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Apr 01, 2008

Lena rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (11 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2008

Melody rated it:

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 bo More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2008

Donald rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 06, 2008

Lincoln rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 05, 2008

carrietracy rated it:

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 profess More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 02, 2008

Betsy rated it:

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 under More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 28, 2008

Turi rated it:

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.

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2009

Pamela rated it:

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 More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 11, 2009

Jeannette rated it:

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, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Helga added it

Taking a break from my usual fictional fare, I picked up Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Lee frames the story around the curious 2005 Powerball event in which over 100 people won Powerball prizes based on their use of numbers from a Chinese restaurant's fortune cookie. I didn't say Chinese fortune cookie here because one of the things Lee discovers on her global trek to discover the secrets of Chinese food is that fortune cookies were inv More...

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Feb 25, 2009

Kim rated it:

Everything you ever wanted to know about the big business of Chinese food? By the way, did you know that Chinese restaurants outnumber all the McD's, BK, and Wendy's combined?

It all starts out with an inordinate amount of winners of a lottery. The winners had one thing in common; they picked their numbers based on fortune cookies they had gotten from Chinese restaurants. Ms. Lee decides to track down the different restaurants the cookies were obtained from and in the process delv More...

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Feb 05, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine added it

We're in something of a golden age for food journalism, with expos��s 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 en

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Jan 12, 2009

Judy rated it:

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 th More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2008

Michelle rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Matt rated it:

Jennifer Lee (a journalist) sets out to explore various aspects of the American Chinese Food phenomenon, from the history of Chinese immigrants who modified their cuisine for American tastes, to trade disputes over the definition of "soy sauce", to finding the best chinese restuarant in the world. These vignettes are bundled together through a thin and poorly fleshed out frame story, about powerball winners who used fortune cookie numbers. Strangely, I found the frame story one of the More...

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Oct 26, 2011

Katina rated it:

This was on the SF Book Club, or SF Reads shelf at the library. It's the easiest place to browse when I'm trying to keep an eye on Stella, so I often pick up things from here. So far the selections have been pretty hit or miss: loved Zeitoun, disliked that book about morgues and corpses - the name escapes me. This book fell somewhere between those two.

It explores what "chinese food" is in America by investigating various questions "how the fortune cookie came to be More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Rachel rated it:

This book could have been great. However, it was just so-so.

Jenny 8 Lee meticulously researches the origins of Chinese food in America, devoting one chapter or so to each of many different dishes: General Tso's, chop suey, fortune cookies, etc. Unsurprisingly, none of these dishes are authentically Chinese. Even those soy sauce packets aren't actually made with soy sauce. If this succeeds in shocking anyone then you need to get out more.

And maybe that's the problem: there's a More...

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Mar 26, 2011

Matthew rated it:

What can I say, a fun book about Chinese-America, China, American Chinese food, and the links between the them that span the globe. It was a fun and light read, like a good meal of steamed veggies at your local Chinese takeout; hardly filling, just barely satisfying, but different enough to be worth it. The opening chapter’s framework, involving a nation-wide hunt for lotto winners who got their lucky numbers off of fortune cookies, lost focus incredibly quickly. I was fine with following a book More...

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Jan 18, 2011

Megan rated it:

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been annoying my friends and family by continually piping up with, "Hey, did you know that...?" every time I read some interesting trivia or bit of history in Jennifer 8. Lee's excellent socio-cultural narrative. There are stories about nearly every aspect of Chinese food in America (the food itself, the packaging, the fortunes in the fortune cookies, external religious and cultural influences, the history of Chinese immigration, pan-Asian interact More...

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Jan 06, 2011

Travis rated it:

A while back I watched Lee talk about some of the stuff in this book and found it really interesting. The book was not quite what I'd expected based on that. I thought it would have a little more about Chinese food around the world, but the focus was mostly American Chinese food with one chapter about other countries. There was also way more about fortune cookies than necessary, I think. She spread that part out really long. But overall it was a really interesting book and a neat look at the his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 08, 2010

Abby rated it:

3.5 stars. A fun and fast read about the history of Chinese restaurants (mostly in the USA, but the author does explore Chinese restaurants in some other countries as well) and their impact on American culture and cuisine. The author, Jennifer 8. Lee (yes, her middle name is really the number 8, it's a lucky number in Chinese astrology) is a NYT metro reporter who is the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and her interest in the topic stems not only from her personal background, but from an intrigu More...

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Oct 15, 2009

Dinah rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2009

Chris rated it:

I really wanted to like this book. But there just was not enough there. The writing style was not very compelling and her musings/thoughts just did not grab me. The main thing I walked away with was that the content was so uneven. Mostly, I felt like there was a lot of meaningless discussions about chinese cooking that seemed to lack any real depth or cohesiveness (absolutely skip the chapter on the greatest chinese restaurants in the world). But I will say that there were two chapters that More...

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Jul 05, 2009

Allisonperkel rated it:

"Fortune Cookie" really is several books in one, with the idea of fortune cookies coming back to somewhat tie the stories of the book together. however, the stories, while related, do not feel connected leaving me with the feeling that the parts are greater than the whole.

I can tell from reading this book that Ms Lee will eventually become a writer I will love to read however she isn't quite there yet. In fortune cookie she was able to write an emotional, heart wrenching c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 05, 2009

Francis rated it:

I loved this book. It is a fascinating combination of a cultural memoir and history, discussing a wide variety of aspects of Chinese food (with an emphasis on Chinese food in America). One theme woven into the book is a definitively researched history of the origins of the fortune cookie (something that Americans associate with Chinese food but which is not done in China). Other themes include the (not entirely pleasant) facets of running a Chinese restaurant, including the human trafficking tha More...

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Jul 19, 2008

Sharon rated it:

I learned so much from this book and given that I'm Chinese and into food, that says quite a lot. Interesting stuff about the origin of fortune cookies, how Jews and their love for Chinese food came about, Chinese immigrants in the restaurant business, the author's search for the greatest chinese restaurant in the world, American vs. Asian soy sauces, etc. The author's writing style makes for an easy read. Highly recommend it if you want to learn more about Chinese food and culture.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 05, 2009

Rachell rated it:

I had several problems with this book. First, while individual chapters (essays, really) are well-written, they don't cohere as a book. Maybe Lee was trying to take a Chinese-buffet approach to her far-ranging topic, but it's jarring to jump from the harrowing journey of illegal Chinese immigrants being smuggled into the US to the search for the genesis of General Tso's chicken.

Second, Lee brings up deeper themes in her exploration of the world of Chinese food -- the impact of globa More...

1 comment like

May 11, 2009

Grace rated it:

Jennifer 8. Lee's "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food" is full of tidbits on the history and culture of Chinese food and the people who serve it. How else would I learn such interesting facts like:

*In the United States, there are twice as many Chinese restaurants as there are McDonald's.
*Chinese fortune cookies are not Chinese. They are Japanese. Chinese people marketed them better.
*Japanese tempura was introduced to Japan i More...

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Jan 18, 2009

AJ rated it:

This book was a quick, enjoyable read. I think I learned more about Chinese culture and history in this book than in any history class in high school (of course that is not exactly shocking as high school doesn't always teach much). Other than a chapter filled with seemingly-unrelated (to the grand theme of the book, that is) drama about the family of John and Jenny, the book was quite cohesive, interesting and rather fun.

I already was under no illusion that the Chinese food I eat is More...

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Aug 06, 2009

Ann rated it:

My dad was a chef in San Francisco with an interest in all cuisines, and I taught in China, so I already knew the great secret of the origin of fortune cookies, and something of the subculture of American/Chinese Restaurants. That didn’t lesson my fascination with the book. There is much to learn. I had to give up the cherished belief that May you live in interesting times is a Chinese proverb. The fortune cookie theme is what holds together these “Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.” The More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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