U8UNTU! (Ubuntu) A philosophy of living through others
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 27, 2007
A South African friend made this for me for Christmas to introduce me to the humanist concept of ubuntu — which is one of those concepts that can’t be easily expressed in English (and maybe even in the Western world).
Ubuntu (which, yes, also happens to be the name of a Linux-based operating system) is something I am still trying to get my mind around. It is roughly defined as “I am because you are,” meaning that individuals need others to be fulfilled, or they live through others. Which is sort of a happy way of looking at the world.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas…in China! (And the Lost Chinese Jews of Kaifeng)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 26, 2007
From Danwei, a photo of Jews eating Chinese food on Christmas — in Beijing! The banner reads “A Warm Welcome to the Jewish Delegation’s Participation in the First Annual Beijing Christmas Chinese food banquet!” Note the little Star of Davids (filled in).
On the sign, 猶太 (youtai), in case you are wondering, means “Jewish” in contemporary Mandarin Chinese. However in Kaifeng, former capital of the Song Dynasty that’s been on a downhill slide since, there is a population of Chinese Jews (i.e. looks like me, but like supposedly “Chosen”) that moved there about a thousand years ago via the Silk Road. There, the Chinese Jews were referred as 挑ç‹æ•™ (tiaojinjiao) — “the sect/order that removes the sinew”, referring to their kosher culinary practices.
Topics: Jews & Chinese Food | No Comments »
Fortune Cookies (along with Spitzer and Ahmadinejad) in the New York Sun’s office pool?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 26, 2007
From the New York Sun’s editorial page today, an office pool for 2008:
2. The surprise breakout nonfiction bestseller of the year will be a) Natan Sharansky’s “Defending Identity” b) Jonathan Mahler’s “Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: A Historic Challenge to the President” c) Steven Waldman‘s “Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America.” d) Jonathan Rosen’s “The Life of the Skies” e) Jennifer 8. Lee‘s “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.”
Other things you can take bets on in 2008: Governor Phil Bredesen (Dem vice-presidential nominee), Conrad Black (recipient of Bush pardon), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ousted dictator).
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
More Jews and Chinese food: Christmas at Shalom Hunan, a proposed documentary
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 26, 2007
The Jews and Chinese food is a topic that never stops (that is why there is a whole chapter of it in my book!). Here is an 8-minute Youtube video, Christmas at Shalom Hunan. (Shalom Hunan, real place, in Brookline)
The description: “What do Jews do on Christmas? In many parts of the U.S., eat Chinese food! Short treatment of a proposed documentary filmed by three friends — two Jewish and one Chinese. Filmed on Christmas 2004 in New York, Florida, and North Carolina.”
Topics: Chinese Food, Jews & Chinese Food, Video | No Comments »
Christmas, Chinese food and a movie: An American Jewish Tradition
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 25, 2007
Today is Christmas, which is the single busiest day for some Chinese restaurants in the whole year (in New York, Miami, parts of LA and San Francisco) — driven by the Jews. At Manhattan’s Upper West Side Shun Lee, for example, it is twice as busy as the next busiest day. Arguably, it’s as an American Jewish a tradition as Seder on Passover. Some others have riffed off of Christmas and Chinese food. Kung Pao Kosher Comedy and Chopshticks combine comedy and gourmet Chinese Food in California.
My family is going to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas too: Tung Shing House in Rego Park, Queens. But somehow a Chinese family going to a Chinese restaurant for Christmas is not quite the same.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Available in white in five different sizes.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 25, 2007
My friend, Tim Layman, sent me an e-mail with the subject line “amazon.com” and the body “Why can you buy ‘I Love Jennifer 8. Lee’ t-shirts from there?”
I was like, what are you talking about?
He wrote back: “went on Amazon to look up your book but I searched for “Jennifer 8 Lee” instead of ‘Fortune Cookie Chronicles.’ The third item that came up as a result was a ‘I love Jennifer 8. Lee’ t-shirt. Available in white in 5 different sizes.”
