As American as apple pie— or more so

By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic
In print: Sunday, March 23, 2008

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On March 30, 2005, the multistate Powerball lottery went haywire. An unprecedented number of people hit the jackpot with the same set of numbers. These people shared one trait: a marked enthusiasm for Chinese food. They had all played the numbers on the little slip of paper inside their fortune cookies.

New York Times journalist Jennifer 8. Lee was on the subway when she first read the story. A self-described ABC (that's American-born Chinese), Lee decided to track down the winners as a means of exploring this country's love affair with Chinese food. A little thin as a premise, this is merely the jumping off point for the smart culinary/anthropological romp that resulted in The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.

As Lee explains, there are nearly 40,000 Chinese restaurants in this country (more than the number of McDonald's, Burger Kings and KFCs combined, she asserts). Sure, apple pie is American, but which did you eat more of recently, apple pie or Chinese food? In her investigations, she logs frequent-flier miles not just on behalf of the fortune cookie — she circumnavigates the planet in search of the origins of chop suey, chow mein and General Tso's chicken.

Set apart from the rising tide of lyrical food memoirs, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles can be downright gritty (evidently Chinese food delivery people in Manhattan should go heavy on the life insurance), a byproduct of Lee's day job as a metro reporter. It's a wild ride through the mean streets of Changsha, the strip malls of Wisconsin and the microfiche of early California history.

One of Lee's own cookie fortunes hints at her conclusion: "Do or do not. There is no try." Wait a second, that's a Yoda quote from The Empire Strikes Back. Hardly imports, the fortune cookie, chow mein and even General Tso's poultry developed at the junction of Chinese emigres' ambition and Americans' culinary eccentricities — less melting pot than stir-fry.

Laura Reiley can be reached at lreiley@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2293.