In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, Jennifer 8. Lee explores the unique cultural phenomenon of Chinese food, and explores other interesting aspects of Chinese food history, creating an episodic novel of exploring Chinese history, and culture. In Chapter 14, Lee expands her journey to find "The Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World", outside of China.
Throughout the chapter, Jennifer 8. Lee's quest to find the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world took her across the globe for one whole year. At first, she thought she wouldn't be able to complete this task her editor gave her, "Chinese food s arguably the most persuasive cuisine on the planet… In order to understand Chinese food in America, you have to understand Chinese food around the world."(pg.209) She traveled to 15 countries starting in Los Angeles, and finishing in New York, but traveled far, and wide in-between to Lima, Paris, London, Japan, Australia, Vancouver, and so on. When Lee completed her traveling she "…landed home with lots of notes, dozens of interviews to transcribe, many ponderous food related thoughts, and a well-tended stomach."(pg.247) Now she just had to decide, which is the greatest Chinese restaurant?
In the end, Jennifer 8. Lee put all her notes, and information together to give us the final result, "The world's greatest Chinese restaurant outside Greater China as of the early twenty-first century is: Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine outside Vancouver…". (pg.249) Reading this, it was a shock to me, but you have to give it to them for their half-priced special of an eight-course gourmet meal with squab and half a lobster. A true "bang for your buck" is what always makes you wanna come back, but for Jennifer, it's what made the Greatest Chinese Restaurant in the World.
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