General Tso’s potato chips from Terra Kettles, available at Whole Foods
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 28, 2008
This photo was sent to me by a reader.
General Tso continues with his brand extension. He has his own type of chip available at Whole Foods. I’ve seen now, General Tso’s tofu, General Tso’s pizza, General Tso’s chipotle sauce, General Tso’s sushi, General Tso’s duck and now General Tso’s potato chips. (My favorite of course is still at the U.S. Naval Academy, where they serve Admiral Tso’s chicken.)
Topics: General Tso | No Comments »
The CommArts Design Award for Anne Twomey for the Cover
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 22, 2008
Fortune Cookie Chronicles is now technically an award-winning book! (Though not because of me.) The cover, done by Anne Twomey, won in the book cover illustration category of the Communication Arts Magazine’s 49th Annual Design Competition.
Being a word (and not a design) person, I went to suss out what this competition was all about. As it explains
Ask any creative director which competitions rank as the most influential, and they’ll place Communication Arts at the top of the list. CA’s Award of Excellence is one of the most-coveted in the industry. If chosen, winning places you in the highest ranks of your profession.
Fortune Cookie Chronicles will be published in their November 2008 Design Annual issue, which is nice. And as Anne said to me in an e-mail, she’s won many design competitions in her time, but this one has eluded her. So yay.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Is fortunecookiechronicles.com a sex site? Web Sense thinks it is
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 15, 2008
So my friend at the City Council sent me this screenshot. Apparently my blog (this blog) has been blocked by Websense for being a “sex” site, which I find endlessly amusing. Maybe the “in bed” aspect of fortune cookies is coming to the fore? (I wrote an article about Web Sense and Saudi Arabia back in 2001).
I wonder how one goes about complaining about false positives.
Topics: Blogging Musings | No Comments »
Book Publishing Industry Panel on July 22
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 14, 2008
This is next week…
Harvardwood is pleased to present our first-ever publishing industry panel event! The panel will feature authors Ceridwen Dovey ’03 (Blood Kin), Jennifer Lee ’99 (The Fortune Cookie Chronicles), and Nancy Redd ’03 (Body Drama), publishing manager and acquiring editor at Penguin Publishing Molly Barton, and Jennifer Joel ’98, book agent at International Creative Management. The panel will be moderated by author Laurence Bergreen ’72 (Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu; Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe).
The panel will be held in NYC on July 22, from 7-8:30 pm, at the 78th Street Theatre, located at 236 W 78th St. (just east of Broadway) on the second floor.* Admission is free for Full Members of Harvardwood and $5 for Affiliates, Friends of Harvardwood, and guests. Please RSVP by visiting the Harvardwood website: http://www.harvardwood.org/
*Please note that there is a steep 2nd floor walk-up to reach the venue. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Topics: Appearances, Book Musings, Chinese Food | No Comments »
My cameo in The Killing of the Chinese Cookie
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 14, 2008
I saw Derek Shimoda’s The Killing of the Chinese Cookie this week, and I make a brief cameo (as do some of my fortune cookies from around the world). It is when I am in Japan (Kyoto/Osaka area) getting my fortune cold at a shrine connected with fortune cookies through the tsujiura technique of watching passersby. On screen he mutters something about in-laws. I remember he also told me to watch my liver (not shown in the scene).
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
I’m here. Really.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 14, 2008
Sorry for the lapse of blogging. I’ve been coming out of orbit and been busy, well, not doing anything to do with the book for like 10 days (which was lovely)Â — this basically included blogging. (Lots of life transition now.)
This week book is back in full force. Wednesday at the Harvard Club, Thursday at Madison Reads, Friday in Napa Valley speaking at Taste3, where my friend Ben Wallace will be speaking about his book, The Billionaire’s Vinegar (which hit the NYTimes bestseller list this week!)
I have some good posts coming. People have been sending me great stuff. Sometimes I wonder. Who is reading this blog and why?
Topics: Blogging Musings, Book Musings, Musings | No Comments »
Chinese chicken in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 2, 2008
Clues from July 1, 2008 New York Times crossword.
