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The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
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The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (edit title/settings)

Adventures in the World of Chinese Food

by Jennifer 8. Lee (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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. New York Times reporter and Chinese-American (or American-born Chinese). In her search, Jennifer 8 Lee... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Yoda our new Confucius is.”
    Author
  • “London has emerged as a global restaurant hot spot in recent years, despite the country's unfortunate history of bangers and mash and spotted dick -- a reputation it has yet to fully shed.”
    Author
  • “Chinese food is served on all seven continents, even Antarctica, where Monday is usually Chinese-food night at McMurdo Station, the main American scientific outpost on the icy continent.”
    Author
  • “Chinese restaurants are like gas, in that they expand to fill a vacuum. They have an enviable ability to take root in any community -- urban or rural, cosmopolitan or isolated. If an environment can support life, then, like bacteria, a Chinese restaurant will find it.”
    Author
  • “P.12-13: Then I'd lug home my treasure: a plastic bag of steaming, generously stuffed trapezoidal white cartons. Our family gathered around the table as we pulled out the boxes, each one bursting with the potential of anonymity. Out came chopsticks, the little clear packets of black soy sauce, and crunchy fortune cookies. Each untucking of the lid released a surge of aroma and a sight to spark the appetite. Would it be the amber-coloured noodles of roast pork lo mein? The lightly sweetened crispiness of General Tso's chicken nestled in a bed of flash-cooked broccoli? Or the spicy red chili oils of mapo tofu? Virginal white rice would be doused with steaming sauces, the mingling of simmered soy sauce, piquant vinegar, slivers of ginger, and fragrant garlic. The Chinese food begged to be mixed together: sweet, sour, salty, and savoury flavours layering upon one another. They tasted even better the next day when the leftovers were reheated.”
  • “P.167: Asian "natural-brewed" soy sauce is made by a process not unlike that used with vodka or sake. It requires fermenting a mix of wheat, soybeans, and a particular mold for weeks or even months, then refining, pressing, and pasteurizing it. In contrast, the crudest type of American soy sauce is basically salted water mixed with a flavour enhancer distilled from vegetable proteins. (That flavour enhancer is related to the little flavour packets that come with ramen noodles.) The food colouring and corn syrup give the liquid a vaguely soy sauce-like appearance.”
  • “P.246: Broccoli, which originally hails from Italy, is not a commonly used Chinese vegetable. The Chinese have their own version of broccoli — called Chinese broccoli, similar to broccoli rabe. China, in fact, imports broccoli from the United States, where the agricultural industry has genetically engineered stalkless broccoli (like muffin tops).”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie. But ask yourself: How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Chinese food?
    Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers
  • Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine outside Vancouver—Sam Lau’s modern Chinese restaurant located on the second floor of a suburban strip mall.
    Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers
  • Chinese cooking is not a set of dishes. It is a philosophy that serves local tastes and ingredients.
    Highlighted by 16 Kindle customers
  • I must pause to acknowledge my Garmin GPS machine, which is one of the best dollar-for-dollar investments in happiness I have ever made. If you simply have faith in it, you can let go of your worries. You may not understand why it is telling you to do whatever it is telling you to do, but you trust that it will get you to your final destination. Like religion.
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • Why was there suddenly an entrepreneurial explosion of restaurants, and why, of all small businesses, did laundries survive? Cleaning and cooking were both women’s work. They were not threatening to white laborers.
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • Or maybe the truth was closer to this: It’s American. It just looks Chinese.
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • We are a stir-fry; our ingredients remain distinct, but our flavors blend together in a sauce shared by all.
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • English speakers use the expression “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” But my mom pointed out the Chinese perspective for getting one’s due: “Qiang da chutou niao,” she said. The bird who sticks its head out gets shot.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • Willingness to try new foods is a lucid reflection of one’s curiosity about and acceptance of other cultures—and this exposure has stimulated an appetite for travel, as well. If you can eat the food of a country, it seems less foreign.
    Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
  • From a Chinese perspective, P. F. Chang’s is decorated with death.
    Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
Show all 17 quotes from this book

Organizations edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

  • Chinese Snakehead: In this book it refers not to the fish, but people who engage in human trafficking, especially related to workers in Chinese restaurants around the world
  • Umame: Refers to the "fifth taste," defined variously as "meaty" or "savory" and direcly related to the discovery of MSG
  • Monosodium glutamate: aka MSG or hydrolyzed vegetable protein, a flavor enhancer derived from seaweed

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Jennifer 8. Lee (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

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Page Count: 320

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Fine for teens or adults.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Gastronomical Me
  • Roadfood : the coast-to-coast guide to 700 of the best barbecue joints, lobster shacks, ice cream parlors, highway diners, and much, much more
  • My Year of Meats
  • Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing (Cornbread Nation)
  • Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Chop Suey
  • Potsticker Chronicles: America's Favorite Chinese Recipes
  • Contemporary Chinese America: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Community Transformation (Asian American History & Cultu)
  • Chinatown in Los Angeles
  • The lucky ones : one family and the extraordinary birth of Chinese America

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