Passion Worth Blogging: Hunt for General Tso

Jennifer 8. Lee is an American journalist, previously with the New York Times and the author of the best seller “Fortune Cookie Chronicles,” detailing her investigation of Chinese food in the United States.

In her TED talk, Jennifer talks about food, which is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to watch it in the first place and want to share on my blog. I love food, as many of my friends and people around me would instantly acknowledge, and learning about the history of food is an interest of mine. I found it extremely interesting to find out that fortune cookies are actually of Japanese-creation and that there are more Chinese restaurants in the States than McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, and Wendy’s combined. I also found it interesting that Chinese food has been immersed so much into American culture, much like how Japanese food is in Vancouver and Hong Kong. Come to think of it, I only remember American pie from the movie.

What I really liked about this talk is that I actually did my own little experiment similar to Jennifer, which I asked my relatives in Hong Kong about these Canadian/American Chinese food (I’ll refer to all Canadian and American variations of Chinese food as simply American Chinese food from now on because I’m quite sure the variations moved from the States to Canada). I remember asking them if they had ever heard of fortune cookies? Nope. Would they like to try chop suey? My cousin said hell no and how could this even be sold under the name “Chinese food,” which was said in a disgusted tone as if I asked him if he’d like to eat stir-fry cell phones.