- 39 Down: General on Chinese menus
- 60 Down: Kung _____ chicken
Crossword writer must have been hungry.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
The Killing of a Chinese Cookie is Coming to New York City
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 1, 2008
Derek Shimoda’s The Killing of a Chinese Cookie is playing in the Asian American International Film Festival in New York City this month. Two screenings: July 12, Saturday, 1 p.m. @ The Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue and again on Monday, July 14 @ 7:30 p.m. at the Maysles Cinema @ 343 Malcolm X Blvd, b/t 127th & 128th Sts.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Maybe they serve Maryland Crap Cakes too
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 1, 2008
Another humorous Chinese menu typo, send to me by a blog reader.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Sneaking in on Google’s top search page for “fortune cookie”
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 1, 2008
I noticed a few weeks ago that people were landing at my blog with search of just “fortune cookie” so I was curious where the book was on Google’s search results. It looks like I snuck onto the front page of results. I don’t even sell fortune cookies.
Topics: Blogging Musings, Fujianese | No Comments »
99 copies of book on the shelves (at the NYPL)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 29, 2008
Previously, as I noted, as of May 1, there had been like 19 copies at the NYPL, with a bunch of holds. Then today, a reader sent me an email saying they got a gigantic order in
Just wanted to let you know that I finished reading your book this morning (I thought NYPL was never going to get to me because I was about 400th in line… until they suddenly got a huge shipment and I ended up with a brand new copy!)
She checked online and 99 copies now available, which is a dramatic increase from a few weeks earlier. It’s interesting. I noticed a similar increase in my co-publishee’s book, The Geography of Bliss (which shot up from 40ish to 170+ copies) and wondered if there comes a time when the publisher just decides to release more copies, or if the libraries just order more or what.
Incidentally, now that the computer system is back up, I now know that the Queens Library system has 47 copies of the book, about 10 alone of which are at the Flushing branch (my favorite, and where I gave a talk in early June).
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
Take Out: “General Tso’s Chicken Meets 24”
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 24, 2008
I was flipping through Time Out New York yesterday when I saw this ad for Take Out, a feature film about a Chinese delivery man, and was amused that it quotes me: “General Tso’s chicken meets 24 — Jennifer 8. Lee, The New York Times.”
This may be the first and only time I will ever be quoted in a delivery ad.
All the more so because the film is actually reviewed by The New York Times by Nathan Lee (no relation, as far as I am aware, to me).
I wrote both a newspaper article and a blog post about the film, which is not a documentary but a fictional film. The differences between the two are instructive in how blogging differs from deadtree reporting.
The newspaper article, headlined “Film Spotlights City Life Often Overlooked,” starts out:
The directors of “Take Out,†a feature film about a Chinese deliveryman who must pay off his debt to immigrant-smugglers, do not claim that their movie is based on a true story. But it has more than a passing resemblance to a documentary, so much so that after a screening, one of the audience members asked where the man was now, and whether he was doing all right.
Whereas the blog post is called “This Chinese Deliveryman Works at Google” and it begins:
The new film “Take Out,†about a Chinese deliveryman struggling to pay off his debt, is not a documentary. Really. Even though its gritty style makes it look like one.
After a screening, after the credits rolled, one audience member even asked: Where was the deliveryman now, and was he doing O.K.?
“We couldn’t stop laughing,†said Sean Baker, one of the co-directors of the film, which opens at Quad Cinema on Friday. “We were in hysterics.â€
In fact, the man on screen is doing fine. He is a Korean-American actor named Charles Jang who learned to speak fluent Mandarin from a year of study in Taiwan.
The film is startlingly realistic as so much of it filmed in real places. (That’s what happens when you have a $3,500 budget).
