Fortune Cookie Chronicles on CNN with Lola Ogunnaike (and a Jack-o-Melon).
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 12, 2008
CNN ran a segment on Chinese food in America by my former colleague Lola Ogunnaike. Produced by the lovely Ethel Bass. We actually filmed at an Empire Szechuan, a descendent of the original restaurant that sparked the delivery revolution. I asked Lola what was different from print and television, and one of the things is how much logistics are involved. For a two-minute segment it took two guys with three cameras three hours to get all the footage.
My favorite story of the afternoon: one of the cameramen lives in Queens. A few years ago during the fall, his friendly next door neighbors (who were Chinese) gave him and his wife a winter melon, a popular Chinese vegetable. The camera man and his wife didn’t know what to do with it, so they hollowed it out, carved a face in it — a jack o-melon.
Because that is what Americans do with gourds: make pie or a Halloween decoration.
The Chinese neighbors were highly amused.
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Fortune Cookie Chronicles, a catalyst for love?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 12, 2008
This is the most adorable fan mail a writer could have hoped to get.
My girlfriend and I love you. You were actually part of the reason we ended
up a couple and The Fortune Cookie Chronicles was one of the first gifts we
bought each other.
He promised to tell me the story another time. (I’m very curious). But the favor he asked: to send an email to her for her birthday and somehow refer to Chinese food.
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Today is the day I guess I get kicked off the NYT bestseller list
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 9, 2008
So Wednesday afternoons, the NYT bestsellers are revealed. Today the list comes out for the the week closing Saturday, April 5, and I think after a happy three-week run, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles will fall off the extended list.
After popping in at #26 during my second week of publication, the last two weeks, I have squeaked in at #34 and #33 without expecting to make it. So I feel like the girl who got the surprise bronze medal (who is generally happier than the person who gets the unexpected silver medal, except for Paul Wylie in 1992, the happiest silver medal).
The burst of April books is likely to push it off, plus I can sense from my Amazon ranking it’s slowing, but not too badly, just enough to tip it over. Fortune Cookie Chronicles is just chugging along…
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Washpost: Where Lee really shines, though, is in describing the people who have cooked, served and delivered America’s favorite cuisine
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 9, 2008
Christine Y. Chen writes a lovely review in The Washington Post (so she too is not excited about the round-the-world chapter).
So now The Fortune Cookie Chronicles have been reviewed by all the major papers (+ the AP!) except The Wall Street Journal…which I doubt would review it anyway (and we haven’t heard any rumblings of such).
The Chinese Food Diaspora
By Christine Y. Chen,
a contributing writer at Foreign Policy magazine
Wednesday, April 9, 2008; C04
THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES
Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
By Jennifer 8. Lee
Twelve. 307 pp. $24.99
When the Chinese greet their friends, it’s rarely with a simple “hello” or “how are you?” Instead, their first words are: “Ni chi fan le ma?” or, “Have you eaten yet?” In Chinese culture, food doesn’t exist merely for physical nourishment; it’s fundamental to social interactions and relationships. In other words, food is necessary for the body and for the soul.
It’s a maxim that Jennifer 8. Lee, author of “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,” knows well. (Her middle “number,” by the way, connotes prosperity to the Chinese.) “The vocabulary words that Chinese-American kids . . . know best,” she writes, “are almost always related to food.” In her engaging first book, Lee, an American born to Chinese immigrant parents, puts that food-related vocabulary to good use by embarking on a three-year journey across six continents, 23 countries and 42 states to discover how and why Chinese cuisine became ubiquitous. After all, as Lee notes, “There are some forty thousand Chinese restaurants in the United States — more than the number of McDonald’s, Burger Kings, and KFCs combined.”
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4.85 stars on Amazon
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
Today I got my 20th review on Amazon (it’s a really short one though), so now the book has 17 five-star and 3 four-star ratings, which computes to 4.85 (and thus rounds up to 5 stars).
