Fortune cookie

The Fortune Cookie is a crisp cookie made from flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk which is baked around a fortune, a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom or vague prophecy. Throughout the western world, it is usually served with Chinese food as a dessert. The message inside may also include a list of lucky numbers (used by some as lottery numbers) and a Chinese phrase with translation. Fortune cookies were invented in California, and are little-known in mainland China.

Origin

San Francisco and Los Angeles both lay claim to the origin of the fortune cookie. Makoto Hagiwara of Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco is said to have invented the cookie as an extension to Japanese desserts in 1909,^[1] while David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, is said to have invented them in 1918.^[2] San Francisco's mock Court of Historical Review took the case in 1983. During the proceedings, a fortune cookie was introduced as a key piece of evidence with a message reading, "S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie". A federal judge of the Court of Historical Review determined that the cookie originated with Hagiwara and the court ruled in favor of San Francisco. Subsequently, the city of Los Angeles condemned the decision.^[2] A legend says that in the 13th and 14th century, when the Mongols ruled China, a revolutionary named Chu Yuan Chang planned an uprising against the Mongols. He used mooncakes to pass along the date of the uprising to the Chinese by replacing the yolk in the center of the mooncake with the message written on rice paper. The Mongols did not care for the yolks, so the plan went on successfully and the Ming Dynasty began. The Moon Festival celebrates this with the tradition of giving mooncakes with messages inside. It is believed that immigrant Chinese railroad workers, without the ingredients to make regular mooncakes, made biscuits instead. It is these biscuits that are believed to be today's fortune cookies. [1]

Etymology

The cookies are generally called by the English term fortune cookies, even by Chinese Americans, as there is no standard Chinese term for them. In the Chinese language, however, fortune cookie has been translated variously as 幸运签饼, 签语饼, 幸运饼, 幸运签语饼, 幸运甜饼, 幸福饼干, 幸运饼干, 幸运饼, 幸运籤语饼, 籤语饼, or 占卜饼.

Fortune cookie payout

A typical fortune with lucky numbers and a Chinese lesson. (With incorrect Chinese characters.) See the image's page for detailed explanations

The U.S. Powerball lottery drawing of the March 30, 2005 game produced an unprecedented 110 second-place winners, all of whom picked five numbers correctly with no powerball number. The total came out to $19.4 million in unexpected payouts. 89 tickets won $100,000, but 21 additional tickets won $500,000 due to the Power Play multiplier option.^[3] Powerball officials initially suspected fraud, but it turned out that all the winners received their numbers from fortune cookies made by Wonton Food Inc.^[4], a fortune cookie factory in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Apparently, number combinations printed on fortunes are reused in thousands of cookies per day. The five winning numbers were 22, 28, 32, 33, and 39. The sixth number in the fortune, 40, did not match the powerball number, 42.^[3]

In popular culture

The non-Chinese origin of the fortune cookie is humorously illustrated in Amy Tan's 1989 novel The Joy Luck Club, in which a pair of Chinese immigrant women find jobs at a fortune cookie factory in America. They are amused by the unfamiliar concept of a fortune cookie but, after several hilarious attempts at translating the fortunes into Chinese, come to the conclusion that the cookies contain not wisdom, but "bad instruction." There is a common joke involving fortune cookies that involves appending "between the sheets" or "in bed" to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo or other bizarre messages (e.g., "Every exit is an entrance to new experiences [in bed]"). ^[5] Although many people do not take the message in a fortune cookie as a serious oracular device, many of them consider it part of the game that the entire cookie must be consumed in order for the fortune to come true.^[6] Variations on this idea include not eating the cookie if a fortune seems unlucky, or the idea that the entire cookie must be eaten before the fortune is read. Or conversely, the fortune must be read before any of the cookie is eaten. Some people believe the fortune will not come true if it is read aloud. Other people follow rules involving how the cookie is selected -- including selecting a cookie with closed eyes, passing a cookie to another person at the table, or choosing the cookie that seems to be pointing directly at you.

References

• Martin, James (2004), "Fortune Cookies: A San Francisco Invention", About.com, <http://sanfrancisco.about.com/cs/daytrips/a/fortunecook.htm>. Retrieved on August 11, 2004.
• Brunner, Borgna (2005), "The History of the Fortune Cookie", Infoplease, <http://www.infoplease.com/spot/fortunecookies.html>. Retrieved on May 10, 2005.
• Parvin, Ellie (1995), "Fortune cookie US invention", Golden Gater, <http://www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/spring95/jan31/fort.htm>. Retrieved on May 24, 2006.

Notes

External links

• Don't open this cookie (disastrous day inside), International Herald Tribune
• Cookie Master - Article detailing the job of a cookie fortunes writer
• Fortune Cookie Factory - Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco
• Pewter Fortune Cookies - Hand made sculputures of fortune cookies by artist Herbert Hoover.