Whoever would have thought that Chinese food could be heartbreaking?
Written: May 07 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The origins of Chinese food in America and its evolution, including kosher Chinese
Cons: Jumps around quite a bit, doesn't address recent stories of toxic Chinese produce, seafood
The Bottom Line: An eye-opening look at a uniquely American cuisine and its roots.
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| chiliqueen's Full Review: Jennifer 8 Lee - The Fortune Cookie Chronicles |
Before I went vegetarian four years ago, I could be found at our local Chinese restaurant's buffet, or at the Chinese fast-food equivalent at local malls. I was a fan of crab rangoon, lemon chicken, sesame chicken, crispy fried noodles, beef and broccoli, sweet and sour chicken, eggrolls, and fried rice (these days, my "splurge" at Chinese restaurants is a bowl of steamed brown rice). When I heard about Jennifer 8. Lee's The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, I had to read up on the origins of "Chinese" food as sold in America.
I wasn't a complete newcomer; I knew, for example, that fortune cookies originated in Japan, not China, and my experiences with a Chinese dormmate in Quebec showed me that traditional Chinese food was light years away from its American (and Canadian) counterparts (the giveaway was the frog legs on the Chinese buffet in Quebec). I found my Chinese friend cutting up a whole chicken in the dorm kitchen, boiling it and complaining that Americans (and Canadians by default) didn't understand "real Chinese food." Fair enough.
Lee's fascinating detective work traces the origins of classic dishes such as General Tso's Chicken (yes, there really was a General Tso, but his "chicken" is purely American) all the way to China. Hint: Chinese do not deep fry large chunks of meat and slather them in mysterious, gooey sauces loaded with MSG and corn syrup. Nor do they ornament everything with broccoli. She also discusses the origins of P.F. Chang, Panda Express, and the several American businesses that exist solely to prepare strangely soyless soy sauce and carryout containers.
She chronicles the creation of the far-flung empire of Chinese restaurants that have conquered the globe, and even searches out the "greatest Chinese restaurant in the world," traveling to Dubai, Mauritius, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Paris, Australia, Peru, Canada, the US, and Brazil in search of the perfect combination of authentic food and an authentic Chinese dining experience.
I found it curious that in light of the numerous recalls regarding toxic Chinese products, including tainted / poisonous produce, meat and medicines, that Lee fails to mention if this stigma affects imports of Chinese foodstuffs, or of Americans' opinions towards Chinese-owned establishments have changed. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles made an interesting counterpoint to A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy.
Lee's insider status (the child of Chinese immigrants, she is fluent in Mandarin and was raised on both her mother's traditional Chinese cooking as well as American Chinese) allows her unprecedented access to the mysterious world of Chinese restaurants, with their rituals of buying and selling, procurement, and recruiting, as well as to poll Chinese on their opinions of what real Chinese food consists of (and their opinions of American Chinese food such as General Tso's Chicken). Her Chinese also allows her an interview with one of China's last Jews of Kaifeng.
Another fascinating sidenote is the devotion of two chapters to kosher Chinese food, and some of the scandals that surrounded a high-profile case (the Great Kosher Duck Scandal of 1989). (My own personal view of Chinese at Christmas will forever be cemented by the classic (and non-PC) ending of A Christmas Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)).
Most heartbreaking were the stories of illegal immigration from China's Fuijan region and Fuzhou city. Families were torn apart by hazardous human smuggling at an exorbitant cost (according to Lee, the price in 2006 was upwards of $70,000 a person). Once landed in the US (assuming they evaded immigration authorities), they gravitated towards Chinese restaurant jobs that didn't require them to know English, working 12-hour days to send home money in order to send for their families, who would become trapped in the same cycle. Their children (whose English was much more advanced) would then be the "face" of the restaurant, responsible for phone orders, dealing with vendors and repairmen, and waiting tables. Older immigrants who failed to master English and who immigrated illegally are trapped in the Chinese restaurant world, with a black-and-white worldview limited to how far a city was via bus from NYC. Chinese deliverymen are routinely subjected to violent holdups, even murder (Lee devotes a chapter to a high-profile case where a Chinese deliveryman went missing in NYC).
All in all, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles was a fascinating read that lovingly traces the origins and evolution of Chinese food on an American (and international) scale, including the human costs involved in starting and running Chinese restaurants.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
chiliqueen
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Member: Veggiechiliqueen
Location: Deep in the heart of Texas
Reviews written: 546
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About Me:
"There's no such thing as dead languages, only dormant minds." ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
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