Food | January 16, 2008 | 3 comments

A fortune cookie with a history

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Most people assume fortune cookies come from China. However, a Japanese scholar is arguing that it's origin can actually be traced back to Japan. Her biggest piece of evidence is a drawing from 1878 where a man is pictured baking them. Family bakeries in Japan still make fortune cookies that are bigger and brown in color.
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3 comments // A fortune cookie with a history

  • pressrecord
    • 0
      pressrecord  
    • wiki: it started in san francisco around the turn of the century but the cookie is based on a japanese cracker.

      mo' wiki: 3 years ago, the u.s. powerball lottery paid a total of 110 second place winners in an unprecedented and unexpected $19.4 million pay out. 89 tickets won $100,000 and lottery officials quickly suspected fraud. in fact, these second place winners all got their numbers from fortune cookies made in queens, new york, by the same company. haha!

    • 4 years ago
  • TheTimelyRain
    • 0
      TheTimelyRain  
    • Uh, yeah. Fortune cookies are made in California mostly. Some are produced in Queens, NY.

      According to many sources, notably, the History Channel's series on "American Eats", the fortune cookie evolved from the gold-mining days in California. After a hard day's work at the mines, miners would go to eat Chinese food nearby. One enterprising restaurant owner left regulars messages in the dessert thanking them for the patronage. And as they got more volume, the messages became more uniform until they have evolved into the pithy, not-quite-fortune messages featured in Chinese restaurants today.

      Having visited China twice in the last two years (Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou), I've never been offered a single fortune cookie in a restaurant there, American, Chinese, or other. My relatives who live there have never even heard of the concept. So I find it strange that people in the U.S. think of the fortune cookie as distinctly Chinese. After all, by the facts, it's ethnically American, just featured in Chinese eateries.

      Some more food for thought: General Tso's/Tsao's Chicken does not exist in China either. American invention as well.

      -TimelyRain

    • 4 years ago
  • Swiyyah
    • 0
      Swiyyah  
    • Check this out: How Fortune Cookies Are Mass-Produced

      Apparently they come from California :) That is what the video says.

    • 4 years ago
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