Saturday, March 8, 2008

"The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food" by Jennifer Lee

I saw this review of a new book that recently came out, and it was really the title that caught my attention, but the review makes the book sound quite intriguing. And the cover is cool too.




In addition to history and answers to general questions, Lee also apparently looks into the question of why American Jews like Chinese food so much, though I would hope most of them aren't like one particular person I knew who told me she knew a restaurant that served Chinese food like I'd never had before - and the restaurant turned out to be Panda Express. Actually, I can't remember if it was Express or Panda Inn, but you get the idea.

Lee also talks about fortune cookie writers. Friends and I have often joked that they're really prisoners who periodically slip in a "help me, I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory" note as a plea for help, so I'm curious as to what the real story is.

Here's the Amazon listing for the book.

But what I really want to know is if that's seriously her middle name/initial or if she chose it for obvious reasons.

1 comment:

Sherry said...

The author was on "The Colbert Report" this week, and she was funny, holding her own against Stephen. Yes, her middle name is 8. No, I don't remember why. If they replay it, I'll pay more attention to that part and let you know.