Chinese Food
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Friday, January 7th, 2011Every day for a year, a writer, Matt Kelsey, is going to follow the advice of a fortune cookie and play the lucky numbers, to see if it really will make a difference. Here is his press release, which I was fascinated by in part because it’s on the Kansas City Star website. Sort of […]
Donate to “The Search for General Tso!” (and get on IMDb)
Friday, January 7th, 2011Help bring General Tso and his chickens to a theater near you! I am co-producing a feature-length documentary on American Chinese food with the Peabody-award winning team behind King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, called “The Search for General Tso.” We think it’s a great way to bring my research to a larger audience […]
Team General Tso in the Taipei Mountains
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010From left to right: Ian Cheney, director and co-producer Curt Ellis, co-producer Me, co-producer, and translator Taylor Gentry, director of photography We went up to get some panoramic shots for B-roll. This is a film (gasp) shot that Taylor took. It looks like Instagram. But it’s not. No filter to be had to do this. […]
The original General Tso’s chicken
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010In all its glory, from Peng’s Agora Garden in Taipei. We filmed it very carefully.
David Mamet On Jews and Chinese Food on Christmas
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010Hipster Brooklyn Jewish Deli, Mile End, to Serve Chinese Food on Christmas
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010Mile End Delicatessen, which is famed for its Montreal-style Jewish food (such as smoked meat), is drawing a ream of publicity for its decision to serve Chinese food on Christmas. (It’s of course had its share of press anyway. People love writing about Jewish food). They originally announced it on Twitter, “We’re taking reservations for our […]
Japanese take on American takeout boxes. In City Centre Tokyo.
Saturday, December 18th, 2010Wear Your Fortunes Around Your Neck! On Etsy.
Friday, December 17th, 2010Love these fortune cookie fortune scarves on Etsy for $22. They read “Success is a journey, not a destination,” which is actually a fortune I have on a giant roll I got from Wonton Food.
Hunting for Chicken in Taipei with the Wicked Delicate team
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010I’m working on a documentary on Chinese food with the Wicked Delicate team — Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis — which gained fame with King Corn. We got a $40,000 development grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities [pdf]. So we headed to Taiwan for our first international shoot. Taylor Gentry, a great cinematographer, […]
Fancy Fortune Cookies deal on Groupon!
Saturday, November 27th, 2010I was amused to see that Fancy Fortune Cookies is doing a Groupon, $15 for $35 worth of cookies, in various cities. The owner of Fancy Fortune Cookies, Mike Fry, is a former Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus clown who had the vision of selling flavored fortune cookies come to him in a […]
Fortune Cookie Fortune Nightstand
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010In the guest room in Atlanta where I stayed. Total coincidence. The owner had been collecting them since she was young.
Tour of New York City’s Chinatown Street Food
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010As part of a fundraiser for the Asian American Writers Workshop literary festival this year, I am giving walking tours of New York City’s Chinatown street food as part of the Kickstarter project. It’s generally a 2.5 hour tour that is based on one I did for the French Culinary Institute students. It includes Xi’an […]
95th Birthday Party Favors!
Monday, October 25th, 2010Got this lovely email from a reader today. Love that they are being used as party favors. That’s awesome. I want to thank you very much for writing your book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. I am half-way through the book, but had read enough to be inspired to order 35 copies to give to guests […]
Bilingual Fortune Cookies, in Spanish
Sunday, October 24th, 2010A reader, Diane Woo, sent in bilingual fortune cookies in English/Spanish. She reports that they encountered these at China Won (aka China Wok), 8109 Fayetteville Road. We had Chinese carryout the other day and we got our usual fortune cookies with our order. When we opened the cookies and read the  fortunes, we were surprised to find one side […]
Lovely Email From a Reader
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010I got a lovely email today from a reader. These kinds of notes make my day. Dear Ms. Lee, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for writing The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It touched on many points in my life and even though it’s been years since you finished it I find […]
Back-to-back nights at Mission Chinese Food
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010Went to Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco two nights in a row when I was in San Francisco. Upscale Chinese in a downscale setting, which has been getting a lot of attention. It’s cohabitating with Lung Shan, an old school Chinese restaurant. It’s like a hermit crab, living in someone else’s shell, except the other […]
Haozhan in London: Modern Chinese with Flair
Sunday, August 29th, 2010Haozhan was not open when I first went looking for the greatest Chinese restaurants in the world. Here is a pdf copy of its menu. And a sampling of the dishes we orderd.
Portuguese egg tart, the predecessor of the Cantonese 蛋撻?
Thursday, August 26th, 2010I was in Penang, Malaysia when I saw the Portugese egg tart, also known as pastel de nata, at a local dessert chain called Maxim’s. These are theorized to be an inspiration for the Cantonese egg tart, called dan ta (蛋撻), as they got to Hong Kong via Macau, a Portugese colony when the Portugese […]
A Peek at the Menu at the New Majestic Restaurant in Singapore
Friday, August 20th, 2010I paid another visit to The New Majestic, one of the restaurants I visited in my quest for the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world. We went there with Don and Laura, freshly married folks. When I visited in 2006, it had just opened. It continues. Lots of high-end ingredients (shark fin, abalone etc.) and […]
Chinese Restaurants circa 1100 AD in the Khmer empire?
Monday, August 16th, 2010Chinese restaurants have a long history. And perhaps one of the earliest recorded instances are found on the walls of the Bayon Temple within the Angor Thom complex in Cambodia (It’s one of the complexes within the Angor Wat area). Bayon was built in the late 1100s or early 1200s century as the official state temple […]
Is there a connection between the Dutch and the Japanese fortune cookies?
Sunday, August 15th, 2010I went to the National Museum of Singapore, and spotted these Dutch “pancake grills” that carry an incredibly strong resemblance to the Japanese kata that were used to make the original fortune cookies. It made me wonder if there was a Dutch influence to the original fortune cookies. The cookies made here seemed to be […]
Fried Rice Paradise, Coming to a Theatre Near You
Saturday, August 14th, 2010Was in Singapore subway station when saw a poster for “Fried Rice Paradise,” a musical. Really. As the website blurbs itself: Fried Rice Paradise is set invibrant Jalan Calamansi inhabited by colourful characters. There is Bee Lean whose father owns a coffeeshop selling fishball noodles. Together with her friends Girly Danker and Johan, she has […]
Egg Foo Young Really Does Exist. As Egg Fu Rong
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010I found this in Singapore. Unlike chop suey, egg foo young is based on a recognizable Chinese dish.
Oops. Wrong Cookie?
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010This fortune, which the host got during a taping of a PBS interview about my book, is one of the funnier fortunes I have gotten. It’s from Wonton Foods. Some fortune cookie writer had a sense of humor or was incredibly bored.
General Tso’s Potato Chips, Now Available at Target
Sunday, August 8th, 2010My friend Ross Baird sent in a photo of General Tso’s Thick Cut Potato Chips from a Target in Atlanta. The general continues his product expansion.
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