and economy class... not sure I would've picked it up if it wasn't for a class but pretty satisfied with it. Kept me engaged for the most part, can def see how Lee has a journalistic background but I liked that. Some of the statements felt like very broad generalizations and didn't land with me; like similes for the sake of it or for the soundbite. But I did appreciate the overall narrative. Learned some new stuff too!
64 reviews
July 12, 2020
They say a book comes to you at a certain time for a certain reason. A Jewish tennis friend told me about this book on the tennis courts one day. She said it’s all about why Jewish people love Chinese food. I thought, I’m not too interested… Then one day she rang my doorbell and there she was with the book. I put it in the drawer under the TV and it sat there for about five years. One day we were watching a documentary on San Francisco Chinatown and it had a segment on why Jewish people love Chinese food. Aha! I have a book on that and proceeded to read it.

The book begins with a story about how so many people have won the lottery by choosing their numbers from the fortune on their fortune cookie. This reminded me of my uncle Herbert, who had a print shop on Mulberry Street about 40 years ago. When I was a child he told me he wrote the fortunes in the fortune cookies.

I really identified with this book because my dad owned Chinese restaurants and take-outs all of his life. I was hoping to read about some of the people and restaurants we knew. I really loved reading about the authors childhood.

Having a Chinese restaurant is very hard. It is a lot of work people. People think they can just open up a restaurant because they like to eat. They have no idea of all the logistics and mechanics that go into it. I remember us always placing ads in the Chinese newspaper for delivery boys and cooks.

My favorite line in the book is when the author interviews an old Chinese lady in China asking her why do so many people love Chinese food? Her answer? Because it taste so good! I love that.

This book has a lot of history and talks about the heartbreaks of immigrants and restaurant life. How Chinese restaurants are more popular than McDonald’s. It taught a lot about history and even the Golden Voyage ship that crashed near JFK carrying tons of immigrants. It exposed ringleaders for charging crazy amounts of money to be brought over to this country. Is it worth it?

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is Chinese American, likes Chinese food, or has ever eaten in a restaurant!
Profile Image for Dinah.
231 reviews16 followers
October 15, 2009
I was pretty shocked too. A four star bestseller? With the word “Chronicles” in the title, no less? Ms. Lee exceeds the expectations of her campy cover in this roundabout study of the Chinese Restaurant business in America. The incredible saturation of new immigrants in this business allows the author to delve into human trafficking stories, follow families across continents and generations, through the US legal system and a vast web of Chinatowns across the globe. She doesn’t shy away from the ugly parts: Chinese immigrants created niches for themselves in the laundry and food businesses because they were considered women’s work, and no threat to American men’s jobs. All told, Lee makes a strong case for Chinese food as a distinctly American cuisine, tied up in our seemingly contradictory historical desires for comfort and adventure in our food.

Most impressively of all, Lee grapples with her own writerly vices, questioning her need to pin the history of an immigrant group or cuisine into neat individual stories. The book's central search is for the origin of the Fortune Cookie, on the assumption that untangling its history will reveal some essential truth about the industry. Lee recognizes the flaw of this search throughout, and makes the reader take in the fruits of the journey all along the way, rather than making weak justifications for process at the end. I was happy to see this kind of transparency and introspection in a widely-read book, that really asks us to question what we think we'll learn from these stories.

I especially recommend the chapter on the Kosher Duck Scandal of 1989, which occurred at the Royal Dragon across from my high school and unearths some really fascinating stuff about Jews and their Chinese food. Also, the author’s middle name is “8,” and that’s pretty awesome.
Profile Image for audrey.
678 reviews67 followers
November 29, 2015
This should've been a much better book than it turned out to be. It's clear the author did a metric ton of personal research, but also clear that it was a struggle to organize those experiences into a readable tale; the chapters are choppy and transitions non-existent, the attempts at scholarship are poorly annotated.

For instance, in Chapter 7, where Lee inexplicably turns from a food writer to a crime reporter, this statement makes an appearance: "Chinese deliverymen are one of the most vulnerable species in the urban ecosystem. Homicide is a leading cause of on-the-job deaths; the motive is nearly always robbery."

There's a notes section at the back of the book, but when I turned to it, there was no source for this statement. Similar sweeping statements were also hard to find a cited source for.

There's a completely left-field chapter on a family who moved to Georgia to buy a Chinese restaurant, who were... friends? neighbors? of the author. It's unclear. Later on there's a full chapter of international restaurant reviews, which is I guess what you do as a crime reporter? And four separate chapters on fortune cookies, sprinkled at random throughout the book.