Indy films are really hard to get out there. The fact it’s in distribution at all is impressive. Here is the film’s theater box office receipts from Box Office Mojo. It brought in $10,505 in its opening weekend, which made it 72 nationwide. That’s about 1,000 people who saw the film, which actually, given its subject matter and a single screen isn’t bad. It dropped by half in its second weekend, but then expanded to three screens and was back up by weekend three. Cross fingers.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Laundry. A Luxury.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 24, 2008
You know your life is really out of whack when you are excited (as I am) that I finally have a chance to do laundry. (I hear the dryer spinning in a peaceful whirl).
I am just coming out of orbit now. I have an event this Sunday (Jews! Hamptons!) and another Monday. And then nothing until a painful stretch of July 16, 17, 18, 20.
I am slowly reassembling my life, really.
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
Radio: Radiowest, a one-hour interview with SLC’s NPR affiliate
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 23, 2008
This is my hour-long interview with Doug Fabrizio on KUER, an NPR affiliate out of Salt Lake City, for Radiowest. It’s very, very rare that someone will give you a whole hour — so I deeply appreciated the time.
The audio file will be up for roughly three months the producer told me.
Topics: Audio, Media & Interviews, Multimedia | No Comments »
Slate tries to explain Chinese menus with me.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 23, 2008
I’m interviewed for an Explainer in Slate on the Chinese menu translations by Brian Palmer, lawyer. (Explainer, incidentally, is oft edited by a classmate of mine from high school and college — Dan Engber).
So that is my tiny appearance on Slate.
Topics: Media & Interviews | No Comments »
Artinsanal Chinese food? Chinese food truck in France
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 23, 2008
David Sax of deli fame sent me a photo of a Chinese food truck he stumbled upon in France!
He writes:
So there I was in a small town in the French countryside last Friday, picking up all sorts of cheeses, breads, and meats at a farmer’s market in the central square, when I came upon the following sight. “Delices d’Asie” was the truck below, filled in the most gorgeous way with various artesenal dim sum dishes and stir fries, all being sold to the locals. There were shrimp toasts and har gao that looked like French pastries, arranged in military precision behind the glass. But the man detested journalists (apparently someone had written something bad about him once), and when I asked him a few questions, he just shooed me away. Still, I snagged these pics for you.
Why I love French Chinese food. They have salt and pepper frog legs!
But this picture reminds me of the famed Chinese Food Truck from my college days (this web page hasn’t been updated in almost 10 years). The truck used to be behind the Science Center, and during intro computer science class, Margo Seltzer demonstrated the computer command ping to us, and it travelled through cft.harvard.edu (or something like that). She joked that people always said that “cft “stood for Chinese Food Truck (which made us all laugh). But in reality it was short for Cruft Laboratory/Hall.
Topics: Chinese Restaurants | No Comments »
The official Chinese menu translations, a revealing look at Sweet and Sour
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 20, 2008
I just did a post for the Times Olympics blog on the translation, which I will essentially put in a modified form below
This is what they are trying to avoid:
This month, the Chinese government has officially released its very long list of suggested translations for Chinese dishes in preparation for a tourist-friendly Olympics.
While a lot of media attention has focused on the dishes with names that are odd in translation (“Chicken Without Sexual Life” and “Husband and Wife Lung Slice”), in reality those are but a handful of the hundreds of dishes on the list, and those English translations are awkwardly chosen.
Pumping Chinese dishes through a computer translator can create some strange results, but translation has always been more an art than a science. Of course, machine translation + human error can create even more bizarre results. (Can you order Wikipedia with garlic sauce?) (Jimmy Wales sent me this photo once upon a time, and we were perplexed how this came about)
What’s not listed? Egg Rolls (though Crab Rangoons are), General Tso’s chicken (though General Tsuo’s tofu is, what happened to his chicken, did he go veg?), fortune cookies!
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
WAMU: Kojo Nnamdi Show, and musings on radio interviews
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 17, 2008
I finally got my chance to appear on the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU in Washington, which means that except for Chicago, I’ve been on all the major NPR markets: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia (WHYY’s building is soooo nice) + assorted markets in New Hampshire, Colorado.
I have to say that these were one of the best prepared set of questions I have ever encountered (that and my All Things Considered, where the host actually read the book). And by now I have dealt with many many radio interviews (probably 40?), so I’ve come to understand what makes for a good host..
