Hungry Readers Book Club of Rochester
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 17, 2008
The Rochester Book Club with The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
A reader sent me this photo of her book club, which read The Fortune Cookie Chronicles!
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Phoenix Dinner at Golden Buddha 6 p.m. this Sunday
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 15, 2008
Held by Changing Hands bookstore, this dinner has details here. It’s at the Golden Buddha restaurant in Phoenix (668 N 44th St. Phoenix, AZ). 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept 21.
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
The Menu For My AIWF San Diego Dinner
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 15, 2008
An event this weekend: Saturday Evening, September 20, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Chinese Banquet with Jenny 8 Lee at Emerald Chinese Seafood Restaurant
Presentation and Book Signing by Jennifer 8. Lee: Adventures in the World of Chinese Cuisine
Hosted by San Diego American Institute of Wine and Food member Susan Lew at Emerald Chinese Seafood Restaurant
Pacific Gateway Plaza 3709 Convoy Street (Aero Drive)
San Diego, CA 92111
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
Now Available: Fortune Cookie Cupcakes
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 8, 2008
A fortune cookie cupcake
Fortune Cookie cupcakes from A Baked Creation. . As they explain: “We made fortune cookies out of gum paste and inserted her unique personal notes. The green icing relates to the company’s famous colour.”
Topics: Fortune Cookies, Quirky | No Comments »
General Tso-themed baby wear
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 8, 2008
- General Tso Onesie
Available from Etsy, a “General Tso onesie” — which is funny because no sign of General Tso anywhere, just fortune cookies. Which shows both have become interchangeable symbols for Chinese food. The desription:
Grab this adorable “General Tso” baby onesie for your little one. American Apparel 100% Organic Cotton. Machine washable. Triple seat snaps make diaper changing easy. The message on the fortune reads “You are not afraid to let others know when you are upset.”
Topics: Fortune Cookies, General Tso | No Comments »
Pictures from My Appearance on The Colbert Report
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 28, 2008
Here (finally) are some pictures from The Colbert Report when I appeared on March 4, 2008. (Thanks to Alexis Ohanian for taking them and for backing them up because I lost the memory card on which they were stored, so I’m actually putting them on the blog so I wont lose them.) And yes, the Green Room is actually green.
Topics: Media & Interviews, Photo | No Comments »
A Chinese entrepreneur introduces Fortune Cookies to China
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 26, 2008
It’s funny to see the the way that people in China react to fortune cookies — with a mixture of confusion and amusement. As part of research for my book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, I went around China handing out fortune cookies to random people (my bellhop, people on the street, vendors) and recorded their reactions.
Often times, they would put the cookies in their mouth, and then be surprised when they found a piece of paper either in their mouth or in a cookie.
Fortune cookies are not intuitive. This was confirmed when I was in Beijing and discovered a woman named Nana Shi who was making fortune cookies in China. But she too put instructions on the red wrapper telling people to break the cookie before eating them because they were necessary.
How to Open A Fortune Cookie
Otherwise, this is what happens:
Americans find high emotional attachment to the slips inside their cookies, looking to them for winning lottery numbers and becoming upset when the fortunes inside are unfortunate. The Chinese, on the other hand, would often tell me after trying the curved vanilla-flavored wafers, “Americans are so strange, why are they putting pieces of paper in their cookies?”
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Who knew there were Greek fortune cookies? A British lottery winner strikes it big.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 25, 2008
(From a while back. I am just catching up. An engineer in Britain played a lucky number from a fortune cookie he got in Greece four years ago and won £2,355,880 (about $5 million!). A smaller version of what happened in the United States and in Brazil.
More surprising to me: That fortune cookies have made their way to Greece.
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Good Morning America Weekend: Fortune Cookies Aren’t Chinese
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 25, 2008
Here is the Good Morning America Weekend piece that ran during the Olympics. Produced by Imtiyaz Delawala (who was on my school paper!) and correspondented by Juju Chang. Also involves Wonton Food.
This piece that actually was initially discussed during the March release of my book. But they decided to peg it to the Olympics. It shows that it pays to be patient.
Topics: Media & Interviews, Video | No Comments »
What is a library memorial?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 25, 2008
What is a library memorial? Whatever it is, someone has created one for my book at Ford City Public Library.
At first I thought, are either me or my book passed from this work? Then I realized it was in memory of Margaret A. Westwood from The Pontious Family . Maybe she liked Chinese food?
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
I was hacked (with WordPress footer Spam) but now am saved
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 23, 2008
In poking around my blog because of layout issues, we discovered I had a bunch of spam links in my footer. Like a hundred links to latech.edu, with horrible things like cialis and viagra. About a month ago, I started noticing some very strange search queries bringing people to my site, like “pantyhose” and things I can’t write here (sexual acts, anatomy, and fluids and stuff) to my blog. I was perplexed. I didn’t use these terms. What was going on.
