Really a good book, but very uneven. Lee really isn't a food writer, but she has many fascinating things to say about the spread of Chinese cuisine. Somehow lends the impression, however, that someone was standing behind her forcing her to pad the book. ( )

A while back I watched Lee talk about some of the stuff in this book and found it really interesting. The book was not quite what I'd expected based on that. I thought it would have a little more about Chinese food around the world, but the focus was mostly American Chinese food with one chapter about other countries. There was also way more about fortune cookies than necessary, I think. She spread that part out really long. But overall it was a really interesting book and a neat look at the history of American Chinese food and Chinese immigrants in America.

I was surprised by what are considered the most common menu items in the US. I really haven't eaten Chinese food outside of LA much (once in Indiana and once or twice in the Bay Area), so my idea of what was normal was pretty skewed, I guess. For example, apparently General Tso's Chicken is like the number one most common item, but I have only had it once and I thought it was unique to the place I'd had it at, because I've never seen it anywhere else I've eaten. ( )

This book is about connections: how Chinese food connects Americans to Americans, Americans to Chinese, and Chinese to each other. It opens the door on a world most Americans have no idea about when they crack open their fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese dinner. Lee explores such diverse topics as Chinese immigration, the development of Chinese cuisine in America, what the definition of "soy sauce" is, and, of course, the origin of the fortune cookie.

Lee's well-written book will entertain its readers whether they love Chinese cuisine or not. Other than a brief few pages toward the end where she makes the obligatory tie-in to her own cultural heritage, this book is about the food, the history, and the quirkiness that is Chinese cuisine in America. ( )

Jennifer 8 Lee's search to solve a lotto mystery ask and answers many mysteries along the way, leaving the reader laughing and wanting more. One of my favorite exchanges, an older woman enters a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco:

( )

Fortune Cookie Chronicles is a wonderful combination of the cultural history of food and the cultural history of immigration. The book is fun, touching, well-researched and well-written. Lee's book exemplifies all that I love about "creative non-fiction". It acknowledges that even the most authoritative non-fiction is influenced by personal experience. And that the best autobiography benefits from the author's research and attempts to view her experience from outside herself. Lee's book is personal, political, cultural, and above-all, loves good food unpretentiously. Read it to find out the history of General Tso's chicken and what life is like for the people that invented it.

Don't read it expecting it to provide a guide to the best Chinese-American food, but she throws in a few intriguing references, go check them out. ( )