That said, the fortune cookie chapter on San Francisco vs Los Angeles' claims to cookie invention was interesting; the chapter on international soy sauce regulations, fascinating, and the chop suey history chapter fabulous. So overall, a mixed bag, but I'm just not forgiving that restaurant reviews chapter. Hoy.
Profile Image for Judy.
1,945 reviews31 followers
January 12, 2009
I was really surprised by this book. I didn't expect to like it. Why did I select it from the shelf in the library? Who knows? But, I really was intrigued by this study of Chinese immigration to the United States as reflected in Chinese cusine. I was totally unprepared for the fact that there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's combined. I knew that chop suey was invented in the U.S. to appeal to American palates, but I didn't know that fortune cookies actually originated in Japan, and in many places in the world, they are known as American fortune cookies. In fact, fortune cookies are looked at with curiosity in China. Also, who knew that most houses and apartments in China don't have ovens? Not me. This book examines such topics as the relationship between Jews and Chinese food (the Great Peking Duck scandal, for example) and the dark side of Chinese cuisine with so many illegal workers in a type of indentured servitude all across the country. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for Betsy.
308 reviews
May 2, 2008
Not as much info on egg foo young as I'd like (just kidding) but this casual cultural history of American-Chinese food offered entertaining insights not only into the origins (often American) of dishes like chop suey and general tso's chicken but into the life of Chinese immigrants in general and Chinese immigrant restaurant owners in particular (not an easy life... especially for the kids.)The author travels all over the world (from small-town China to small-town Georgia) to try to better understand her (our?) food and culture, producing some easily digestible nuggets (geddit?) about the orgin of fortune cookies (yes, they're really Japanese) and the reason why Jews eat at Chinese restaurants on Christian holidays. Although this won't be a draw for many, I got a particular kick out of the odd fact that the book begins and ends in Des Moines (at a chop suey joint I've never dared to enter but feel that I now must.)
Profile Image for Pamela Pickering.
548 reviews12 followers
February 24, 2009
3.5 stars. An interesting historical and sociological look at the Chinese restaurant in (mainly) America and elsewhere. Wow! I learned some new things about the Chinese restaurant business, for example the huge "huge clearing house" type of network to find jobs in Chinese restaurants for Chinese immigrants and what many Chinese have to go through to even get to America. Some pay as much as $60K just to get here (mainly for "fees"). The next time I sit in Chinese restaurant to eat I will do so with a different perspective and with appreciation of those who are working to serve/prepare my meal.

I only give it 3.5 stars simply because sometimes it did not hold my interest and some of the chapters could have been edited down but still a good, enlightening read. Oh, one side effect of the book, you will crave Chinese food like crazy! I bought take-out cashew chicken at 9pm simply because I couldn't stand it any more!
Profile Image for Anna.
52 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2020
A fascinating ethnogeographic study forged by a curiosity in the connection between Lottery winners and Fortune Cookies.
Profile Image for Misty.
196 reviews4 followers
March 8, 2020
This book is a celebration of the Chinese people and our “American stir fry” of a country - how cultures collide to make something great. It tells astonishing stories that bring us deep into China and deep into the bowels of our own country, with compassion and empathy along the way - all tributes to the power of the immigrant spirit. My only criticism is that the book felt episodic and not as cohesive as I would’ve liked. But considering the breadth of topics covered - from human trafficking to what it’s like to be dumped into a southern town when you’re a Chinese teenager to the mystery of the fortune cookie, General Tso’s and other American Chinese food staples - that’s a fault worth overlooking. And it’s a fun read!
Profile Image for Sarah Nealy.
260 reviews
July 10, 2018
I gave this four stars because it was so informative, things I would never had known if I did not read this. My eyes have been opened so much from reading this book, not only are fortune cookies not Chinese or even Chinese food for that matter but soy sauce in America (for the most part) isn't even made from soy! Although there were some parts I skipped over just do to the fact some things interested me more than others I still enjoyed the lesson in history such as the golden venture, although very interesting and it's part of our history I felt that chapter dragged on a little. Overall a very informative fun fact read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Mike.
511 reviews134 followers
October 20, 2012
Three years ago, I put “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” on my TBR list solely based on the sub-title, “Adventures in the world of Chinese Food”. Was it a culinary travelogue? A series of tales about meeting famous Chinese Chefs (e.g. Martin Yan, Ming Tsai, or even Joyce Chen)? Or perhaps a personal history of learning to cook Chinese dishes? Or may be it’s a novel? It was like an unopened fortune cookie.

