NAC: Your forthcoming book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, purports to explore the mysteries of Chinese food. Why do you think there is a mystique that Americans associate with Chinese food?

LEE: One of the reasons why I think this book appeals is because I think Chinese food is simultaneously exotic and familiar. People can identify with it, but also want to know more about it. The main reason it seems exotic is the difficulty of wok cooking. Other 'ethnic' foods, like lasagna and tacos, you can kind of make at home. Well, you can fake it at home. In order to make genuine style Chinese-American cooking, you need a very specific kind of equipment-and the normal stoves that we have in America aren't powerful enough.

In the book, I solve the true origins of fortune cookies. I've unraveled the mystery of General Tso's chicken-I found the originating chef. The recipe we eat today is from NYC in the 1970s. Most contemporary Chinese-American dishes are bastardized versions from chefs that came to America in the late 60's and early 70's.

Some of those foods, though, like chop suey, we rarely see anymore. Where you do see a lot of it is just across the U.S. border, in a town called MexiCali, which is the Chinese restaurant capitol of Mexico. They're still eating chow mein, chop suey, egg foo young. It's Mexican Chinese food. They use a lot of lemon, and they serve big cold cups of sweet tea.

NAC: Lunar New Year is coming up. How did you celebrate, growing up?

LEE: Our family didn't really celebrate when I was growing up, but, retroactively, my mom has decided that Chinese New Year is a holiday, essentially so that she can bring the family together. There are these Chinese candies that come in little red foil, and the candies are beige, and then pink inside. I have a deep nostalgia for them. I was the Chinese kid in school, so my mom would always make fried rice that I could bring in for Chinese New Year. We would also put quarters in red envelopes and give them out. Those are my memories.

NAC: According to a 2004 article in the New York Sun, you're quite the hostess! What do you typically serve to your guests?

LEE: I love to host parties. I often make hundreds of turkey dumplings, which is very Chinese-American. Chinese people don't really eat turkey-there aren't turkeys running around China! I once had a party and made 880 turkey dumplings. You know how some people knit? I make dumplings, sort of mindlessly.

NAC: What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a young, female reporter at the New York Times?

LEE: One challenge is deciding; do you stay away from what you're naturally good at, just because you think your talents are more typically associated with being a female reporter? For example, I'm a very strong feature writer. But does that mean that I shouldn't do feature writing because it's more associated with young, funky women? At a certain point, you have to ask; do you just stay true to yourself, or do you resist that, because you don't want to pigeonholed? It's an interesting struggle.

NAC: What's your ideal meal?

LEE: What I love doing is going to Flushing [Queens, New York] food court, where you can get a lot of lamb dishes. There's a Muslim minority in China who do a lot of cooking with lamb. That cooking has spread all across China. A lot of those dishes are not available in Chinatown in NYC, but they are available in Flushing.

I like dao shao mian, a shredded noodle dish. Instead of having the machine pulled needles, they take a block of dough and shred it into the pot. It's thick, chewy noodles. I really like the food from Xiniiang, which is slightly central Asian [influence], slightly Chinese. It uses a lot of tomato, which is fairly rare. That cooking really resonates with me because it reminds me of a certain time in my life. After college, I went to China for a year, and traveled by myself. It reminds me of a period of freedom and exploration. The emotional associations with that kind of cooking are really, really strong.

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