So I went to Amazon, did a search on my name and at the top of the search — before Fortune Cookie Chronicles — I found the image above, which is clearly not a real t-shirt, just a image of one they could make. (It exists just in the future).
I tried to poke around and found it is from something called Direct Collection, which apparently makes lots of I <3 T-shirts (hundreds of thousands), the bestselling of which is I Love Judge Judy. Good company?
My mom, ever Chinese, was like “Did they ask your permission?” I was like, um no.
Topics: Book Musings, Quirky | No Comments »
Pastrami (“Pastsami”) and Shrimp Fried Rice from Amazing 66 — more Sino-Judaic cuisine
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 24, 2007
Another Sino-Judaic culinary adventure: as recommended by David Sax of Save the Deli fame, I tried the pastrami shrimp fried rice from Amazing 66 at 66 Mott Street in New York City’s Chinatown. Photo above, menu (with “pastsami” misspelled) below:
Basically, if you are wondering: it tastes a lot like Yangzhou fried rice, except that instead of roast pork (which is a it sweet), except with pastrami (which has more of a salty tang). Now the strange thing is: the reason you would make fried rice with pastrami (which is beef) instead of roast pork is to make it kosher, I suppose. But then they go and make it pastrami shrimp fried rice, which kinda defeats that whole idea.
Topics: Chinese Food, Jews & Chinese Food | No Comments »
My flower power cubicle
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 21, 2007
I obtained a leftover Garden in Transit decal for the floor of my cubicle. These are the same decals that were used on New York City taxis for the last several months. And no, they were not an advertisment for an Austin Powers. They were part of an artistic educational project.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Maybe there aren’t a lot of Jews in Arkansas? Huckabee and his Christmas Eve with Chinese food
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 21, 2007
A lot of my political friends have sent me this blurb on Michael Huckabee and his Christmas Chinese food tradition.
An except from a dispatch by MSNBC’s Adam Aigner-Treworgy,
“The only thing that I know that for sure we’re going to do that we have always done is we’ll go to our church Christmas Eve service,” Huckabee said. “It’s a huge community-wide celebration, and we do that every year. And then we have an unusual tradition that after the Christmas Eve service we go out and eat Chinese food. Don’t ask me why.”
Asked if the tradition is intended to help him better relate to the Jewish community — who often celebrate Christmas with egg rolls and General Tso — Huckabee said, “No, it’s Chinese food.”
He was unaware of the Jewish Christmas tradition.
Of course, why should he know? After all, there aren’t a lot of synagogues in the Arkansas Bible Belt, except for the one built by the Wal-Mart Jews.
It suppose it’s more reflective of the media that they all knew about the tradition.
Topics: Chinese Food, Jews & Chinese Food | No Comments »
Holiday presents: fancy fortune cookies made in Willie Wonka-land
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 20, 2007
So for my professional holiday presents (I don’t do personal presents generally, long Chinese story) I couldn’t resist ordering from Good Fortunes, which offers delicious special (and pricey) fortune cookies for all kinds of special occasions: Valentine’s Day, Hannukkah, Weddings, Mother’s Day, etc.
Anyway, here are the ones I gave out today. Above s their most popular set. The toffee ones are so so good. Good Fortunes also offers giant fortune cookies which are the size of footballs. They also offer a set of cookie couture clothing, like fortune cookie beaded panties (why?).
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Tasty, Charming, Breezy, Likeable. Me? No, the book. (Kidding) From Kirkus Reviews
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 20, 2007
Cary Goldstein (to reiterate, one of the best publicists in the business) just sent me a congrats for the review from Kirkus Reviews. Yay. (The food-related analogies seem to be irresistible to these writers)
Lee, Jennifer 8.
THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
A quest. With eggrolls.