Fast-forward 40 months and as part of my struggle to shrink (or at least reduce the rate of growth) of my “to-read” bookshelf, I crack open the cover. Inside I found a well-written book about Chinese Food and how and where it is made. It’s definitely non-fiction. It’s not really any one of the things I imagined, but scattered throughout its pages are elements of each (for example, she does meet and write about Ming Tsai.) For me it was a thoroughly enjoyable book, but some of the content may be unwelcome to others.

The author is an ABC (American-Born Chinese) whose parents came to the US legally. Growing up here, she experienced the mysterious gulf between home-cooked Chinese Food and Chinese Restaurant fare. And so did her parents. I hope I am not breaking anyone’s heart by revealing that virtually every Chinese restaurant serves food that is not traditional and authentic “Chinese food” from any province or region. (Yes, there are exceptions to this statement.)

In the northeast US, years and years ago the style was mostly Cantonese-influenced. Sweet-and-Sour “x” was a bit part of every menu as was “Chop Suey”. Yes, these standards still exist, but it has been decades since any restaurant has served French bread as an appetizer (yes, that really was the norm.) In the mid 70’s the Schezuan-Hunan craze hit and it has never looked back. Throughout this time, I’ve been lucky to know many Chinese people from work and life – which has given me a bit of an insider’s view to many of the topic s in this book.

But back to the book. Do you read the fortune in your cookie? Do people at your table insist on reading them and passing them around to compare? Well, you’re normal as it turns out. I don’t give the “fortune” part much credence, nor do I think about the numbers. Instead, I check out the “Learn Chinese” offerings and see if I already remember the pin-yin (Romanized Chinese) word given. Usually I do. But other people save especially meaningful fortunes or play the numbers and that is where this book begins.

For those numbers are indeed lucky. Not once and not every time, but people use them to play the popular lotteries. And, unlike a combination of your family’s birthdates & anniversaries, the same numbers get widely distributed. Meaning that potentially a lot of people might play identical or almost-identical sequences and that is not part of the normal statistical model. (You did know that lotteries are carefully designed to generate revenue for the state or states that offer them, right?)

So, when a specific lottery has many times more winners (or 2nd-prize winners) than it should, what is the reason? Collusion? Inside information? Nope. Fortune Cookies. I’m not going to give any details about this because I hope you read the book. Likewise, I won’t divulge anything about the Kosher Duck scandal. (What you didn’t know there was a menu item called “Kosher Duck”? Ha! Read on!)

I am going to say that this book delves into both origins of the food we Americans (and other nations) call “Chinese”, the Fortune Cookie itself (I learned about “senbei” from studying Japanese), and where all those restaurants and workers come from. Since I’ve always lived in a multi-ethnic city, I expect to find lots of Chinese restaurants. (In one ½ mile stretch of Mass. Ave. there used to be eight restaurants – and it wasn’t part of Chinatown – just down the street from MIT.) But I hadn’t thought about the overwhelming numbers of them until Jennifer Lee pointed it out.

When I’m in the US, I will eat both traditional and American dishes. I understand the attraction for dishes that were designed for American tastes and the book does a fantastic job of telling you why dishes exist as they are rather than as they were. Chinese food didn’t get to be so popular here by accident. But when I travel overseas (or when I eat in our Chinatown) I’ll happily eat things that most non-Chinese I know would turn away from. In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore I eat (and drink) locally. (It’s the same in Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines.) Give me a night-market, hawker stall or native restaurant and I’m satisfied. But if that all that you could find in the states, then Chinese restaurants would be only found in small numbers, buried in Chinese-based communities.

Since I want you to read the book (and anyone can find a summary in seconds), I think I’ll conclude by saying that the entire book is going to feed you facts about the “World of Chinese Food”. Not all of them are pretty. The Chinese don’t do pretty so much (remember “Hello Kitty” is Japanese, not Chinese”); instead they are “pragmatic”. I liked the book and the work that the author did to create it. I think that most people won’t rate it beyond a “3”, but for me it was at least a “3.5” and I’m going to mark it as a “4’.


Profile Image for Jonathan.
588 reviews39 followers
January 8, 2018
Excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it this much. Highly recommend!
Profile Image for D..
682 reviews19 followers
November 12, 2016
The Amazing Book Club of Doom book for NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016.

Just to clarify: you won't find any recipes in this book. What you will find is the author's journey to discover the answers to such culinary questions as: Where did the fortune cookie originate? Who was General Tso, and why does China remember him differently than America? and, of course, Why is Chinese food so popular?