So today, it all became clear. Turned out I had been hacked, perhaps it had to do with some WordPress vulerability. I felt really violated.
Topics: Blogging Musings, Chinese Food | No Comments »
My book is sold at the Olympic MPC!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 23, 2008
My friend from the WSJ told me he bought my book at the Olympic’ss Main Press Center bookstore. So my book has a little piece of the Olympics!
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
Fortune Cookie Chronicles, the Hong Kong Edition?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 22, 2008
Google alerts just made me aware of a blog called Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Hong Kong. At first I thought it might be blogspam (I get these fake links to my site all the time), but this was a real blog by a real girl! The description:
This blog will track my year-long experience in HK as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and HKU graduate student. Although this is the longest and farthest I’ve ever been from home, I am very much looking forward to the unpredictable days ahead! I hope you enjoy reading about my adventures as much as I undoubtedly enjoy experiencing them. I also want to express a special thank you to the Columbia Capital Rotary Club in Columbia, SC for sponsoring me and making this incredible opportunity possible.
I’m oddly flattered that the title of my book has been appropriated.
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They have Chinatown in Chinacountry!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 17, 2008
I was in Beijing and I saw a mall called Chinatown — å”人街 (tangrenjie). å” refers to the Tang Dynasty, still considered the glory years in Chinese history. So Chinese people are sometimes referred to as å”人, and è¡— is street. So it’s Tang Person’s Street. There is no consistent name for Chinatown in Chinese. In New York City, at Canal Street, the sign says åŽåŸ (huabu)
But I think it’s cute that they have Chinatown in Chinacountry!
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ABC: The mystery of the fortune cookie’s history
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 17, 2008
Television loves fortune cookies as a result of the Beijing Olympics. I did a segment with ABC on the history of the fortune cookie with Juju Chang.
I swear, fortune cookies and “man date” are going to be part of my obituary, or at the very least the college reunion report.
Topics: Fortune Cookies, Media & Interviews, Video | No Comments »
Scorpions and silkworms?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 14, 2008
From a Chinese-American classmate:
Sorry to miss your Today show appearance. Â While you’re there and talking about Chinese food, can you get them to cover something other than scorpions and silkworms? Â I understand the appeal of exoticism and all, but it’s hardly representative of Chinese food… and a little tiresome after seeing four or five reporters make the same point using the same food items from the same night market!
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Did my Today Show (今日) hit from Beijing. Yay.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 14, 2008
So the way they translate Today show in Chinese is 今日, which is literally “Today.” They have imported a massive operation over from New York (though only eight of their 50+ producers).
The segment, produced by Cecilia Fang, was supposed to be a bit of a cooking demonstration. But then it rained tonight in Beijing, which meant that we would all be electrocuted since the segments are done outdoors, on electric stoves.
So we had to precook all the dumplings in the canteen (which has coveted peanut butter and a panini machine, but no sink). It was quite impressive that we cobbled together an induction stove and cutting board together.
I usually make my dumplings with ground turkey — because that’s what they have in American supermarkets. But here we had to use pork, because turkey is a very new world bird.
Because this was television, I had to spend all this time preselecting “photogenic dumplings” for the set designer. All the rejects got eaten by the staff.
Because they film inside the Olympic green (where the Birds Nest and the aquatic cube are), it involved getting credentialed and getting all our props screened 48 hours ahead of time.
Topics: Media & Interviews | No Comments »
I’m in Beijing! And it is muggy and rainy.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 10, 2008
The Beijing airport is supernice now. Met some nice Olympic-ish people on the plane. They stood out as they were lanky black men (track and former swimmer) that were at least 6’2″ (one was 6’7″!) among those of us who were decidedly closer to the earth.
I’m excited to eat the Chinese food here (which I’ve missed). Downstairs from my classmate’s apartment is a Chengdu (big city in Sichuan)-style restaurant. I’m scheduled to do something for the Today show (cross fingers this isn’t cancelled last minute).
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Joe Grimm, recruiter extraordinaire, departure party at Unity
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 9, 2008
At Unity, about 100 people came to the departure of Joe Grimm, who I must say is the best newspaper recruiter that I have ever met, from his job at the Detroit Free Press. He’s touched the career of hundreds upon hundreds of young journalists (including me) — encouraging
I first met him at AAJA in Honolulu in 1995. I’ve been amazed how well he kept track of me over the years.
Among his tech savvy helpful offerings over the years: Jobspage.com and Breaking In, a self-published book on the newspaper industry. (The cover has this interesting stigmata imagery.)
When my book came out he sent me a beautiful encrusted fortune cookie!
They made fortune cookies for him. His last day was a great day. 08-08-08
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Happy oh-eight-oh-eight-oh-eight!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 8, 2008
It’s my holiday. Sort of. At least people think of it as such. I was even asked to write a piece on the day for the New York Times , which inspired all sorts of radio interviews.