Debut author Lee, a New York Times metro reporter, has been fascinated by the culturally mixed nature of Chinese restaurants ever since she discovered from reading The Joy Luck Club in middle school that fortune cookies are not Chinese. “It was like learning I was adopted while being told there was no Santa Claus,†writes this ABC (American-born Chinese), who never thought to wonder why the food in those white takeout cartons tasted nothing like Mom’s home cooking. But she didn’t become really obsessed until March 30, 2005, when a surprisingly large batch of lottery-ticket buyers across the country scored some big money in a Powerball drawing with numbers they got from fortune cookies. Lee drew up a list of the restaurants that had served the Powerball winners and used that as a jumping-off point for a trip that covered 42 states and included stops at eateries ranging from no-frills chow mein joints to upscale dim sum parlors. As she explored this vast sector of the food-service world — there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonald’s, Burger Kings and KFCs combined — she learned about the science of soy sauce, the manufacture of takeout containers and the connection between Jewish culture and Chinese food. Lee’s charming book combines the attitude and tone of two successful food industry-themed titles from 2007. Like Trevor Corson (The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, from Samurai to Supermarket), she embeds her subject’s history in an entertaining personal narrative, eschewing cookie-cutter interviews and dry lists of facts and figures. Like Phoebe Damrosch (Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter), she has a breezy, likable literary demeanor that makes the first-person material engaging. Thanks to Lee’s journalistic chops, the text moves along energetically even in its more expository sections.
Tasty morsels delivered quickly and reliably.
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
Super Chinese Delivery: Chinese hot dogs via FedEx
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 20, 2007
Here is an email from the owner of Chai Peking glatt kosher Chinese restaurant in Atlanta about my City Room post about his (yummy!) Chinese eggrolls.
A gentleman from Chicago read the article and ordered, I believe, 6 Chinese Hot Dogs to have shipped Federal Express to him.
My question. Wait. Did he freeze them? If so, how did the guy deep fry them? The Jews take their Chinese delivery very, very seriously.
Topics: Chinese Restaurants, Jews & Chinese Food | No Comments »
Fortune Cookie Christmas Ornaments! (And a Partridge in a Pear Tree)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 18, 2007
From Etsy (venue to buy and sell all things homemade), we get porcelain fortune cookies, a set of six ornaments for $30 or a set of 12 non-ornaments for $38, by Yogagoat, aka as Amanda Ryznar.
As Yogagoat describes them:
Six of my porcelain fortune cookies, wired for hanging on your holiday tree. The wires can be easily removed and replaced with your own hangers, if you don’t like the green wire. That is all they had at my tiny hardware store in town! Cookies are plain, unglazed porcelain, fired to cone 10 (2380 degrees F). They are about the size of real fortune cookies.
As she explains, she started making porcelain fortune cookies at a time in her career when she had no idea of what to make at that moment. “I remembered when Mr. Rogers went to tour a fortune cookie factory. (That is why these are being filed under ‘Random’.)”
 
Random trivia. They are colorless to prevent people (especially small children) from eating them. There are no fortunes inside, because the slips of paper would burn into a crisp inside the kiln. The best part? They come in a Chinese take-out box.
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Sino-Judaic cuisine: pastrami eggrolls and Chinese hot dogs
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 18, 2007
I have a City Room post today on pastrami eggrolls and Chinese hot dogs (beef frankfurter in egg roll skin), seen below, which is found in New York City.
This of course segues into the age-old quesiton of why Jews love Chinese food so much – a relationship that has been the subject of many a stand-up comedian’s joke, YouTube video and academic papers.
Topics: Chinese Food, Jews & Chinese Food, Quirky | No Comments »
Meeting the Jewish Male version of myself…fast forwarded a few generations
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 17, 2007
Today I got sent to cover the re-opening of the Second Avenue Deli, a revered New York City institution that was being reincarnated after shuttering two years ago at its East 10th street location. While I was there, the owner, 25-year-old Jeremy Lebewohl, pointed out a deli expert, an author who had traveled the world eating at Jewish delis. He had flown in from Toronto just to go to the opening.