A good radio interviewer cues you up with a smart question, so you know where they are going, but they also seem informed. A bad interviewer is one who steals your punchline.
Bad: “So I hear fortune cookies are Japanese.” (You have no traction to work off of)
Good: “I understand that your research about fortune cookies led you to some interesting discoveries about war time politics.”
The credit often goes to the producer, who reads the book and puts together all the qusetions.
Also amazing, as I walked out the door, they handed me a CD with the interview on it.
Topics: Appearances, Audio, Book Musings, Media & Interviews | No Comments »
The best Chinese restaurants in the world…sorta
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 17, 2008
Here is an incomplete list of the some of the restaurants I visited for my chapter on the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world. This is not an endorsement for all of them, as you will find reading the chapter. Rather what my research turned up as interesting candidates. Not all restaurants here made it into the chapter because of plot/structural reasons.
Europe
- Hakkasan in London
- Yauatcha in London
- David in Paris
- Chen’s in Paris (15, Rue Théâtre 75015 Paris, France +33 1 45 79 34 34)
- Green T in Rome (via Piè di Marmo, 28 tel +39 066798628)
- Hang Zhou in Rome
Asia (outside greater China)
- Wakiya in Tokyo
- Reikasai in Tokyo
- Palsun in Seoul (located in the Shilla Hotel)
- My Humble House in Singapore
- Xi Yan in Singapore
- Majestic in Singapore
- China Garden in Mumbai
- Golden Dragon in Mumbai
Australia
- Billy Kwong in Sydney (3/355 Crown Street, Sydney, 2010 +61 2 9332 3300). Restaurant of five-generation Australian-Chinese Kylie Kwong
- Flower Drum in Melbourne
Middle East
- Zheng He in Dubai (Mina A’Salam, Madinat Jumeirah +971 4 3666730)
North America
- Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine outside Vancouver in Richmond (#2015-8580 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC +1 604-233-0077 Update, Feb. 22, 2010: Now re-opened at 120-12480 No.1 Road, Richmond B.C., Canada +1-604-272-2777)
- Sun Sui Wah in Vancouver (888 Main St, Vancouver, BC, V5V 3P1. +1-604-872-8822)
- Jai Yun in San Francisco
- Wakiya in New York City
- Chinatown Brasserie in New York City
South America
- Restaurante Royale in Lima, Peru ( Av. Prescott 231, San Isidro, 4229547)
- Wa Lok in Lima, Peru
Topics: Best Chinese Restaurants Around the World, Chinese Food | No Comments »
Fortune Cookie Chronicles as a QPB “Main Selection”
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 15, 2008
I heard from my publisher this week: Quality Paperback, an affiliate of Book of the Month Club, decided to use Fortune Cookie Chronicles as the Main Selection as opposed to (I think) just a regular or alternate selection. They are going to issue an early paperback (will this look like the permanent paperback?)
Suddenly I was intrigued by book clubs. How do the contracts work? Are they still flourishing in this day and age? Who needs whom more (publishers or the book club). I found a 20-year-old (circa 1988) New York Times article on the Book of the Month Club. Plus here is some stuff from Ivan Hoffman on how book clubs figure into author contracts
Topics: Book Musings | No Comments »
Dim sum and Fortune Cookie Chronicles, June 22, 5 p.m. at Dim Sum Go Go
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 15, 2008
This is a cool even, put together by the ever organized Calvin Chen and the UPenn Asian American alumni group. (Love the invite!)
June 22, 5 pm
Dim Sum Go Go @ 5 East Broadway in Chinatown
$20 for dim sum and fortune cookie book talk
rsvp to upaannyc@upaan.org
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
Even more on the Baghdad Chinese restaurant
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 15, 2008
The AFP’s Benjamin Morgan writes a story on the Chinese restaurant in Baghdad confronting violence. It makes $40-$50 a ady. Modest by American standards, but 4 to 5x to what the co-owner was making back in China.