I feel like I’m computing some kind of GPA.
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Yay Amy Harmon and Anne Hull.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
Two friends, both women journalists whom I have admired very much for the humanity and narrative grace in their writing, won Pulitzers today: Amy Harmon of The New York Times and Anne Hull of The Washington Post.
Amy Harmon won for her series on the age of DNA in the category of explanatory reporting.
Anne Hull was part of the team that won for a series on Walter Reed Hospital’s treatment of veterans for public service (which technically goes to the paper, and not the individual reporters, but still everyone knows it was Anne Hull and Dana Priest).
I’ve tried to learn from their work over the years, and it epitomizes the intelligence and talkibility of work I would like to strive for. Their body of work has been so strong over the years that it is wonderful to see it recognized (Anne has been a finalist more than anyone I know, sometimes twice in a single year). And they are both charming wonderful people who could not deserve such happy things more.
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My first reported airplane sighting…
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
An email from a friend, Dan Rosenheck. I’ve had subway/BART/commuter transit sightings before, but this is new. Yay.
I’m sitting down at JFK next to this girl who’s flying down to Buenos Aires…and she’s ripping open a copy of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles! She said she got it because she’s a fan of your work in the Times.Â
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Doing an all-day radio tour…by phone
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
Today I am doing an insane tour by phone set up via Newman Communications, a PR firm that specializes in (among other things) literary radio and satellite television tours. They essentially hook you up with radio programs (mostly live, some pre-taped) coast to coast on a very tight schedule. It has to be done over a landline, and I don’t have a landline, so I had to crash at my friend’s place to use the phone. Same place where I watched the Super Tuesday returns as I do not have a television either.
Here is the schedule for today.
- 4/7 7:40 am WMJI-FM/Cleveland OH 10 min live w/Lanigan & Malone, 50,000 watt FM
4/7 8:30 am KCBS-AM/San Francisco CA 10 min live w/Morning Show, 50,000 watt AM
4/7 9:10 am Cable Radio Network – CRN National National 10 min live w/ Jack Roberts
4/7 9:20 am WKZL-FM Greensboro NC 10 minute live w/ Murphy in the Morning
4/7 10:00 am WMHX-FM/Harrisburg PA 20 min live w/Diane Grey, top-rated FM
4/7 10:30 am 30 min taped with WGTD-FM Milwaukee WI w/ Greg Berg for Morning Show
4/7 11:05 am *KCMN-AM/Colorado Springs CO 10 min live w/Tron Simpson, top-rated AM
4/7 11:40 am KZOK-FM/Seattle WA 10 min live w/Bob Rivers, 50,000 watt FM
4/7 12:20 pm Lifestyle Radio Network – national 20 min live w/Frankie Boyer, nationally syndicated
4/7 5:30 pm WINA-AM/Charlottesville VA 30 min live w/Coy Barefoot, top-rated AM
4/7 10:00 PM *WLW-AM/Cincinnati OH 30 min live w/Scott Sloan, 50,000 watt AM
Topics: Appearances, Media & Interviews | No Comments »
My first (and only?) review in a college paper, the Harvard Crimson
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
Denise Xu of The Harvard Crimson writes a largely flattering review of my book. (It’s my alma mater paper).
Her quibbles again concern the structure and the overwhelming amount of information. Imagine if it didn’t have the fortune cookie thread to tie it all together (Ihe original proposal did not), how much more confusing it would be. Also, she was not a fan of the Greatest Chinese Restaurant chapter….whose merits can be debated (I ultimately think it was a good thing).
