The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
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Product Description
If you reflect 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 Chance Cookie Chronicles speaks to the immigrant experience as a whole, and the way it has shaped our country.
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Persons who want a serious, thoughtful look at Chinese food and what it means to Chinese and additional cultures should look elsewhere; Jennifer 8. Lee’s book is nothing but a series of shallow, (sometimes) mildly amusing extended anecdotes.
Ms. Lee’s aver that “(chop suey) is still establish in some urban Chinese takeouts and in scattered restaurants around the country” is patently fake. From Bloomington, Indiana to Hannibal, Missouri to Austin, Texas, I’ve never been to a Chinese restaurant that didn’t serve chop suey. What she seems to reflect of as an exotic rarity is, in fact, a staple.
This might be charitably chalked up as a harmless error, but it really is exemplary of the careless manner in which the entire book is written. As a replacement for of a detailed acccount of how Chinese food developed and was then brought to the United States and elswhere, she presents what she must reflect is a series of utterly fascinating tales about various aspects of the cuisine: competition among take out restaurants in 1970’s New York City, how fortunes get written, a tale about multiple lottery winners who chose their numbers based on their fortunes at Chinese retaurants. As I said before, some of these tales are mildly amusing, but is that enough?
As a final insult, Ms. Lee spends about forty pages searching for the best Chinese restaurant in the world. What was the point in going from Paris to London to Mumbai, India to eat out, regularly at fancy places frequented by celebrities and Gorgeous People? Nothing against Leonardo DiCaprio, but I really don’t care where he goes to eat when he’s in Paris. Why did this detail make it into the book, and how does eating Chinese at upscale restaurants in various world capitals and financial/cultural centers shed any light on the way Chinese food is eaten by everyday people?
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I read an excerpt from this book in the March 2008 issue of Reader’s Digest. It really makes you ponder our foods and their influence in our lives.
Well written, humorous and informative, leader Jennifer 8. Lee has a real winner on her hands. I can’t wait to buy it on its relief date to read the whole thing!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Well, as a lover of Chinese food, this was an appealing read. Throughout the United States, there are more Chinese Restaurants then there are McDonalds, Burger Kings, and KFC’s combined.
Jennifer 8 Lee is an American-Born Chinese who many evenings her mother would send her down the street to the Chinese Restaurant to get supper for them, if she had a busy day at work. Then there is permanently the chance cookie at the end.
Later on, as she read about the 110 people across the United States who all won the lottery by what else, using numbers establish in their chance cookies, which I used to throw away. Well, as a lover of Chinese food, this was an appealing read. Throughout the United States, there are more Chinese Restaurants then there are McDonalds, Burger Kings, and KFC’s combined.
Jennifer 8 Lee is an American-Born Chinese who many evenings her mother would send her down the street to the Chinese Restaurant to get supper for them, if she had a busy day at work. Then there is permanently the chance cookie at the end.
Later on, as she read about the 110 people across the United States who all won the lottery by what else, using numbers establish in their chance cookies, which I used to throw away. Jennifer ongoing looking into the mystery and from there into the world of Chinese food and restaurants.
Are Chance Cookies really from China? Is Chop Suey strictly an American dish?
To me, this was like reading a documentary, which I really delight in.
Follow along as she travels the country side and visits Chinese Restaurants from Wyoming, to California, to Louisiana. Travel with her as she finds the legends of what most of all like to eat…… Chinese food.
Are Chance Cookies really from China? Is Chop Suey strictly an American dish?
To me, this was like reading a documentary, which I really delight in.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I really loved this book – though I do ponder how much money it must have cost to send the leader around the world to find the Greatest Chinese restaurant or to track down powerball winners etc and if that was really necessary.
I learned a lot about Chinese Americans and Chinese; about the cuisine and that they eat dogs in China which still leaves a dull ache in the pit of my stomach. Of course they say a pig is really more intelligent than a dog so perhaps in some pig-friendly land they are cringing at American barbecue.
Jennifer is a superb writer – I want to see more from her. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in food culture and culture culture.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
There’s an ancient adage that an hour after eating chinese food, you’re hungry again. Sorry to say this book was a bit like that.
It’s certainly well written and was fun to read, though a bit long for the theme. And one is exposed to such exotic trivia as the fact that Chinese chance cookies were invented by the Japanese and that most chinese food is a local creation and not authentically Chinese. But after reading it, I establish myself thinking “that’s it?!” and looking for a more substantial book.
Two chapters were potentially more filling – one on the Kosher Duck Scandal and the additional on the sad tale of a Chinese family tree suffering the stresses of adapting to life in the U.S. But in both cases, the final result was a bit superficial. Which is too terrible as the leader demonstrates that there is a lot of potentially appealing material that just needed a bit more work.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5