New York City Dumpling Eating Contest October 24
By Jennifer 8. Lee | October 19, 2009
There sixth annual dumpling contest will take place this Saturday, Oct. 24 during the first-ever New York City Dumpling Festival, presented by Chef One.
Here is the info:
Saturday, Oct. 24 1 p.m.
Sara D. Roosevelt Park
E. Houston Street, New York, NY (between Chrystie and Forsyth)
Registration: Call 718-744-6999 (though the deadline seems to have passed)
Last year, Joe Menchetti from Connecticut finished on top eating 66 dumplings in two minutes in the men’s division, and Floria Lee from Queens finished on top eating 38 dumplings in two minutes in the women’s division
This year, the judges include Councilman (and likely Comptroller-to-be) John Liu.
The festival will include a giant dumpling cutting ceremony, a East Village dumpling tour, and a dumpling cooking class. Dumpling cousins will also be on plentiful display: gnocchi, tamale, Philippines palitaw, Malaysia kuih koci, Indian idli, and Polish pierogi.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
October 21 Yale Asian American Lecture Details — New Location
By Jennifer 8. Lee | October 12, 2009
Updated: Here are the details for my Chinese food talk at Yale for all you New Haven area folks. The location and time have changed because it’s being sponsored by the Jewish groups on campus — and now it comes with a kosher Chinese dinner.
7 p.m. Wednesday, October 21
Slifka Center for Jewish Life
80 Wall Street, New Haven, CT, 06511
Wednesday, October 21st, 7pmChinese Dinner Served in the Kosher Kitchen at Slifka from 5 pm on (just a swipe!)
Ms. Lee will talk about the history of Chinese food, why it’s all American and the connections between Chinese food and Jewish culture.Sponsored by the Asian American Cultural Center, Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life, the Yale Sustainable Food Project, and the Taiwanese American Society.
Please forward to your list and bring friends.
This is the old info.
October 21, 6:15 p.m. with talk starting at 6:30 p.m.
Lindsley-Chittendon Hall Room 101 (63 High Street, between Chapel and Elm Streets)
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
Now You Can Get Fortune Cookies on Your iPhone with a Ching Chong voice.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 19, 2009
A new iPhone app called LuckyFortune now gives you a fortune cookie in your pocket. You can shake it and the cookie rolls around (real video, not CGI, the company said) and breaks to the sound of (of course) a gong.
Then (yikes) this faux Chinese-y accent comes on and reads your fortune. It definitely doesn’t sound like a native Chinese speaker, just what someone who thinks a native Chinese speaker would sound like in English.
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Another Fortune Cookie Chronicles Blog?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 16, 2009
I was intrigued to discover another Fortune Cookie Chronicles blog at thefortunecookiechronicles.blogspot.com. This one is also written by a Jen, but in Arkansas (I’ve only been there once). It came to my attention through Google Alerts, since I have a search on “Fortune Cookie Chronicles.” Curious what she will write.
Topics: Blogging Musings | No Comments »
Brooklyn Book Festival Food Panel
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 14, 2009
I did a panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival, which was this huge expansive, elaborate event.
I got to speak with Mark Kurlansky, author of “Salt: A World History,” a book that I used in doing research for my book.
Here is the description:
Three writers discuss the past, present and future of what we eat. Featuring Mark Kurlansky (editor, The Food of a Younger Land), Jennifer 8. Lee (The Fortune Cookie Chronicles) and Liz Thorpe (The Cheese Chronicles). Moderated by “Serious Eats†blogger Ed Levine.
We had a huge crowd, well over 100 people (Food is an attractive topic). And it wasn’t raining. The photo from the satage is above. They stood and were on the floor. A lot of old friends showed up to say hi. Housing Works, which was handling sales of my book, sold out — which was a bit of a surprise.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
My General Tso’s chicken talk on TED.com in classrooms
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 9, 2009
I recently learned that my talk at TED.com on General Tso’s chicken, which was filmed at Taste3 conference in July 2008, is being used in two different university settings. It’s being shown to computer science teaching assistants as an example of an engaging presentation style. And a professor tweeted me that she was using it in her sociology class for its content.