‘Fortune Cookie’ a Wisdom Stuffed Delicacy
Published On 4/3/2008 10:05:31 PM
Hidden beneath the numerous cards, tickets, and to-do lists stuffed in my wallet, taped onto your refrigerator above that painting from second grade, buried beneath papers in some drawer, are sage pieces of advice with a humble origin: a bite-sized baked cookie. These small cookies, however, have quite a big story. In “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food,†Jennifer 8. Lee ’98-’99, a New York Times Reporter, embarks on a journey that bridges many centuries, many countries, many people, and many other staple Chinese-American dishes in retelling the often dramatic, always intriguing history of the fortune cookie. Thoroughly researched and surprisingly artistic and imaginative, Lee’s four-year search weaves through the complex history of the Chinese food industry in the United States and discovers much of interest.
more »
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Projections are I will get my life back in about late June…
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
Based on my calendar. Apologies to everyone who is falling by the wayside :(.
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So you want to publish a book? Panel discussion tomorrow, April 8
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 7, 2008
The New York Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is holding a panel tomorrow, called “So you want to publish a book? A panel for your book publishing fantasies to come true.”
We will cover:
Â
·        What do you need to get started?
·        How much research is required?
·        Common mistakes writers make.
·        What comes first, the publisher or the book?
·        How do you find a publisher for a book?
Â
And other questions.
Panelists so far:
- Geeta Anand, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer with The Wall Street Journal, Author of ‘The Cure’
- Jennifer 8. Lee, New York Times writer for Metro Section, Author of ‘The Fortune Cookie Chronicles’
- Kevin Kwan, book packager and creative consultant, Author of ‘Luck: The Essential Guideâ€
Location and exact time still to be announced.
Topics: Appearances, Book Musings | No Comments »
Is Fortune Cookie Chronicles a Borders Original Voices Choice?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 6, 2008
Went to Chicago for a talk at Northwestern in the Chicago area for the Taiwanese students confeence, so (like a diligent little author) IÂ went around to all these Chicago bookstores to sign stock. There were only two of eight copies left at the Evanston Barnes and Noble.
And then I discovered something surprising. Apparently, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a Borders Original Voices, which gives it a nice 20 percent discount (unbeknownst to me). As of two weeks ago in San Francisco, it was not at the Borders in Union Square (though they were also sold out in the front, so maybe it was, and I didn’t know it because the ones in the back did not have the 20% off  sticker).
So I did some reading on Nexis. The Original Voices program and the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers programs are interesting. According to this 1996 New York Times article (pre-Amazon age, read it, it’s quaint), both are part co-op funded promotional programs. The publishers submit titles to be considered for the premium space for pay and the stores then approve or don’t approve.
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Lessons from TV
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 5, 2008
This is what I have learned over the last few weeks re television/video appearances.
You do not dress for television the way you would dress in real life (or at least I don’t).
For women, wear bright (but not too bright) solid colored tops: Royal blue, wine, maroon, emerald green. Pastels can be good (but not on me, my friends have discovered). You want to avoid stripes, dots, any of those crazy 1960s’ patterns. Blacks are bad, because it looks flat (and doubly bad for me too because my hair is black). White are bad, because it can cause this moiré kind of effect on screen. And certain bright reds are bad because they bleed on the screen.
When I got the email advising not to wear black, white or red I was like, “That’s 90 percent of my wardrobe!†So my friend Tomoko took me on a last minute shopping trip to Uniqlo/Banana Republic before my Colbert appearance. As she put it, Jenny is good at many things, but shopping is not one of them.
more »
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Asian American Heritage Month is in May!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 5, 2008
So May is coming up, which is Asian American Heritage Month (these “heritage months “are a funny American thing). This happens to be good timing because I’ve been asked to speak about my book at a bunch of Asian American events, some in companies where there are not that many Asian Americans running about — yet the multicultural or inclusion committee are trying to raise awareness or educate or something. (Many of the people who are contacting me are not themselves genetically Asian, which I find interesting).
So if anyone is wondering, yes, I’m willing to be professionally diverse.
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Unfortunate Cookies (the rejects)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 3, 2008
Tsue Chong company (which makes rose-brand fortune cookies) in Seattle sells bags of rejected fortune cookies for like $7.25 a pop. These are the fortune cookies that go by too quickly to be folded (think Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory)Â I was brought there by the MSG150 crew after lunch.