I was like, my god. That’s like me and my food obsession, only male and Jewish and delis instead of female and Chinese and Chinese restaurants. (I once flew from Hong Kong to Taipei and back on the same day just to try General Tso’s chicken. The line between passion and obsession is a fine one).
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Fortune Cookie Magic Eight Ball
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 17, 2007
My friend David gave me a magic fortune cookie eight ball last year, available for $9.99.
Some of its answers
- Future sticky like rice,
- You don’t wonton know
- Answer sweet and sour
- Don’t mock the cookie
- Try the eggroll
- Cookie busy – try later
Topics: Chinese Food, Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
I’ll take a 12-pack of those…
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 15, 2007
So I have this gumball machine at my desk, which I fill with m&ms (it makes my desk a high traffic area). After much investigation online and off, I have determined that the best rate for m&ms, both peanut and plain, is from Costco. The problem is that I live in New York City and don’t have a car, so getting to Costco to buy m&ms is rather difficult. So the solution: whenever I got on a roadtrip (Miami, Seattle, Washington) and I am near a Costco, I stop by and buy 10 huge bags of m&ms and lug them home back to New York with me on the plane or the train (it weighs about 50 pounds). I was chastised by a friend by “contributing to global warming” by bringing these m&ms on the plane with me (I’m sorry). Anyway. I was in a Costco in Miami picking up m&ms, when I saw this brochure.
They also have their offerings online, which range from $1,299 to $2,999, and apparently significantly cheaper than what a local funeral home will charge you. But I must say, I have been to many Costcos in many states, an this is the first I saw where the brochures and casket samples were right where you entered the door.
Topics: Quirky | No Comments »
Is Harlem’s rezoning of 125th Street “ethnic cleansing?”
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 15, 2007
(This is an off-topic post about my neighborhood, but since it is my blog, I get to do what I want).
This Village Voice article by Maria Luisa Tucker examines the debate over the rezoning of 125th Stret , which is important to me as that is both the main street where I grew up and the main street where I live now. (I, unlike almost everyone else in the youngish New York writing world, do not live in Brooklyn).
The rezoning could transform the street into a canyon of high-rises—up to 29 stories high on the north side of the street—for luxury condos and national chain stores. The plan suggests tearing down vacant buildings as well as thriving small businesses and bringing as many as 5,700 new residents into the already congested area.
Harlem historian Michael Henry Adams has called it the biggest change to Harlem in 100 years. Developers and city planners hail the rezoning plan as a much-needed boost to the local economy. But some Harlemites call it ethnic cleansing.
There are a bunch of million+ luxury developments popping up around Harlem, near where I live, including Loft 124 (which still has 5 units left betwee $984K and $1.79 million) and 29-story Fifth on the Park with a church at its base Things in the neighborhood have changed. There is a Citarella along 125th street, which made me blink. The corner bodega where I used to wait for the M11 to go to school is now a cash-only Italian restaurant with an outdoor deck. And a few months ago, my downstairs neighbor and I (investment banker) saw a Korean-American guy walk by with golf clubs. We looked at each other and were like, “There goes the neighborhood.”
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Why hasn’t Korean cuisine gone mainstream?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 14, 2007
Earlier this week, my editor and I flew out to Ann Arbor to have dinner with a number of Borders Books and Music executives, arranged by the sales rep, Jill (yay!). The restaurant we chose was Pacific Rim, which is this nice Asian fusiony place (think adjectives like “lemongrass,” “coconut curry” and “five-spice” sprinkled out the menu which featured meats like raw tuna, duck and lamb). So they asked me to comment on the food, which I really couldn’t because it wasn’t very Chinese, except for the “five-spice.” I made two comments, a straight Chinese restaurant couldn’t charge that much for entrees (mid-$20s) because Americans just generally refuse to pay that much for Chinese food, something that has sunk many an ambitious Chinese restaurateur. And the other thing I noticed, which surprised me for a restaurant like this, was that the chopsticks were flat and metal, Korean-style. Turns out that Pacific Rim used to be a family-owned Korean restaurant, which then evolved when the couple’s son took over.
