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Liked It2 of 2 members found this review helpful “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee is the author's fascinating quest to discover the true history of the fortune cookie. Fortune cookies, ubiquitous at Chinese restaurants, are crunchy with a slightly vanilla flavor; this unassuming cookie wouldn't seem to bear up under the weight...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Interesting but a bit too much detail for me.”
Nancy R wrote this review Tuesday, September 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Ah, the secret life of fortune cookies...very fun...”
nancy h wrote this review Wednesday, August 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Great book and very easy to read.”
VernDude wrote this review Saturday, June 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Very entertaining food history from NYT journalist.”
Barbara T wrote this review Friday, June 26 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Interesting story of how chinese food became as common in America as fast food chains. Also an interesting look at how this business operates”
marne u wrote this review Tuesday, June 9 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Well, as a lover of Chinese food, this was an interesting read. Throughout the United States, there are more Chinese Restaurants then there are McDonalds, Burger Kings, and KFC’s combined.
BookReviewsByDebra wrote this review Thursday, May 7 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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 always the fortune 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 found in their fortune cookies, which I used to throw away. Well, as a lover of Chinese food, this was an interesting 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 always the fortune 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 found in their fortune cookies, which I used to throw away. Jennifer started looking into the mystery and from there into the world of Chinese food and restaurants.
Are Fortune Cookies really from China? Is Chop Suey strictly an American dish?
To me, this was like reading a documentary, which I really enjoy.
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 love to eat…… Chinese food.
Are Fortune Cookies really from China? Is Chop Suey strictly an American dish?
To me, this was like reading a documentary, which I really enjoy.
”
“I loved this. It starts following the trail of lottery winners who use fortune cookie numbers, and then does an ethnography of Chinese restaurants around the world. Three things were interesting enough for me to mark:
Leslie K wrote this review Friday, March 27 2009. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
p. 22: "Chinese cooking is not a set of dishes. It is a philosophy that serves local tastes and ingredients." It is also a set of cooking techniques.
p. 258-259: "Food is an intimate language that everyone understsnds, everyone shares. It is the primary ambassador of first contact between cultures, one that transcends spoken language. Food crosses cultural barriers. It bridges oceans. Becoming competent in a foreign language takes a lot of time, and learning a culture's history and literature requires a great deal of effort. But everyone can immediately have an opinion on food. More Americans have eaten Pad Thai than can tell you whether Thailand has a king. (It does.) And more people eat Chinese food regularly than can name a single Chinese poet or painter. Chinese restaurants have served as frontline cultural embassies for the Chinese and other Asians in Americ, paving the way for Japanese sushi, Indian curries, and Vietnamese Pho. Willingenss to try 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.
p.266-268. She makes an interesting analogy between McDonalds and Chinese food restaurants, between open-source programming and Windows. "The standardization of menus, decor, and experience [at McDonalds] is regarded as apostwar organizational triumph, coordinated from the company's Oak Brook, Illinois corporate headquarters. Chinese restaurants -- which outnumber McDonald's franchises in the United States by two to one -- have achieved thalrgely the same effect, but without a central nervous system." 266
"If McDonald's is the Windows of the dining world (where one comapny controls the standars) then Chinese restaurants are akin to the Linux operating system, where a decetnralized netework of programmers contributes to the underlying source coude. The code is available for anyone to use, modify, or redistribute freely." 268
"The speed at which these ideas can spread is breathtaking. Chop Suey -- an American creation -- blew across the coutnry in less than a decade, starting around 1896. After World War II, the fortune cookie went from a regional curiosity to a national phenomenon in about the same time span." 269”
“Musings and explorations of Chinese food, especially of the American variety, with an investigation into the origins of fortune cookies woven throughout. (Hint: they're not Chinese.) Some chapters worked better than others: for example, I liked the ones about the origins of takeout menus and the soy sauce trade wars, while I ended up thinking she was right to initially resist her editor's idea of finding the best Chinese restaurant in the world.”
JulieK wrote this review Tuesday, January 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Only got half way through this book. Parts were excellent, just didn't hold my attention. ”
Cindy M wrote this review Monday, December 29 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Fortune cookies were a Japanese invention--who'd have thought? And General Tso was a real person. This book is filled with interesting information about Chinese food and its role in American culture (and other cultures too). ”
Beth Y wrote this review Sunday, November 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
