Plot
Harry Folger is a food critic for a major newspaper. Restaurants live or die by his reviews, which often use gratuitously nasty prose in order to draw more readers. Spiting journalistic integrity, Harry usually only visits the restaurants he pans so that he can collect their matchbooks and display them as tombstones in a graveyard scene at his office.
Harry visits a new Chinese restaurant called "Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine", orders a massive amount of food and then immediately asks for the check without eating. Assuming Harry was displeased with the food, the owner Mr. Lee apologizes, tells Harry the meal is free, and presents him with a fortune cookie. The fortune reads "A grand reward awaits you just around the corner."
As Harry walks past an alley, a thief knocks him down and drops $100,000 in diamonds before running away. The grateful jewelry store owner gives Harry $1,000 as a reward. Realizing the fortune cookies are magical, Harry returns for more. When Mr. Lee complains that customers canceled their reservations because of his review, Harry promises to write a more favorable re-review if he is allowed to have a table. After again not touching his food, he receives a fortune that says "April arrives today, bringing romance." As it is September, Harry storms out, intending to go back on his promise. On the way to his office, he meets a woman asking for directions. He shows her the way and asks her out to dinner. She introduces herself as April Hamilton.
Harry takes her out to Mr. Lee's. Harry, again, does not eat any food despite April telling him how good it is. As the two get fortune cookies, April's fortune says that she will soon recognize a grievous error in judgment, while Harry's fortune says "You're going to die." Outraged, Harry threatens Mr. Lee and causes a scene. Disconcerted, April leaves. As he exits the restaurant, Harry is overcome with massive hunger pangs. He finds that he is on a street of Chinese restaurants that were not there before. He wanders into one restaurant, but is unable to satisfy his hunger. As he continues to endlessly eat, he receives a fortune cookie that says "You're dead." A tombstone with Harry's name on it has been added to his matchbook graveyard.
American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those found in China.
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation and/or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers. Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries, but they are not Chinese in origin. The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century. They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version did not have the Chinese lucky numbers and were eaten with tea.
Big Bird's Birthday or Let Me Eat Cake is a 1991 television special based on the children's television show Sesame Street. In the special, Big Bird celebrates his sixth birthday. The special aired on PBS stations during the week of March 9, 1991 as part of the PBS pledge drive season. On March 15, the special was re-aired as the Sesame Street episode "2835", with additional inserts from previous episodes added and the pledge break scene removed.
Eat Drink Man Woman is a 1994 comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang. It stars Sihung Lung, Wang Yu-wen, Wu Chien-lien, and Yang Kuei-mei as members of the Zhu family navigating the challenges of love, life, tradition and family. Part of Lee's "Father Knows Best" trilogy and similar to Lee's other works, this film deals with the transition from tradition to modernity. It is Lee's only film, to date, to be shot entirely in his native Taiwan.
General Tso's chicken is a sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken dish.
The Fortune Cookie is a 1966 American black comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Billy Wilder. It is the first film on which Jack Lemmon collaborated with Walter Matthau. Matthau won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.
Pigs Is Pigs is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on January 30, 1937.
"A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love" is the fourth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network on December 2, 2001. In the episode, Mr. Burns falls in love with Gloria, a woman who is much younger than he is and who turns out to be Snake Jailbird's ex-girlfriend.
Freaky Friday is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Mark Waters, from a screenplay that was written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon. Based on Mary Rodgers's 1972 novel of the same name, it is the third adaptation of the same story and fifth installment overall in the Freaky Friday franchise. It stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as a mother and daughter, respectively, whose bodies are switched by a mysterious and magical Chinese fortune cookie. Harold Gould, Chad Michael Murray, and Mark Harmon also star.
Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a one-hour Sesame Street special that aired on PBS on November 16, 1983. The title comes from a song in the special, "Don't Eat the Pictures", sung by Cookie Monster. It was available as a video tape by Random House in 1987, and it was re-released on VHS by Sony Wonder in 1996 and on DVD in 2011. The special has everybody reprising their roles from the children's television series, Sesame Street. The story takes on getting locked in at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art as they embark on an adventure to find their friend Big Bird, who has gotten lost finding Snuffy. They must stay there until the morning while avoiding a night watchman. The special features the regular human cast of Sesame Street along with several puppet characters, including Cookie Monster, Telly, Bert & Ernie, The Count, Grover, and Oscar the Grouch. Snuffy also appears, even though his names are revealed to be Mr. Snuffleupagus and Aloysius Snuffleupagus; however, at this point in the show's history, he is still the imaginary friend of Big Bird, never seen by the other characters on Sesame Street.
Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating catchphrases, such as "Me want cookie!" As his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies, though he eats almost anything, including inedible objects. Chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind. His speech is often grammatically nonstandard; for example, he always uses "Me" to refer to himself in place of "I", "My", and "Mine". Despite his voracious appetite for cookies, Cookie Monster shows awareness of healthy eating habits for young children and also enjoys fruit and vegetables.
The Shootout at Wilson Ranch resulted in the final and most famous hanging in the history of Tombstone, Arizona. On April 7, 1899, the brothers William and Thomas Lee Halderman were confronted by two lawmen at a ranch located in the Chiricahua Mountains. A brief gunfight ensued, during which Constable Chester L. Ainsworth was killed and his deputy, Teddy Moore, was mortally wounded. The Halderman brothers then fled to New Mexico, but they were captured shortly thereafter and executed on November 16, 1900, following a hasty trial in Tombstone.
The Search for General Tso is a documentary film that premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. It was directed by Ian Cheney and produced by Amanda Murray and Jennifer 8. Lee. Sundance Selects acquired it in December 2014, and it was released January 2, 2015, in theaters and on demand.
China Jones is a 1959 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on February 14, 1959, and stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. This cartoon later became rarely shown in the United States due to ethnic caricatures of Chinese and other East Asian people. The cartoon is a spoof of the 1950s TV series China Smith, starring Dan Duryea.
A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts: A collection of Deliciously Frightening Tales is a young adult fiction book written by Ying Chang Compestine. Set in China, the book blends Chinese culture, cuisine, and modern customs into eight horror stories.[1][2]
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food is a 2008 non-fiction book by Jennifer 8. Lee, published by Hachette/Twelve. It discusses the significance of Chinese American cuisine.