Topics: Video | No Comments »
Sometimes You Just Need a Picture of a Dog
By Jennifer 8. Lee | September 2, 2009
This picture was sent to me by Roy Zuckerman. It is Lola from Basel, and she is apparently a big fan of my book.
Topics: Photo, Reader Feedback | No Comments »
Fortune Coo-keys!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 30, 2009
Sent to me via Twitter by @ascottfalk..
“Fortune Cookeys” for keys. It reminds me that early spelling of fortune cookies was actually “fortune cooky” as of the 1950s. And before that “fortune tea cakes.” I wonder if the “fortune cooky” was an intentional or unintentional mis-spelling by the part of the Chinese entrepreneurs.
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Did my RadioWest Interview Rerun in Utah?
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 25, 2009
I’m getting reports from the Rockies that they heard me on NPR. Haven’t done an interview lately, so I assume it was a re-run of the hour-long interview I did last June with RadioWest, the NPR affiliate in Salt Lake City.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Fortune Cookies on Your Hotel Bed
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 19, 2009
Went to the Dana Hotel in Chicago this weekend and was amused that instead of chocolates, they placed chocolate-covered fortune cookies during their turn-down service. The cookies were very good.
Topics: Fortune Cookies | No Comments »
Chicago Talk on August 16, 1 p.m. in Chinatown
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 15, 2009
My talk at the Chicago Chinese American Historical Society has been picked up in a number of outlets: including Time Out Chicago, Chicago Reader, the Examiner.
They did a great job publicizing it!
Here are the details.
August 16 1 p.m.
St. Therese School
247 West 23rd St (between Wentworth and Princeton avenues)
Bridgeport/Chinatown, Chicago | Map
312-949-1000New York Times reporter Lee lets you in on the truth behind General Tso in her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Reservations are required, so call the sponsoring Chinese-American Museum of Chicago at 312-949-1000 to set aside your tickets.
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AAJA/Radcliffe/ATASK Boston Talk, This Thursday, August 13
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 8, 2009
Invite for a talk in Boston this Thursday, August 13.
Please join us for AN EVENING OF HOPE AND GOOD FORTUNE. Jennifer 8. Lee (Harvard ’99), New York Times journalist and author, will read from her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, in which she takes readers around the world (and almost every American state) in her quest to understand Chinese food and the people who make it. This event is sponsored by the Harvard University Office of Faculty Development & Diversity and the Harvard School of Public Health Office for Diversity in partnership with the Asian American Journalist Association.
Event Details
Thursday, August 13, 2009, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
An Evening of Hope and Good Fortune, featuring Jennifer 8 Lee
7:00 p.m. – Reception
8:00 p.m. – Book Reading and Q&A
This is event is free and open to the public.
Refreshments and Hors d’oeuvres by the Hong Kong will be provided.
Harvard University, Radcliffe Gymnasium, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Get Directions (Google Maps)
For any questions or additional information, please contact Kozue Sawame, kozue@atask.org, or 617-338-2350 x232.
Please RSVP to Mengdi Wang, 617-338-230 x223, or mwang@atask.org.
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
Martha Stewart Rerun, Fried Turkey Dumplings, August 6
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 6, 2009
Martha Stewart segment is re-airing today, August 6. It was taped originally live-ish in late February. We make fried turkey dumplings. If you look closely, you will be able to see my mom!
Topics: Appearances, Video | No Comments »
Speaking at Bryant Park Tonight, August 5th, at 6 p.m.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | August 5, 2009
The announcement from the Asian American Writers Workshop.
Come join us for a fun-filled evening with Jennifer 8. Lee, author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. After a Classic Kids Performance from 5:30 – 6:00pm, Jennifer will discuss the history of American Chinese food with Ken Chen, Executive Director of the Workshop!
Jennifer 8. Lee harbors a deep obsession for Chinese food, the product of which is The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Twelve, 2008), which explores how Chinese food is all-American. As a metropolitan reporter at The New York Times, she has written about poverty, the environment, crime, politics, and technology. She has always harbored fantasies of being a fortune cookie message scribe. She has been called, by NPR, a “conceptual scoop artist.”
@ Bryant Park Reading Room
42nd Street between 5th & 6th Avenue,
adjacent to the James Earl Dodge monumentNote: In case of rain, event will not be open to the public.
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
The Other Fortune Cookie Chronicles
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 30, 2009
A reader sent me this! What a coincidence…
I found this book at Skyline Books on West 18th Street.
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
David Rogers
Wavelength Press, 2006
ISBN 0971644365Just two fortune cookie mentions:
p13: Why can’t they make fortune cookies that taste like Oreos?
p19: I ate a fortune cookie, and the message said, Not a winner. thanks for playing. Please try again.The back cover blurbs pretty much describe the book.
The book is from 2006, which means that it was around before we even decided my title. Here is the back cover, click for larger version.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Conan O’Brien, Chinese Beer, American Food.
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 27, 2009
Conan O’Brien noted tonight that the most popular beer in the world is now a Chinese beer. He then added, “When the Chinese drink too much beer, they go out for American food.” Ba da dum.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Planting the Flag on Dim Sum
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 27, 2009
This is a guest post by Andrew Coe, author of Chop Suey.
New Yorkers like to think we’re the first at everything in the culinary world. About 1977, we discovered dim sum. The setting was Hee Seung Fung (also known as H.S.F.), a spacious restaurant down on the Bowery. The city was then in the midst of one of its crazes for brunch, so anything we could eat in the late morning on weekends was tempting. We found that we loved H.S.F.’s vast variety of steamed, boiled, and fried dumplings, breads, and other dishes. Still, we weren’t sure exactly what “dim sum†meant. Was it “odds and ends†or “snacks†or “tea lunch� In any case, we happily wolfed them down, smug in our knowledge that once again we were on the culinary cutting edge.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Satellite Kids, a Chinese Restaurant By-Product
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 26, 2009
In The New York Times, Nina Bernstein writes about the troubled development of satellite kids, (often) of Chinese restaurant workers, who are sent back to China to be raised (often) by grandparents. This was the case with the Hiawassee family in book (earlier article about the family here).
A 1999 article by Somini Sengupta covers when this phenomenon of satellite children began to be observed. The babies are planned. The parents are married. They simply don’t have time to raise them. It cost $1,000 at that point to ship the babies back, and $500 to bring them back when ready for school.
Now, according to Nina’s article, the kids are coming back younger and younger — perhaps two and a half — because of free pre-school options in the city. But instead of being easier to adjust, young ages have made it harder, since that is a critical time for kids’ development. And the article describes developmental problems such as tantrums, silence, banging heads on walls, and wandering listlessly — symptoms that are sometimes misdiagnosed as autism.
Above is a short video I put together (filmed with my Canon Elph) of a nursery school in Houyu, where I interview a satellite kid.
Topics: Chinese Restaurant Workers, Video | No Comments »
Domino’s Pizza, Refashioned as Noodles, or Dao Mi Nou Chao Mian
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 21, 2009
This dish from Fancy Fast Food is brilliant — how to transform a Domino’s pizza into a stir-fried noodle dish with hoison sauce and some stir-frying. Yes, that above was forming a pizza with lots of toppings. They call it: “Dao Mi Noh Chow Mein” — though in pinyin it would be Dao Mi Nou chao mian. (I think…there isn’t really a “no” sound in Mandarian, not sure why, though I guess you could make one up from the composite sounds.)
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
Cheap Chinatown Meals
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 19, 2009
Here is a list of places in Chinatown that I go to for cheap food. It is largely based on the tour I sometimes give (most recently to student at the French Culinary Institute, which is funny enough, located just like two blocks north). I am working on a Google map.
Chinatown Ice Cream Factory
A family-run 30-year-old Chinatown institution sells offbeat flavors like lychee, almond cookie, and ginger at $3.75 for one generous scoop. 65 Bayard St between Elizabeth and Mott Sts (212-608-4170)East Corner Wonton
Show up for a breakfast (8am–1pm) of thick congee ($2–$4.25) and delicate rice crêpes ($1.75–$2.25). Later on, try entrées—like curry beef stew or roasted pork and scrambled eggs—that range from $4 to $5.50. 70 East Broadway between Market and Catherine Sts (212-343-9896)Lunch Box Buffet
At this Chinese-style buffet featuring vegetables, tofu and fried whole fish, a heaping five dishes—or four with rice—go for $4.25. The healthy options include seaweed “twists†and cold cucumber salad. 243 Grand St between Chrystie St and Bowery (646-541-0205)Mei Li Wah Bakery
This recently renovated old classic continues to offer some of the freshest roasted-pork buns in the city, each under $1. 64 Bayard St between Elizabeth and Mott Sts (212-966-7866)Prosperity Dumpling
Handmade dumplings, boiled or steamed, are five for a dollar. Other bargains include filling noodle dishes, which start as low as $1.75 for the cold sesame variety, and thinly sliced beef stuffed in a giant pancake with sweet pickled vegetables for $1.50. 46 Eldridge St between Hester and Canal (212-343-0683)Sau Voi Corp
Banh mi sandwich shops are everywhere, but there is something still authentically hole-in-the wall about paying $4 at a CD shop counter for a spicy BBQ chicken or BBQ pork sub stuffed with pickled radishes and carrots. 101 Lafayette St at Walker St (212-226-8184)Shanghai Kitchen
Eat in at this cash-only Shanghai-style restaurant and get eight juicy fried pork buns for $3.25. Also recommended: beef-topped cold, thin, flat noodles for $4.95. 7 Bayard St between Elizabeth and Mott Sts (212-513-1788)Steamed Food Cart
Don’t let the lack of English on the menu prevent you from trying rice crêpes covered with fish balls, tripe or small pork ribs at $2.50 for a medium and $5 for a (very) large. Northeast corner of Grand St and BowerySuper Taste Restaurant
Watch the cook hand pull your Lanzhou-style la mian, the Chinese relative of the famed Japanese ramen, which is served in soup with a choice of toppings that vary from beef tendon to eel ($4.50–$6.50 for a bowl). 26 Eldridge St between Canal and Division Sts (212-625-1198)Xinjiang-style BBQ skewers
Inspired by the kebab-heavy Uyghur Muslim cuisine in Western China, this cart sells slender lamb, chicken, seafood, veggie and tofu skewers for $1 apiece. Lamb, sprinkled with cumin and coriander, is our favorite. At Forsyth and Division Sts, under the Manhattan Bridge
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Speaking at Bryant Park on August 5
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 18, 2009
I’m speaking at Bryant Park at an HSBC-sponsored venue on August 5, 2009. It will involve fortune cookies, and if we are lucky, my video presentation — depends on the AV situation in Bryant Park.
Topics: Appearances | No Comments »
Mr. Chow vs. Phillipe Chow (Chau?)
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 9, 2009
New York Magazine’s grub street has an excellent write-up of the feud between Mr. Chow and Phillipe Chow, which culminated in a trademark lawsuit [pdf] filed in the Manhattan federal court. It’s a lawsuit that reads like it’s written by a PR person, not a lawyer, which means it’s a good read.
Basically Mr. Chow accuses a busboy, last-named Chau, of conspiring with Stratis Morfogen, and changing his last name in 2005 and opening Phillipe Chow, claiming that he was the executive chef Chow behind Mr. Chow.
