Print'The Fortune Cookie Chronicles'
I never gave much thought to Chinese food before moving away from the Midwest. Hot and sour soup, chop suey, sweet, sweet General Tso's chicken—all followed by a fortune cookie—well, isn't that just what folks ate in China? After landing on the East Coast, I was shocked to discover my beloved crab rangoon missing from the menus of Chinese restaurants here.
"You do know those aren't authentically Chinese, don't you?" my girlfriend said after I had complained about the subject once too often. "Come on: cream cheese? Deep-fried in wonton skins? That's clearly American Chinese food."
After the scales had fallen from my eyes, I wondered what else on the menus of typical U.S. Chinese restaurants was invented for American tastes—and what, exactly, the story was behind crab rangoon. So when I learned in late 2005 that New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee had just signed a book deal to write The Fortune Cookie Chronicles—an account of Chinese food in America—I knew all I had to do was sit back and wait for it to come out.
Well, the book's out on shelves this week, and the first thing I did upon receiving it was page through for the chapter on crab rangoon (right). No dice. They're mentioned only in passing.
What the book does cover is almost everything else that has to do with Chinese food, from the origins of iconic American Chinese dishes (the aforementioned chop suey and General Tso's) to the immigrant experience to the search for the best Chinese restaurant in the world outside greater China, which takes Lee to Los Angeles, London, Dubai, Paris, Lima, Mumbai, and Jamaica, among other places (she finally finds it Vancouver, British Columbia).
This globe-hopping is reflected in the structure of the book, which jumps from thought to thought—sometimes jarringly, as when Lee switches from a breezy-sounding chapter on the links between Jewish and Chinese people to one about the plight of illegal immigrants aboard a ship that's been run aground. As such, Fortune Cookie Chronicles reads more like a collection of newspaper or magazine articles than a single cohesive volume. You could almost page to any chapter and read it on its own without sacrificing much in back story—not surprising given Lee's background in newspapers, where each article is by nature self-contained.
And for a book that centers on food, Lee's descriptions of the fare left me wanting more—particularly in the travelogue chapter, where she flies to all corners of the globe and writes more about the decor of the restaurants she visits than the food eaten. So don't buy this book if you're in the market for a where-to-eat guide—not that it claims to be one.
All that's not to say that there aren't any narrative arcs in the book or that it's not a fascinating read. The search for the true origins of the fortune cookie becomes the de facto theme, broken up into five chapters peppered throughout the book, and Lee deserves major props for finding what appears to be certain proof of where and when they first materialize. (If you thought California in the early 1900s, as I did, you'd be wrong.)
Apart from the fortune cookie hunt, the other truly interesting parts of the book for me ended up being those that dealt with the peripheral aspects of Chinese food—the chapter on the distinctive shape of Chinese take-out containers in the U.S. (right); the one on the little-known soy sauce trade war, which ended quietly and almost unnoticed in 2005; and the quirky chapter that covers who, exactly, writes the fortunes that end up in your cookies.
Further Reading
- Lee has been keeping a blog associated with the book, Fortune Cookie Chronicles, which has many more entertaining and informative tidbits on it.
- If you hurry, Boston.com is hosting a live chat with Lee today (March 5) at 4 p.m. ET
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10 Comments:
Favorite Colbert quote from her appearance on the show last night.
"I have some beef, actually some beef and broccoli, with your book."
Erin Zimmer at 4:07PM on 03/05/08
I had my first crab rangoon a year or two ago, in Maine. My sister-in-law thought I was kidding when I said I'd never heard of them or had them, and was shocked, shocked that they weren't standard on NYC Chinese menus.
BaHa at 6:15PM on 03/05/08
Hmmm...does she discuss the origins of C. Rangoon? Local lore has it that it was invented by Dubois Chen cooking at the long-gone Trader Vic's in St. Louis. From Vietnam, Chen was a cook for the French navy, back in the day when Vietnam was a French colony. Will be looking forward to the book from Lee, who's a fine writer.
lemons at 11:33PM on 03/05/08
It's true... I've been to China and chinese food in China is NOTHING like what we have grown to love here in America. You'll only see broccoli at breakfast. The dim sums and dumplings are nasty over there. And meat-free dishes to them is basically a plate of bok choy.
They always give you as dessert segments of oranges - not even in the fancy restaurants you'll see fortune cookies. None at all.
MadelynRodriguez at 11:39PM on 03/05/08
@lemons: 8. Lee didn't discuss the origins of crab rangoon; the appetizer was just mentioned in passing. In an email exchange with her at one point, she did mention the Trader Vic's origins—though I seem to remember that she mentioned Vic's in general and not St. Louis specifically. Very interesting about Dubois Chen. Would explain why it's a Midwestern thing ...
Adam Kuban at 8:43AM on 03/06/08
hmm...we need a restaurant chain serving American Chinese food in China to perpetuate the myths and serve misguided American tourists so they won't be subjected to disillusionment.
economyrice at 11:23AM on 03/06/08
@MadelynRodriguez: I think it's a stretch to jump from whatever limited experience you had with the food there to a blanket statement of "the dim sums and dumplings are nasty over there." The truth is that actual Chinese food and American-style Chinese food can both be crazy delicious or bad, depending on the chef's/restaurant's skill.
And perhaps I should have mentioned it, but Jennifer 8. Lee's book did cover the fact that fortune cookies, which seem to have been invented elsewhere but were popularized in the U.S., have never quite caught on outside the States. So it's no surprise that you see the orange slices after a meal rather than fortune cookies.
Adam Kuban at 3:46PM on 03/06/08
Thanks for the post - this was really interesting and the live chat is posted now, with even more fascinating info.
Also, MadelynRodriguez, I don't know where you went in China, but when I went I was stuck in a tour bus and they only stopped at restaurants where other tour buses stopped. If I never see another orange slice again I'll be happy. However, once we were out on our own in Guangzhou (I visited relatives) and my cousin was able to take us to "authentic" places, the quality of the food went way, way up.
toastykitten at 8:28PM on 03/06/08
This looks like a totally enjoyable book! The best Chinese food I ever had was in Chinatown in San Francisco. But I guess that too was Americanized.
Aisling at 5:46PM on 03/09/08
For the absolute best Chinese cuisine on the south shore.........south of Boston that is........try the Beijing House in Norwell. The food, atmosphere and cleanliness is superb.
Boscompb at 1:13PM on 03/10/08