Here are some of the notes I’ve gotten from people thus far.
- From a former professor: “Best wishes for 8/8/08.”
- From a fellow reporter in Iraq (over IM): “happy 8 day”
- From an author friend: “happy eightness!” (subject line was “huit”, which looked like “hult” when I first glanced at it)
- From another reporter: “crazy eights. it’s your special day!”
- From a fortune cookie source: “Happy 8-8-08”
- From a Jewish book fair coordinator: HAPPY 8-8-08!!!!!!! This must be a triple Chai (18 x 3), right?”
- From a long-time friend from camp: “Happy 8.8.08 Jenny 8 Lee!”
- From my sister: “Happy 08-08-08! Hopefully today is your lucky day! :)”
- From random person on Facebook: “I don’t know you but happy 08/08/08!”
- From my best friend (grandfathered in by the skin of our teeth): “Happy 8 day!”
- From my agent: “Happy 8 day!”
- From a developer at work: “Just wanted to wish you a happy 8.8.8! You must be throwing a special party for yourself, hmm?”
- From a reporter-researcher on my Facebook wall: “I hope you’re enjoying you personal once-inn-a-century holiday!!!”
- From a Oxford student: “Happy you day. augustus caesar named a month after himself. You are the closest we get these days.”
- From a former EPA source: “8-8-08. This is your day!”
I don’t think I got this much far-reaching attention on my birthday!
Topics: Chinese | No Comments »
08/08/08 @ 8:08 a.m. on the Today Show
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 7, 2008
Supposedly, I will be part of a segment that will air on 08/08/08 @ 8:08 a.m. as part of the Today show. (Though now my friends report that it did not air at that time, and I’m not sure when and if it did). I’ve also had three requests for radio interviews on the same topic of the eightness.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
General Tso did not appear here.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 7, 2008
George Vescey writes about how General Tso did not show up at the Times’ Olympic banquet for everyone who was sent to cover the games. As he writes: “Those of us who have never been to China have always heard that Chinese food is vastly different from what we get in the States — takeout or serious.” The menu
- Assorted cold platter
- Seafood sour and spicy soup
- Deep-fried prawn with jelly sauce
- Sauteed beefsteak with black pepper sauce
- Steamed fresh sea fish
- Fried lotus root with lily
- Deep-fried chicken
- Fired celery scallop
- Braised tofu with pine soft fungus (mushrooms, that is to say, in a lovely broth)
- Roasted chicken garlic
- Boiled dumplings and fresh fruit
No General Tso’s chicken, he observers. But there chicken that was there came in all its beaky glory. As George writes:
Karen Crouse liked the chicken, moist with a crisp exterior, although she was a bit put off by the chicken’s head perched on the rim of the plate. Personally, I thought the chicken had a proud look on his face, knowing he had served this great news organization from across the sea.
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A Fortune Cookie Chronicles book club at the Fortune Cookie Chronicles Powerball Restaurant
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 6, 2008
This is very adorable. I got a great email leading me to the photo above. “I’m the organizer for my neighborhood’s book club. We read your book last month and then ate at King Buffet, which is one of the fortune cookie winning restaurants here in Lawrence, Kansas.” The photo is of them holding up their fortune cookies fortunes!
Lawrence is one of some 19 Chinese restaurants I visited in my investigation of the great Powerball mystery of 2005.
(Do you see a copy of the book in the photo?)
Topics: Book Club, Book Musings, Chinese Restaurants, Fortune Cookies, Photo | No Comments »
The Fortune Cookie (Chronicles) goes to China
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 29, 2008
My editor, Jon Karp, just let me know that we’ve licensed Simplified Chinese rights (Mainland China) to Shanghai Sanhui Culture & Press. Which is very very exciting. Yay.
Even if fortune cookies won’t be sold in China, a book about them will be. The best part of foreign rights is how they are titled and the new cover. I’m intrigued what they will do.
Topics: Book Musings, China | No Comments »
WONTONT Lust?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 29, 2008
I got this funny wonton story over e-mail:
I just moved to a new place, and as part of my move, I had to pick a new phone number. So of course, being the kind of person I am, I spend 3 hours last week when I should have been unpacking a) doing research into what the local exchanges are, b) writing a program to generate all possible seven letter phone-words that start with the relevant digits, c) going to the web for each word so I could sort them in frequency order, and d) looking through the list for words I would like to be my phone number. I ended up with a list of a good dozen words, including WHISKER, MADNESS, and ALFALFA. When I called the phone company, I had them check all 12 numbers. Only one of them was free, but I was like: great, I’ll take it! Thus it was I got the phone number WONTONS.
But then looking it over afterwards, I realized there was a bug in my program, so I didn’t get WONTONS at all! Instead, I got WONTONT.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »