The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

  • #26 on the New York Times Best Seller List
    and featured on The Colbert Report, Martha Stewart, TED.com, CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose Tomorrow, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR stations coast to coast. Also selected for Borders Original Voices and Book Sense. Follow me on Twitter! Fan me on Facebook.

    • Archive for March, 2008

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    Meat vs. Rice, American Manhood against Asiatic Coolieism, Which Shall survive?

    Monday, March 17th, 2008

    So I spoke at the Library of Congress today. (Packed room! maybe 150 or so people, with people standing in the back. Sometimes I think, who are all these people and how did you hear about the book?) Anyway, Abby Yochelson, a librarian there, pulled some documents from my bibliography, including this one.  It is […]

    Fortune Cookie Chronicles E-card

    Monday, March 17th, 2008

    My publisher designed an e-card!

    How to minimize reading at “readings”

    Sunday, March 16th, 2008

    I’m running around trying to pack and get all the logistics together before goig o tour. (The itinerary roughly goes Washington –> Philly –> Boston –> San Francisco/Bay Area –> Los Angeles –>Seattle). I have packed for two weeks at a time while doing research for my book. Packing for two weeks if no one […]

    Amazon ranking #8×8

    Sunday, March 16th, 2008

    So this was a couple of days ago (on the Tuesday, March 11), where a nice convergence of the tail end of Colbert and a favorable write-up in the New York Times Book Review sent it up to #64 (which my friend Shawn noted is 8-squared) for part of the day.

    LATimes: “a deeply enjoyable meal, for anyone who likes talking or thinking about food.”

    Sunday, March 16th, 2008

    Seth Faison has a review in today’s Los Angeles Times, which focuses a lot on the authenticity aspect of the food. I don’t think this review was on our radar (sometimes you know when a book review is timed to run, and as in this case, sometimes you don’t). My Google alert actually picked this […]

    It’s my birthday and all I want to do is sleep

    Saturday, March 15th, 2008

    I have a  one day respite between New York City publicity (which happens to be my birthday). Dinner tonight with my closest friends and then book tour  starts tomorrow. It goes Washington –> Philly –> Boston –> San Francisco –> Los Angeles –> Seattle –> (Home in NYC for a few days) –> Chicago. Put […]

    Jeff Yang: on books and babies.

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

    Jeff Yang, the founder of A. Magazine and a columist for Sfgate.com, has a piece interweaving The Fortune Cookie Chronicles and raising his sons. We had an hour-long interview before I ran out for a TV shoot on Saturday where he told me he liked my book. I was like, if there is one person […]

    Now 40% off on Amazon

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

    Not sure why, but Amazon just upped the discount on The Fortune Cookie Chronicles from 34% to 40%.

    Salon: “An attitude of amused observation, obsessive reporting, anthropological curiosity”

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

    Nina Lalli does a Q&A with me for Salon, which was picked up on the front page of Yahoo! How the fortune cookie crumbles Is Chinese food as American as apple pie? Jennifer 8. Lee discusses the strange evolution of everyone’s favorite ethnic food. By Nina Lalli Mar. 11, 2008 | As a teenager, New […]

    Boston Globe: An author’s quest for identity.

    Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

    Emily Schwab writes a lovely piece today in The Boston Globe about me and my quest for identity through Chinese food. I met with Emily last November during my pre-pub tour at Changsho in Cambridge and we had a lovely time. So this is one of the longest pieces in development on this book.

    Confucius say, you will be arrested today for something stupid

    Monday, March 10th, 2008

    Police were able to arrest two robbery suspects in Tulsa, Oklahoma because they found matching fortune cookies from the robbed Chinese restaurant and in the crooks’ pockets, according to this Associated Press story. The crooks loved fortune cookies so much, that not only did they take money they grabbed fortune cookies on their way out […]

    Hartford Courant: “difficult to imagine a more satisfying book”

    Sunday, March 9th, 2008

    The Hartford Courant publishes a review by Steve Weinberg. Nice phrases: “Alternately breezy and cerebral, it serves as an appetizer platter, a bowl of hot and sour soup, an array of main dishes, tea and dessert — simultaneously.” and “Flashes of insight punctuate the text.” He has his criticism about the writing and structure, which […]

    Breaking Amazon’s #100 barrier

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Yes. I obsess about my Amazon ranking, like every new author does. It’s like watching a stock ticker, which updates every hour (if you are in the top 1,000?) and every day otherwise. (My dad obsesses too, once I told him there was something to watch. We are very goal-oriented people), Today, just now, The […]

    My Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World, on the brink of bankruptcy?

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    So the restaurant that I picked as the “Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World” is struggling and may be on the verge of bankruptcy, according to the Vancouver Sun, which is really sad. Sam Lau’s business (like many Vancouver Chinese restaurants) is being hammered by cheap flights to Hong Kong and the weakness of the […]

    Bloomberg: Lee whets our appetites with light, easy-to-digest stories.

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Bloomberg News moved a review by Yvette Ferreol. It’s interesting to me how much the business press has taken to it: Forbes (the meanest review I got), Fast Company, now Bloomberg. March 6 (Bloomberg) — China’s Qing-dynasty hero Zuo Zongtang, aka General Tso, probably never had fried chicken. At least not the deep-fried boneless kind […]

    The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, in Chinese!

