One woman.
One great mystery.
One consuming obsession.
40,000 restaurants.
There are more Chinese restaurants in this country than McDonalds, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken combined.
In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, author Jennifer 8. Lee takes readers on a remarkable journey that is both foreign and familiar: penetrating this subculture by traveling the world (and almost every American state) in her quest to understand Chinese food and the people who make it.
Her journey took her to the hometown of General Tso (a military hero immortalized as much for crunchy chicken as his conquests), the surprising origins of the fortune cookie (it’s not China), and to six continents in search for the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant. The book also sparks debates as to who really invented chop suey and why Jews love Chinese food, or as she puts it: Why is chow mein the chosen food of the chosen people?
The book is a tribute to immigrants and to America. If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie? Now how often do you eat Chinese food?