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Most people probably know that the small, sweet, folded crisp cookie we get at
the end of a meal at a Chinese restaurant isn't authentic Chinese. In fact, if you watch any food tv at all, you probably know that the fortune cookie as we know it was
actually created in the United States.
There are actually a few different stories about who, where, and why the fortune cookie was invented in America. One story says that the cookies were invented in 1918 by Chinese David Jung, the founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Co. in Los Angeles. Jung created the cookies for the poor, unemployed people who were loitering in the streets during post-World War II times. The cookies had little strips of paper with Bible verses written on them by Jung's pastor friend, to encourage the poor.
A different story puts the fortune cookie even earlier, with Japanese-American Makoto Hagiwara in 1914. Hagiwara was the gardener at the famous Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. He served the cookies with small thank you notes inside.
Either way, the idea of a sweet treat with a message actually dates back to the 13th and 14th century in China. When the Mongols were in occupation of Peking, the Chinese made plans to overthrow them, but had no way of communicating the date of the upheaval secretly.
In one of many moments of brilliance that gives birth to great food, the Chinese hid the message of the rebellion in the middle of their traditional moon cakes. Since moon cakes are a traditional food during Chinese holidays, they passed them out to the people right under the noses of the Mongols.
Thus, the fortune cookie really does come from China!
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1-27-2006 @11:47PM Joe Wang said... Ah, you bring up my favorite topic: fortunes.
For thirty-six years I worked at a famous Chinese fortune cookie manufacturing company writing fortunes -- like the ones you get in cookies at Chinese food restaurants.
At our company, fortunes had to be approved by the Fortune Approval Committee. Over the years, for various reasons, the Fortune Approval Committee rejected certain fortunes. Secretly, I collected these fortunes and some of the ones the Fortune Approval Committee rejected as “Tasteless” I put into my book, Tasteless Fortune Cookie Fortunes.
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