Which then got us into another point, which is that Korean food is really one of the last break-out Asian cuisines in America. After all, urban-y Americans will frequently head out for Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Indian. But Korean restaurants still remain largely venues for Koreans.
I’m not sure why Korean cuisine hasn’t taken off, and neither are others. It’s probably a combination of supply and demand. Perhaps because Korean immigrants, in New York City at least, have focused on delis and nail salons instead of restaurants. So you don’t get that influx of cheap Korean restaurants you see with Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. Korean food can actually quite pricey compared to the others when you order the grilled BBQ dishes. Some theories are that Korean food hasn’t been “dumbed down” or “Westernized” enough and thus the palate is slightly off for Americans — too spicy, too kim chee-y, too garlicky. You can kind of tell this in that there are no standardized mainstream names for the Korean dishes (i.e. Vietnamese “summer rolls”) or the dish names are not common enough to be thrown around (“pad thai” and “teriyaki”). In contrast, Chinese dishes have done a pretty good job over the years making their names accessible. Beef with broccoli is, well, beef with broccoli. Chicken with cashew nuts, etc. Exception: with shrimp in lobster sauce, there is no lobster in “lobster sauce.” Lobster sauce is the sauce that lobster would be cooked in. (So the funny thing is that in other parts of the country, you will often stumble upon Japanese and Chinese restaurants owned by Koreans).
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Has Bloomberg really eaten in the 2,500 Chinese restaurants in New York City?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 12, 2007
In a speech at Shanghai’s Fudan University on Wednesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg observed that there are 2,500 Chinese restaurants in New York City and “I think I’ve been to most of them.”
Well, he is Jewish.
Topics: Chinese Food, Chinese Restaurants, Jews & Chinese Food | No Comments »
There ain’t much else to do on Christmas except eat Chinese food if you’re a Jew
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 12, 2007
Brandon Harris Walker‘s hilarious music video, Chinese Food on Christmas, has already gotten over half a million views.
The chorus (as much as I was able to transcribe it):
We eat Chinese food on Christmas.
Go to the movie theater too.
Because there is not much else to do on Christmas,
If you’re a Jew.
Topics: Jews & Chinese Food, Video | No Comments »
What do they serve for dessert in Istanbul Chinese restaurants — fried gelato
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 11, 2007
This is what they serve instead of fortune cookies in Istanbul Chinese restaurants: fried gelato (which is also apparently what all Chinese restaurants in Italy serve for dessert, according to my Italian downstairs neighbor).
Because there are not a lot of Chinese immigrants in Turkey, Chinese food tends to be a bit upscale since you don’t have a non-local-language-speaking population driving down the quality. Here is a list of some of the top Chinese restaurants in Istanbul.
Topics: Chinese Restaurants | No Comments »
My galley, still on world tour, in Istanbul
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 11, 2007
My galleys continue their world tour, I guess. This is in front of the Istanbul’s Blue Mosque. I guess it goes to say that anyone who wants to send me a picture of my book in a weird place, please send it in.
Topics: Book Musings, Fujianese | No Comments »
Fortune Cookie USB Drives from Valavo can save your memories (in bed)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 7, 2007
I really feel like the photo says it all . But go to Valavo‘s site for more info (comes in grden, red, and blue)
Topics: Fortune Cookies, Quirky | No Comments »
Petraeus has nothing on Tso
By Jennifer 8. Lee | December 4, 2007
I thought this article from The Times Record-Herald by Steve Israel had a very telling line:
 Pine Bush — Why did a real, live U.S. Army general — with two black stars on his chest — jet to Pine Bush High School yesterday?
After all, the only general most schools around here see is General Tso chicken.
But yesterday Maj. Gen. Tom Bostick, escorted by seven soldiers, journeyed from Fort Knox, Ky., to honor 147 kids who this summer graduated from a program that aims to make them better citizens — the Leadership and Law Academy.
Topics: General Tso | No Comments »