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

I loved this book! Jennifer 8. Lee, the writer, has a wonderful breezy style, but she does her homework in spades. Her journeys of discovery and research, the lengths to which she went, are remarkable. For people interested in food and in cross cultural experience, this is a fascinating and fun

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book; highly recommended.

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Really a good book, but very uneven. Lee really isn't a food writer, but she has many fascinating things to say about the spread of Chinese cuisine. Somehow lends the impression, however, that someone was standing behind her forcing her to pad the book.

I don't eat a lot of Chinese food but I enjoyed this book. Lee did a great job weaving a study of Chinese restaurants outside of China from her starting point: multiple winners of Powerball won by betting on numbers in a fortune cookie. From there, she investigated the origin of the fortune cookie,

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visited the restaurants where the winners obtained their cookies and then, why Americans have embraced our version of Chinese food. I found it very entertaining and cohesive.

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A collection of stories by journalist Jennifer Lee.
Amusing,light reading.
Jennifer discusses aspect of Chinese food that one may not think of - where was/wo the fortune cookie invented? What is chop suey? Why were there so many winners in the PowerBall lottery? Where do Chinese food workers come

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from. Interesting.

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A very entertaining book about how Chinese food has come to take over the world (including fortune cookies, which were Japanese pre-WWII).

Jennifer 8 Lee takes the reader on a tour to track down the origins of the winning numbers for a glut of lottery winners. She spins this off to try to unravel the origin of the fortune cookie. On the way, we learn about "American" Chinese food, traditional and much, much more. I did enjoy the book,

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but I started to lose interest a little by the last 50 pages or so - I'd imagine a foodie or someone more interested in culture would happily enjoy this to the last word.

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Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a wonderful combination of the cultural history of food and the cultural history of immigration. The book is fun, touching, well-researched and well-written. Lee's book exemplifies all that I love about "creative non-fiction". It acknowledges that even the most

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authoritative non-fiction is influenced by personal experience. And that the best autobiography benefits from the author's research and attempts to view her experience from outside herself. Lee's book is personal, political, cultural, and above-all, loves good food unpretentiously. Read it to find out the history of General Tso's chicken and what life is like for the people that invented it.

Don't read it expecting it to provide a guide to the best Chinese-American food, but she throws in a few intriguing references, go check them out.

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This book is about connections: how Chinese food connects Americans to Americans, Americans to Chinese, and Chinese to each other. It opens the door on a world most Americans have no idea about when they crack open their fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese dinner. Lee explores such diverse

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topics as Chinese immigration, the development of Chinese cuisine in America, what the definition of "soy sauce" is, and, of course, the origin of the fortune cookie.

Lee's well-written book will entertain its readers whether they love Chinese cuisine or not. Other than a brief few pages toward the end where she makes the obligatory tie-in to her own cultural heritage, this book is about the food, the history, and the quirkiness that is Chinese cuisine in America.

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interesting read particularly the chapter to search for THE best chinese restaurant in the world. I'm from Asia and ya I learnt about fortune cookies from Western movies instead. Also all the western-chinese dishes, the takeaway boxes, etc. And boy don't they looked yummy on TV lol

Recently I had

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the chance to go to Chicago and of coz I gave it a try, General Tso's Chicken, LoMein, etc. But they weren't as good as I thought they would be lol. Maybe my taste buds are too tuned to Asia's Chinese dishes but all in all at least I've tried it before :P

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Although the contents are interesting and very well researched, this book suffers from what one might call excessively "bloggy" writing. Ms Lee writes about a number of subjects, such as immigration, fortune cookies, General Tso's chicken, etc., in an interleaved fashion, including a number of

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personal stories. Unfortunately, this style leaves the reader somewhat disoriented, and the book somewhat unfocused, rather as if you had read the chapters in a blog, in chronological order.

This said, anyone interested in Chinese food and why Chinese food in America is the way it is could do a lot worse than read this book.

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Well-written and extremely well-researched, Jennifer 8. Lee’s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles” is more of a dim sum collection of affiliated essays that a sumptuous banquet on a consistent theme.

Beginning with the obscure origins of the humble fortune cookie, the book quickly diverts to other

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subjects such as chop suey, chow mein and General Tso’s chicken. It then blasts way off tangent with investigations into the dark side of Chinese immigration to the US from the Snake River Massacre to the modern-day Snakeheads and the sinking of the Golden Venture. It continues with the origins of the take out menu, the trade wars regarding what exactly makes soy sauce authentic, the similarities of Chinese take- out and open source software, and the quixotic search for the world’s best Chinese restaurant.

It’s a lot to digest, but it’s fascinating and fun nonetheless, with Miss Lee providing enough anecdotes, insights and information to prove that Chinese food is one of the most American of cuisines. Recommended.

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Themes: heritage, family, race, adaptation, food
Setting: New York, California, China, and lots of other places.