Jennifer 8. Lee has a strong journalistic voice, and in her quest to explore all things regarding Chinese food, she travels down a variety of avenues. Part of the fun of the book is that it isn't a dry overview of the subject, it's a narrative of discovery. As one question is answered, another question arises, moving her from topic to topic, and helping the reader to see just how complex, complicated, and occasionally problematic, America's relationship with Chinese food is.

As a person that has eaten Chinese food across America, its was a fascinating, and occasionally enlightening book.

(I had to knock off one star because of the section towards the end of the book where she seeks out "The World's Greatest Chinese Restaurant." It just didn't seem to work with the rest of the book, and I found it really broke up the flow of what she had accomplished. It felt like an article that was stashed in the book to "pad it out," not to enhance it.)
Profile Image for nicole.
2,008 reviews75 followers
Read
April 5, 2011
Dear TFCC,

It's not you, it's me.

Okay... it's you.

Really.

I love Chinese food, non-fiction, foodie reads, the friends who championed you and insisted that I read you. But you read like a string of weekly serials, each hammering home the same point, that Chinese food is not from China, that Chinese food is more telling of the American history that has shaped it and the exported elements of American culture that other countries can identify.

But you said it to me again, and again, and again. And your writing was poor. You start with this long winded story about lottery winners that comes to a point, the point that I thought the story would be fixed on. But then you bob and weave between interesting facts hidden in poorly conjoined sentences. I spent ten minutes reading this gem over and over and over until finally I looked up the rule. "None of their killers was even old enough to drink."

WRONG. None were.

You have been on my to read queue since December 2008, when one of my good friends who moved to China to teach English was reading it while home for the holidays. But I can't go on, TFCC, I can't.

Sincerely,
Ate Pizza For Almost All Meals While Reading This
Profile Image for Turi Becker.
408 reviews26 followers
April 29, 2008
People don't seem to have very good opinions about author blurbs. I, personally, love them. Some of the best and most unexpected books I've read in the past year, I've been drawn to by seeing that one or more of the blurbs on the jacket was from an author I enjoy. Same with this one. Granted, I was almost through the book before I glanced at them, but when I saw that the two Blurbs on the back were from Sasha Issenberg and Mary Roach, my feelings about blurbs were validated yet again.

Wow, I digressed before I ever got to the book I'm talking about. Oh well. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is another great example of the kind of non-fiction I love to read: an in depth look into a specific subject, so in-depth that it ranges all over other subjects as well, with enough of the author's personality thrown in to make it interesting and humorous. Jennifer 8. Lee covers the phenomenon of Chinese food in America from a global and historical viewpoint, touching on subjects as wide ranging as Powerball lotteries (lucky numbers on fortune cookies), takeout box manufacturing, immigration policies and the birthplace of General Tso. Excellent book; glad I picked it up.
Profile Image for Michelle.
75 reviews1 follower
December 2, 2008
I read this book in one day, albeit a very long day which started in Paris and ended in Birmingham, AL. And it was also Thanksgiving, though in transit. I found it completely fascinating.

I am a big fan of American Chinese food, or rather Americanized Asian food in general -- Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and the variations of Malaysian/Burmese/Tibetan, etc. -- but had never given much thought about the behind-the-scenes nature of the restaurants. This book looks at everything: from the development of the fortune cookie and the numbers on them that are played in various state lotteries to the illegal smuggling of restaurant workers to the political/social/economic ramifications of the first restaurant in New York City to offer home delivery to the origins of General Tso's Chicken...and so much more. I could not get enough of it, and found it completely fascinating.

And the book made me crave Chinese food, which was less than convenient at 30,000 feet on a 9-hour flight.

If you love Chinese food, and non-fiction -- READ THIS.
Profile Image for Jeannette.
798 reviews25 followers
February 11, 2009
I loved this book. Totally interesting and informative about all the ins and outs of Chinese food. I loved knowing that there are employment agencies in New York's Chinatown that sends out workers throughout the country based solely on three numbers: the monthly salary, the area code where the restaurant is located and the number of hours it takes to travel by bus from New York City to the job. Plus, the Lee rates the best Chinese restaurant in the world as from the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, BC. And last night I ordered in General Tso's chicken for the first time just to see what all the fuss is about. Enlightening!
Profile Image for Wendy.
Author 11 books121 followers
April 28, 2009
I checked out this book from the library for purely research purposes, and found that I couldn't put it down. This delightful book explores the role of Chinese food in the American psyche while the authors pursues questions such as - are fortune cookies really Chinese? And who IS General Tso and why do we love his chicken? Do you need a reason to read this? I'll paraphrase a great line from the book - if America really is about apple pies and Chevrolets, ask yourself - when is the last time you ate apple pie? And when is the last time you ate Chinese food?
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