I thought the sign speaking of them as “unfortunate” was particularly amusing.
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OC Register: confronted by a wall of me-ness
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 2, 2008
Richard Chang brought me physical copies of the paper where his Q&A with me ran. I have to say, I was kind of overwhelmed with the amount of me that was on that page. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of myself that large before.
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Elle Magazine Readers’ Book of the Month for April
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 2, 2008
Yay. Elle Magazine’s April book of the month as determined by readers. Good news. “Elle Lettres” (not Letters, as it is a play on Belles Lettres, notes my friend Michael Grynbaum). They have one pro review, and one negative review, always. I thought the criticism was interesting — on structure and juxtaposition.
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Asia Society Event in NYC, April 16, with Fucshia Dunlop
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 2, 2008
More excuses to eat! $15 for members/students and $30 for non-members, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., 725 Park Avenue at East 70th Street.
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Home on the red eye! Back to NYC.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 1, 2008
Caught a red eye after my Elliott Bay event in Seattle (yay Jetblue) straight to JFK and showed up for work on Tuesday morning to blog. One neat convenience of being little is that I can sleep pretty well on planes. What I do: I tuck my feet into the pocket where all the in-flight magazines are kept and I just curl up in a fetal position and sleep. It’s actually bad if I have too much leg room because then my feet don’t reach.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
The Underground Onepot Dinner in Seattle with Fold-Pak menus!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 1, 2008
The underground dinner in Seattle via Onepot.org was held in this discrete loft entertainment space in a semi-industrial area in Seattle. Yay Michael Hebberoy for organizing and Jerry Traunfeld + Xuan Che for cooking, and Jerry’s partner, Steven (sp?), for designing the adorable menus with the Fold-Pak motif!
Topics: Book Musings, Chinese Food | No Comments »
It was snowing in Seattle…in March
By Jennifer 8. Lee | April 1, 2008
My plane to Seattle from Los Angeles was delayed because of snow (?!). Talk about climate shock.
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Nixon’s Chopsticks, and Peking Duck Diplomacy
By Jennifer 8. Lee | March 31, 2008
President Nixon’s chopsticks on display at the Nixon Library. Of course, his historic 1972 visit to China spurred a huge interest in Chinese food, especially Peking duck. Restaurant owners told me, with only slight exaggeration, that lines outside their restaurants formed overnight as a result of his visit.
 I actually added this photo to my presentation after I got to the library to make it sort of relevant to Nixon.
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The deluge….just catching up.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | March 31, 2008
If you’ve noticed an insane number of blog posts today (I count at least 10, which is a record), that is because I am hurrying up to catch up with all these events that I have pictures fromt (also the Nixon Library gave me an insane number of separate blog posts). I also didn’t have great Internet connection for a few days, so I wrote them on my computer and finally am adding them.
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The butt-to-seat ratio, the key to readings
By Jennifer 8. Lee | March 31, 2008
I’ve discovered at my events that it’s really not about the absolute number of people who show up (though that’s important), but more, it’s about the butt-to-seat ratio in the room. See above at Skylight Bookstore in Los Angeles. There were probably only 30 seats, but then a lot of people showed up from hearing me on the radio (it never ceases to amaze me that people will hear other people on the radio and show up to hear them speak that day.)
If there are too many empty seats, it dissipates the energy and makes the presentation flat. It is also a statement about the attendance relative to expectations. (Remember Jenny’s formula to life: Happiness = Reality – Expectations. Expectations > Reality → -Happiness (which is Unhappiness)
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Libraries versus publishers…how business models change
By Jennifer 8. Lee | March 31, 2008
When I spoke at the San Francisco Public Library, the woman who arranged the event (Joan) mentioned that the book had been very popular in the Bay Area. They had ordered about 40 copies of my book and all of them were out. Plus there were 71 holds (i.e. a waiting list) on those copies, so the library was planning on order more.
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