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    So The World Journal (the largest Chinese language newspaper in the country) ran a piece on me earlier in the week. (My mom did send them a press release, though. Yay moms) 美國新聞 中國菜緊緊抓住美國胃 李競新書「幸運籤餅記事」：中國菜的故事反映美國的故事 【本 報訊】最新一期「新聞周刊」報導，美國人愛吃中國菜，但正如 「紐約時報」記者李競 (Jennifer 8. Lee)在新書「幸運籤餅記事」(The Fortune Cookie Chronicles)所描述的那樣，美國人所謂的中國菜，就連許多中國人都不認得。其中，雜碎根本是美國發明的，而幸運籤餅則來自日本，就連美國最大的 中餐館供應業者Kari-Out製造的豆漿，也根本不是大豆做的。 李競指出，中國菜的吸引力來自它的雙重性質：既有地域性又有普遍性，來自外國而又熟悉。它讓美國人可以放心嚐新，卻仍可固守自己的文化傳統。 雖然中餐館遍布韓國、祕魯、印度、日本、墨西哥和牙買加等中國移民;多的地區，可是誰都無法與美國人對中國菜的熱愛相提並論。 美國人這麼喜愛這種沒有真正族裔性質的「族裔」料理，其原因來自：隨著大批移民引進，從而演變成融合各種文化矛盾的大雜燴，而中國菜在美國的故事也恰恰在許多方面反映出美國本身的故事。 自從一八四○ – 一八五○年代的淘金熱以來，中國移民源源不斷來到美國，但種族偏見使他們只能當礦工和鐵路工人，以及做「煮飯、洗衣這些不威脅白人勞工的女人工作」。因此，在1885年紐約市只有六家中餐館，20年後則迅速增加到一百多家。 李 競說，現在來到美國的移民，如果非法居留且又不懂英文，就很可能來到紐約華埠，並透過這裡的職業介紹所到全美各地中餐館打工。他們對這些餐館裡賣的中國菜 一定覺得不可思議。李競說，道地中國菜經常帶骨、帶殼，全魚連眼睛都會保留，比較多青菜，比較少肉和少油，更不會有五彩繽紛的醬料。 她說： […]

    Rocky Mountain News gives The Fortune Cookie Chronicles an A!

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    John C. Ensslin reviews The Fortune Cookie Chronicles in The Rocky Mountain News and gives the book an A. I’m like goodness, I haven’t received a grade since senior semester of college! Most interesting critique…the hunt for the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world. Thinks it’s labor intensive (it was) and doesn’t add that much […]

    San Francisco Chronicle: “Prose is thrown out in confident tendrils”

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Wow. The San Francisco Chronicle got the co-founder of Booktour.com, Kevin Smokler, to review my book. (I’m actually in the process right now of figuring out how to convert my .xml file of appearances into a .csv template for book events so I can put events on booktour.com. So booktour.com is on my mind) I […]

    NYTBR: Wok On and podcast!

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    The New York Times Book Review runs its review of my book this Sunday by Jan and Michael Stern. It’s already online now and it actually closed 10 days ago, on a Wednesday. (The Book Review, like the Magazine, has a incredible close-to-distribution lag, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear to me but may involve […]

    Wisconsin Public Radio on the origin of the fortune cookie

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Here is the mp3 of an interview I did on the origin of the fortune cookie on Wisconsin Public Radio a week ago, along with Eric Hagiwara, for their Friday food program. (I know. Delay. Book craziness. Why else am I catching up on blogging on a Saturday morning at 6 a.m.?!). They liked me […]

    Preparing for The Colbert Report

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Here is my explanation of what it’s like to prepare for The Colbert Report on The Huffington Post: Don’t try to be funny. That was the piece of advice that was repeatedly given to me when my friends first heard I was booked on The Colbert Report to talk about my book on Chinese food […]

    NYT on MSG and Umami

    Saturday, March 8th, 2008

    Julia Moskin has a lovely explanatory piece on MSG in Wednesday’s Times. (Sorry for delay, but book craziness). I do touch on MSG and the concept of umami, the fifth taste, in my book in the soy sauce trade wars chapter. I use MSG in my cooking sometimes. We call it weijing. China is actually […]

    Introducing fortune cookies to China

    Thursday, March 6th, 2008

    During my trip to China, I took along boxes of Wonton Food’s fortune cookies and gave them out to Chinese people along the way. This is a compilation of their reactions. (The people here are from Houyu, Kaifeng, Shenzhen and Changsha).

    Boston.com chat transcript.

    Thursday, March 6th, 2008

    Yesterday I did an hour-long chat on Boston.com. Lots of questions of General Tso and Stephen Colbert.  The slideshow apparently drove a lot of traffic too.

    Airbrushing before a TV appearance

    Thursday, March 6th, 2008

    Make-up artist (holding a menacing metallic device): Have you ever been airbrushed? Me (looking at aforementioned device): Um, not to my knowledge. I thought airbrushing was something they do only after a photo is taken? Apparently not.

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