Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Fortune Cookie Chronicles report

This month was especially tasty!

Fortune Cookie Chronicles turned out to be a fascinating book, giving a great history of American style Chinese food, dishes unique to America and where they might have come from, the debate over who created the fortune cookie (the Japanese, as it turns out), and much insight into the struggles people go through to run a Chinese restaurant in order to make a better life for their children.

Inspired by the book, we created variations on American style Chinese food:

Dawn – store bought fortune cookies + Fried Rice

Karen – General Tso’s Chicken

Debbie - deep fried salmon stuffed wonton
Katie - Ginger Garlic Chicken and Beef and Broccoli

Julie – beef and duck on rice

Tanya – humbow and mango coconut jellies.

Heather Рsaut̩ed vegetables and sticky rice, iced green tea


For those who want to know more, and see some crazy variations on Chinese food, check out the author’s blog.

We decided on the schedule for the rest of the year, in case you want to get reading early (I know there is a limited number of August and October’s books):

May 9 – Omnivore’s Dilemma

June 13 – Little House in the Big Woods

July 11 - Heat: an amateur's adventures as kitchen slave

August 8 - A Thousand Days in Venice

September 12 - Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table

October 10- Five Quarters of the Orange

November 14 – Pie Month – Life of Pi

December 12 - Sweet Revenge

Looking forward to discussing Omnivore’s Dilemma with you next month, and seeing what you decide to cook!