Phillipe Chow fires back that he changed his name in 1977 when he arrived from Hong Kong. That should be easy enough to prove.
Topics: Chinese Food, Chinese Restaurants | No Comments »
General Tso’s Pizza!
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 8, 2009
This photo came in from Philadelphia (from Michael Schaeffer). It’s Chinese pizza — yes, with mozzarella cheese — with your choice of sauces: General Tso, sesame garlic, hoisin BBQ. Plus there is also “orange ginger sauce hot spicy,” whatever that is. As the menu brags “It’s all in the sauce.”
Available at Best House Pizzeria, located at 301 Baltimore Ave. in Philadelphia.
Prices? Small = $7.50, Large = $8.50 and X-Large = $11. (What happened to “medium?” The Wall Street Journal did a great article a few years ago about the death of “medium,” but they are behind a firewall, so I can’t find it.)
Topics: Quirky | No Comments »
Martha Stewart Segment is Re-Airing on August 6
By Jennifer 8. Lee | July 7, 2009
The producer of my Martha Stewart segment just let me know that my segment is re-airing August 6. It was taped originally live-ish in late February. In it, we make fried turkey dumplings. If you look closely, you will be able to see my mom!
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »
I Believe in the Power of Dumplings
By Jennifer 8. Lee | June 29, 2009
This is from a retreat that I went to, where we were asked to write essays based on the This I Believe format. It’s a very popular writing exercise. I really do believe in the power of dumplings.
I believe in the power of dumplings
Who doesn’t love dumplings? Steamed, boiled, or fried, they are universal.
I once made 888 dumplings for a party, my personal record. A man came up to me while I was folding and said he had heard the legend of the girl who made a thousand dumplings and wandered off. You might have crudites, warm cheese, stale hummus, left over at the end of the party. You will never have left over dumplings– unless you burned them.
Dumplings were my savior. In elementary school, we were puzzled by the teacher’s call for a bake sale. Chinese people don’t bake. They don’t have ovens in even the fanciest yuppie apartments in Shanghai and Beijing. Instead we made fried dumplings. They were always among the first to sell out.
But pause and reflect nearly every culture has some version of a meat and vegetable bundle in a carbohydrate casing — and if they don’t, they borrowed it from somewhere else. In China they had potstickers, which became gyoza in Japan, manduk in Korea and momos in Tibet. In Brazil, land of meat, gyoza were brought over by Japanese immigrants and morphed into gargantuan things the size of a man’s first. There are also the dumpling cousins: Italian raviolis, Jewish Kreplach, Indian samosas, Jamaican patties, Polish perogis, and Ukranian varenikt. Humans, much like we’re genetically programmed to think babies are cute and protection-worthy, are designed to love dumplings.
While many foreign foods that have appeared in America are unrecognizable to their “native countries†— burritos, chicken tikka masala, General Tso’s chicken, spaghetti and meatballs – dumplings, in contrast, have stayed true to form. That speak to their cultural transcendence.
Dumplings span not only cultures, but diet and class as well. If you are vegan, you can eat vegetable dumplings. If you are kosher or halal you can eat lamb dumplings. If you like white meat, you can eat chicken dumplings. If you have celiac diseases you can get wrappers made of rice flour. But, alas, if you are on an Atkins diet, the best you can do is just eat the insides. And dumplings can range from crude basic peasant-style pork and cabbage to delicately constructed gourmet shark-fun foie gras dumplings.
And they are friendly to cooking-phobic single men. I cannot tell you how many echo-ey fridges and freezers i have opened to find a bag of Costco dumplings as a form of quick sustenance.
And lastly, they transcend generations. My mom taught me to me how to make dumplings by hand for those elementary school bakesales. I do not know if my children will speak Chinese with any great competence (cross fingers!) but I know they will know how to make dumplings. Because I will teach them how to make them by hand, maybe for their bake sales.
I believe in the power of dumplings.
Topics: Chinese Food | No Comments »