The Fortune Cookies Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee - Essay Example

The Fortune Cookies Chronicles By Jennifer 8 Lee In her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Jennifer 8 Lee explored the curious case of surprisinglyhigh number of second-place winner in Powerball lottery. During March of 2005, the officials of Powerball lottery noticed that they have 110 people as winners of second place which means they all got 5 correct numbers out of total 6 lottery numbers. All those 110 people got the same number 22, 28, 32, 33, 39, and 40 in their fortune cookies, at some point of time, from different Chinese restaurants across United States. However, the winning number of Powerball lottery was 22, 28, 32, 33, 39, and 42 which put all these people at second place with a prize of $100,000. Lee found it intriguing and began to find out the history and reality of fortune cookies in America. Fortune Cookies were perceived as originated in China and became a regular part of every Chinese restaurant in United States. Lee demonstrates an interesting resemblance between Chinese foods served in America and the America-born Chinese generation, and stated for both that: “It is Chinese but happens to born in America.” Lee found it interesting that her own mother, who spent quite a time in China, did not know much about fortune cookies and believed that it came from Hong Kong. From that point, Lee began to inquire that what the actual origin of fortune cookies is. On her quest, she met Misa Chang, who opened her restaurant in 70s. Misa was the first one to bring the idea of door delivery service in Chinese food line. Door delivery was in practice by some restaurants but Misa was the first one to think about delivering hot, spicy Chinese food on the doors. It was her idea of success but the innovation often outruns the innovator. The idea caught wind and soon other restaurant owners were offering home delivery. At this point of time, Misa thought about some innovative marketing technique that was actually a prototype of spamming. She thought about delivering mail advertisements to the people living in the area. She saw it as a perfectly legal thing as there was no concept of spamming in that era. However, just like the home delivery idea, her competitors also started to send flyers to the prospective buyers which at the end became messy for every one and legal complications were started. Lee described it as: “Miss Chang had succeeded in part because she had understood the power of spam before anyone else. It wasn’t just about the service; it was about the marketing. I had met the proto-spammer.” Lee believed that fortune cookie was another “caught the wind” idea of a Chinese or Japanese to present as a dessert. The supporting fact was that the Chinese deserts are totally different from Americans as they don’t bake. Their desserts are usually constituted of beans, peanuts, almond and sesame which are very strange for Americans to eat as desserts hence the idea of fortune cookies came. Lee traced fortune cookies back to the World War II and noticed that, even at that time, fortune cookies were believed to be a part of a perfect Chinese meal. Every restaurant in San Francisco and California was selling it and every other Chinese restaurant owner followed it considering it as a benchmark for a Chinese restaurant. Lee also met Sally Osaki, who claimed that fortune cookies are actually originated from Japan and initially the language on these cookies was Japanese. Only when her family came out of camp, did the Japanese replaced by English language. Lee considered that the origin of fortune cookies was actually dependant on Chop Suey because before that, Americans believe that Chinese eat rats, cats and dogs. Chinese immigrants had an outlook, language and culinary preferences that they looked totally alien to the Native Americans. However the Chinese restaurant was getting popular among budgeted people and the competitors planned to retaliate. During the late of eighteenth century, the local competitors attacked on Chinese families, in many areas, in an attempt to put them out of business. Such retributions brought a decline in the employment rate of Chinese. However, the Chinese restaurants were increasing in number but the Chinese were facing difficulty in getting decent jobs. In 1990, the New York City was suddenly overwhelmed by a new Chinese dish called Chop Suey. The dish was made of meat, chicken, beans, shrimp and eggs and usually presented with rice. Some people also preferred to eat with fried noodles. That dish was something Americans could understand and enjoyed without getting suspicious of what they are eating. Chop Suey instantly picked up by people and became a sign of sophistication and adventure. “… An ‘outbreak of Chinese restaurants all over town’ Diners was being drawn by something dazzling! Something sophisticated! Something exotic! Something … had taken the country by storm. Something called . . . chop Suey?” In reality, Chop Suey was not a Chinese dish at all but invented by Chinese immigrants in America to attract customers. Lee showed that it started when a Chinese diplomat Li Hongzhang made a visit to America and the cooks of a restaurant made a modified version of “Chow Chop Suey” for him that became instantly famous by the name of Chop Suey. During and after World War II, the dish was introduced in China to make American soldiers feel like home. One of the people Lee interviewed on her quest correctly summarizes the situation: “Chinese cuisine took on an American influence in order to make a business out of it,” he said. “If you give them real authentic Chinese cuisine, Americans can’t accept it.” Whether it is a case of Chop Suey, General Tso’ chicken or fortune cookies, it was a simple game of demand and supply. Chinese gave Americans what they want with Chinese add-ons. Lee also tried to find the World’s best Chinese restaurant during her journey. She found that there are more Chinese restaurants in United States than Burger Kings, McDonald’s and Wendy’s together. She traveled to six continents to get answers of her questions, all and all fifteen countries. She had been to Lima’s Sweet and Sour Pork. She met Chen Kinichi, the Iron chef, in Tokyo and also dined in the famous China Town in San Francisco. Lee also interviewed one of the owners of Fortune Cookie manufacturers. The process of putting fortune slips into the cookies become modern by time and the art of writing fortunes also changed. It is evident that no person wants to read a bad fortune but, still, writing fortunes is a difficult job. A person can write thousands of wise lines but one day he will be dried of ideas. Here comes the idea of putting numbers in the cookies instead of fortune or wisdom. The Wonton Food made it customary to put numbers into their fortune cookies, and the most interesting fact is that the numbers are picked by hand and not with computer. The Powerball Lottery, the main initiative of the whole quest of Jennifer 8 Lee, issued winning number was matched with Wonton Food’s fortune cookie numbers in five out of six. It happened twice when the winners were traced back to the Wonton Food fortune cookies. Lee also found it interesting that all the wisdom inside the fortune cookies is not coming from Confucius or some other Great Chinese scholar but from books like “Poor Richards’s Almanac” or “The Great Thoughts” by George Seldes. Lee found it disappointing that there is no secret Chinese mystery behind fortune cookies. Some fortune cookies writers also pick ideas from movies and astrology books. Lee interestingly concludes her book on a final note that Chinese are providing Western wisdom to the Western people. Works Cited: Lee, J. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Grand Central Publishing. 2009. Print. Read More