There is endless fascination on this topic of Chinese food in Baghdad, including Craig Smith’s 2005 story for the New York Time and ABC News’s story earlier this year.
Here it goes:
Despite a bomb blast that rattled windows and sent a panicked co-worker scurrying back to China, Baghdad’s sole Chinese restaurant has defied the odds to keep its doors open.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Toledo Blade: The book argues for a more honest and complex definition of “authenticity.”
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 9, 2008
The Toledo Blade, out of the blue, publishes a review by Jennifer Day. And she quotes one of my favorite passages of the book, which has not been mentioned yet — my comparison of the unbroken fortune cookie to an unexpired lottery ticket.
Article published Sunday, June 8, 2008
Fortune cookies open the door to Chinese-American culture
THE FORTUNE COOKIE CHRONICLES: ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF CHINESE FOOD.
By Jennifer 8. Lee. Twelve. 307 pages. $24.99.
That fortune might also apply well to Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Lee, a cops reporter for the New York Times, is obsessed with Chinese restaurants in America the same way others are obsessed with model-train collections. As a first-generation Chinese-American in New York City, Lee was born around the time Chinese restaurants started delivery service. Growing up, she was a product of her environment, embarrassing her native-born parents by picking lo mein over more authentic dishes. more »
Topics: Reviews | No Comments »
Economist: Fortune Cookie Chronicles among top 10 selling books worldwide on China in May
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 9, 2008
My brother IMed me a few days ago to tell me that Fortune Cookie Chronicles was mentioned on page 96 of The Economist (subscription required) in the types of books that interest people on China. I was surprised that this far out, it even ranks internationally (even within the narrow topic of China-related), because it is not available in other countries. There is only a U.S. edition. It’s really more a book about America than the United States.
Chinese takeaway
June 5th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Three things interest Westerners about China: food, fertility and finance
“THE China Study†is the world’s biggest-selling book about all things Chinese because it touches on two American obsessions. The first is that you will only live longer if you are able to reduce the risk of suffering a heart attack, diabetes and cancer. The second is that there exists a conspiracy of powerful lobbies, government entities and opportunistic scientists who must be overcome. The Campbells, father and son, are there to show how to achieve both.
“After a long career in research and policymaking,†says Colin Campbell, the elder of the two authors, “I have decided to step ‘out of the system.’ I have decided to disclose why Americans are so confused. As a taxpayer who foots the bill for research and health policy in America, you deserve to know that many of the common notions you have been told about food, health and disease are wrong.â€
So who is right? The answer is the Chinese. Thomas Jefferson advised Americans that meat should be treated as a condiment for vegetables. Jefferson, like China, is now in fashion. In a nutshell: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.â€
1. The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted
by T. Colin Campbell and Thomas M. Campbell
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
2. The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientists Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
by Simon Winchester
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
3. A Bull in China: Investing Profitability in the World’s Greatest Market
by Jim Rogers
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
4. The Tao of Fertility
by Daoshing Ni and Dana Herko
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
5. The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun
by Brother Yun and Paul Hattaway
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
6. China (Lonely Planet Guide)
by Damien Harper
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
7. Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China
by Jung Chang
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
8. The Infertility Cure
by Randine Lewis
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
9. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
by Jennifer 8. Lee
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
10. China Fireworks: How to Make Dramatic Wealth from the Fastest-Growing Economy in the World
by Robert Hsu
Click to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Topics: Media & Interviews | No Comments »
LAT’s Steve Harvey on the Fortune Cookie mystery
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 8, 2008
Google alerts let me know today that Steve Harvey, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, does a whole column titled “Claims to original fortune cookies crumble under weight of research” around one of the central mysteries of my book.
It’s one of the first times that there is an entire print piece that is neither a review (or a “this book is coming out) nor a “feature on the author” (Q&A, “favorite restaurants” etc.) nor an excerpt (General Tso in Maxim!). There is something satisfying about that, in a way my book has “broke news” about Yasuko Nakamachi’s research. (full text of column further down)
Topics: Fortune Cookies, Media & Interviews | No Comments »