User:Me ha9

Fortune Cookies. General Tso’s Chicken. Sesame Chicken. Chop Suey.

In The Fortune Cookies Chronicles (2008), Jennifer 8. Lee explores how dishes like these and Chinese food in general has “ceased to be ethnic” (19) and yet remains identifiably Chinese at the same. As one American military officer in Iraq noted, “What could be more American than beer and take-out Chinese?” (26). In order to understand how Chinese food can be both Chinese and American at the same time, Lee takes the readers throughout the United States and China to find the origins of some of our most popular dishes, and she travels around the world to find the “greatest” Chinese restaurant in the world.

Lee’s Chinese food journey began shortly after March 30th, 2005. That was the night that 110 people won the Lottery Powerball. What made this situation even more unusual was the fact that of those 110 winners, 104 had picked the same incorrect powerball number (which won them a cash prize). Those 104 people had all chosen their lottery numbers (including the incorrect powerball number) based on the numbers printed on the back of fortune cookies. This strange occurrence prompts Lee to trace the history of America’s national cuisine, Chinese food.

Fortune cookies are “wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” because of the murky details surrounding just when, where, who, and under what circumstances the cookies were created. In 1983 there was a court case between a Los Angeles contingency who supported the side of David Jung (a deceased Chinese immigrant) and San Francisco litigants in support of Makoto Hagiwara (a deceased Japanese immigrant) to decide who was the creator of fortune cookies. The piece of evidence that seemed to decide the case in the end was the cookie baking irons produced by the Hagiwara family. Lee also points out that Chinese families (both in China and in the US) do not bake (40). So how is it then that fortune cookies are so strongly associated with Chinese food? Lee visited Japanese shops and families in San Francisco and was confronted by the long history of xenophobia in the US that has played a role in the proliferation of Chinese food. Among Japanese families in San Francisco there are stories about Japanese owned confectionary shops as early as the 1920s. Many of these shops served crescent-shaped sweet crackers called senbei that had slips of paper inside. During the 1940s when Japanese families were placed in internment camps, local Chinese restaurants saw an opening and cornered the market on fortune cookies.

Xenophobia also plays a role in the spread of one American’s favorite Chinese dishes, chop suey. Prior to chop suey, Americans were largely suspicious of Chinese food due to rumors about the Chinese eating rats and cats. On top of that, Chinese food was seen as spicy and feared because Americans liked bland, much of the food was cooked in identifiable body parts (feet, tongues, heads intact), they ate just about anything from the ocean, and they were obsessed with bean-based food products. This was an unappealing combination to American stomachs. When Chinese laborers took on jobs as cooks and launderers following American backlash against Chinese workers, chop suey was created and marketed as the national dish of China. The dish was salty and sweet and had recognizable components like vegetables and familiar meats. In Cantonese, chop suey translates to “odds and ends”. Today, this meal which was thought of as the “national” dish of China is an American export sent to countries around the world.

One of the most interesting chapters deals with a Chinese restaurant mainstay; General Tso’s Chicken. In the United States the infamous General is known for the crispy chicken dish that shares his name; in China he is known for war. Lee wonders how it is that a famous military leader came to lend his name to a food dish. In her travels throughout China, Lee was hard pressed to find a chef who could make General Tso’s chicken let alone recognize pictures of the dish. Lee also noticed that other crispy chicken dishes enjoyed in America were missing: sesame chicken, lemon chicken, and sweet-and-sour chicken. A trip to the General’s home town did not reveal any answers. One man suspected that the dish was named after the General because his military exploits must have been famous around the world (72). During a trip to Taipei, Lee received a tip on the origins of General Tso’s chicken. Chef Peng was rumored to make the dish. However, when Lee ordered the dish at Chef Peng’s restaurant, it did not look or taste like the dish she was familiar with. Chef Peng was appalled when he was shown a picture of the American dish. So where did this American favorite come from if not China? The dish appears to have been developed as a result of a cooking rivalry between Chefs Peng (the same Peng Lee met in Taipei) and Wang in New York City in the 1970s. Chef Peng made a Chinese dish he called General Tso’s chicken while Wang made an Americanized chicken dish (that American’s would recognize as General Tso’s chicken) that he called General Ching’s chicken. Chef Peng was shown on television cooking his dish and somehow the name of his dish merged with Chef Wang’s Americanized dish.

While Lee deals with other issues related to Chinese food (the fortune cookie industry, immigration of restaurant workers, scandals over duck meat, and controversies over soy sauce authenticity), one of her most wide-ranging chapters deals with the search for the “greatest Chinese restaurant in the world” (207). What makes this chapter so interesting is the culturally specific ways that restaurants around the world adapt Chinese food and interpret what a Chinese restaurant looks like. In Peru, Chinese food has become so pervasive that most non-Chinese restaurants serve fried rice and wonton soup (213-215). A Chinese restaurant in Mumbai, India does not serve fortune cookies; they serve fried crispy noodles with ice cream and date pancakes (242). And the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world? That is a story that you will have to read the book to find out.

Jennifer 8. Lee takes readers on a trip around the world to understand how Chinese food has become considered “authentic” by different peoples. How can Chinese food be recognizably Chinese and yet taste of home (where ever that home may be) (257). Rather than tell a standard history of the little cuisine that could, Lee explores how Chinese food pushes the boundaries of how we define concepts like assimilation and authenticity (256-257). Lee posits that the old definitions of assimilation which emphasize minority populations blending into majority populations, the success of Chinese food demonstrates that convergence is the key to assimilation. And what actually constitutes authenticity? Potatoes are a staple in Irish food, but they are undeniably a New World food. Indian curries are enhanced by New World chilies. Lee considers all of these examples (including Chinese dishes like General Tso’s chicken) to be “native foreign dishes” (257). Foreign in their inspiration, native in their creation. There are reasons why foods lend themselves so easily to blending of cuisines and ingredients. Lee points out that when people first come into contact with each other, language may be a barrier, but food lends itself immediately to opinion and evaluation (258). Food practices also tend to be one of the aspects of heritage that survives culture contact. Lee suggests that her grandchildren someday may not speak Chinese, but they will know how fry dumplings (258). Rather than the melting pot analogy that all school children are taught, stir-fry may be more apt; “our ingredients remain distinct, but our flavors blend together in a sauce shared by all” (259).

Lee’s writing is accessible and entertaining while at the same time theoretically interesting. Lee is trained as a journalist (and is employed by the New York Times) and her book reads much like a series of short newspaper articles. While much of the book explores particular dishes, controversies, and the migration of Chinese restaurant workers, Lee keeps all of these topics grounded in her efforts to understand how food can be authentic and foreign at the same time. During an interview on the television show “The Colbert Report” Lee claimed that Chinese food is more American than apple pie. Lee does not hit the reader over the head with anthropological and sociological theory, but the concepts are there, grounded in the lived experiences of the people that Lee interviews and describes. This book will be interesting to anyone who enjoys eating Chinese food.

Written for E621 (Food and Culture) at Indiana University