Food for Thought is an occasional series covering creative works that are connected to a food issue or trend. See more.
Earlier in the summer, I read Jennifer 8. Lee’s The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Within the first few pages, I was floored by this sentiment:
“American Chinese food is predictable, familiar, and readily available. It has a broad appeal to the national palate. It is something nearly everyone nowadays has grown up with – both young and old…Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie. But ask yourself: How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Chinese food?”
Thought-provoking, right? I enjoyed reading about each segment of her quest to understand Chinese food in America, from historical anecdotes to more personal discoveries. A former New York Times reporter, Lee turns thorough, detailed research into engaging storytelling. Here are a few paraphrased tidbits from the book:
- A Chinese restaurant on the Upper West Side of New York pioneered food delivery in the mid 1970’s
- Origins of the fortune cookie are disputed, but likely point back to Japan instead of China
- One time, 110 people across 29 states all won the Powerball just from playing numbers they found on a fortune cookie
- Chop suey exploded as a “national addiction” around 1900, which was what started the proliferation of Chinese restaurants
- General Tso’s chicken is a completely American dish
- One company in New Jersey makes the vast majority of soy sauce packets, chopsticks, and white cartons distributed throughout the country
- Lee’s search for the greatest Chinese restaurant outside China culminated at a Vancouver strip mall
You can find The Fortune Cookie Chronicles on Amazon, or watch Lee’s TED talk for her overview of the subject.