Lee takes a look at a simple little piece of American culture - the fortune cookie - and uses it to explore Chinese immigration to the US, past and present, Japanese interment, American

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culture, and much more. It sounds like it might be a boring or pretentious read, but it was a lot of fun and gave me a lot to think about. It also made me hungry for Chinese food! 4 stars.

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Don’t read this book on an empty stomach or you’ll find yourself raiding the refrigerator! Author Jennifer 8 Lee uses her quest to find the origins of the fortune cookie as the impetuous to explore the history of Chinese food in the United States and the cultural encounter between East and

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West.

Interwoven into her detective work on the oddly mysterious fortune cookie are chapters on a range of topics -- from the first introduction of Chinese food to America in the 1880s to the desperate struggle of modern-day Chinese to immigrate to the States, only to end up working low-level jobs in Chinese restaurants. Her quest is also to understand her own cultural origins as an ABC (American-born Chinese). Luckily, this theme isn’t heavy-handed or overly self-conscious, while still being deeply felt. Indeed the entire book has a lovely light touch, serious without being ponderous, fun without being frivolous, deeply researched without seeming like a doctoral dissertation.

If you’re ever gotten Chinese take out, delivery, or munched egg rolls in a Chinese restaurant, this book will be full of fascinating information. And you’ll never think about your meal and the people who prepared and served it in the same way again.

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I wasn't expecting this culinary history to be as well-researched, as witty, and as outright funny as it was! In some parts wistful, some tragic, and always intriguing and humorous, she tells us of the evolution of American-Chinese food as we know it (Pupu platters, Mogu Gai Pan, General Tso's /

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General Gao's Chicken, etcetera) and how it's tied with the fortune cookie - which has its own strange origin stories. Read, laugh, enjoy, and appreciate the search for your favorite take-out/eat-in place all that much more.

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Fascinating book. Jennifer 8 Lee's exploration of Chinese food reveals so much about America.

Lee writes an interesting story that felt a little too much like she wanted to fit her story and her research around the idea she wanted to write. She uncovers a lot of information about the history of Chinese food in America and the impact is has had upon our culinary landscape, but doesn't offer

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much in the way of original study or conclusions.

I also wanted a little more FOOD in the book; great food books make you hungry when reading them, and this one just didn't do it. Lee could have offered more education on the differences between what we think of as Chinese food and what Chinese food really is.

Overall, an okay read. I was expecting more.

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Good, amusing book about fortune cookies. If you like reading about food, it's a solid read.

I adored this fairly fast read book. Its premise was to find out the history of fortune cookies and expanded out exponentially. There were so many "Who knew?" moments while reading this book. The Chinese restaurant history, from menus to staffing were covered, as well as the search for ( and the

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criteria of) the best Chinese restaurant in the world.

Her writing style was enjoyable, I would happily read more of her work.

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Good book on the background of Chinese cuisine, but by the last 3 chapters I just didn't care anymore and quit reading. Interesting concept, but often long and rambling execution.

A Mandarin-speaking, Chinese-American reporter from New York spends 3+ years traveling the globe researching the murky origins of the fortune cookie and the popularity of Chinese restaurants around the world. A quirky, interesting, and hunger-inducing piece of fusion

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nutritional-anthropology-meets-pop-culture investigative journalism.

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Entertaining and informative. It took me a little while to get used to how much the narrative rambled -- I'm more used to more linear foodie memoirs -- but the topics were so interesting I got beyond that. (Who knew that fortune cookies were probably invented by the Japanese? Or that Chinese

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restaurants get bought and sold so frequently?) I do wish this was longer; the section on Lee's travels in search of the top Chinese restaurants certainly deserves more space than it got.

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This took months to read as it traveled with me everywhere in my purse, ready to be read in an emergency waiting situation. I don't know how I ended up with this book, but it was well-written and absolutely fascinating. I hadn't previously cared to know anything about Chinese restaurants, illegal

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Chinese immigration, fortune cookies, soy sauce, etc., but each chapter's introduction enticed me to the point where I immediately had to know all about this next subject. I learned about this intense Jewish connection to Chinese food, all about, and I mean ALL about fortune cookies, our own government (especially regarding these food departments that I never knew existed), the Chinese restaurant network, immigration policy & its failures, General Tso's chicken, Chinese, American and Chinese-American culture, and so much more (although it did make me hungry for Chinese food throughout). I was especially delighted with the author's own research process; she's my new hero. I recommend this book to anyone. I certainly can't think of anyone who's particularly looking to learn about these things, but the book will intrigue anyone interested in learning about culture and the story behind things around us.

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This was much darker than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be the story of the development of Fortune Cookies not american chinese food as a whole. It's definitely an interesting story and I love all the trivia type knowledge I got out of it.

This was much darker than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be the story of the development of Fortune Cookies not american chinese food as a whole. It's definitely an interesting story and I love all the trivia type knowledge I got out of it.