The Fortune Cookie

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

L.A. Times (6/8/08) "L. A., S. F. won't like the cookie's message", by Steve Harvey [[email protected]]

"L.A. boosters have long held that the folded vanilla wafer was invented in 1918 by an Angeleno named David Jung, founder of Hong Kong Noodle Co."

San Franciscans agrued that it was Makota Hagiwara who invented it. In 1983 there was a trial of sorts to settle the issue. Since the trial was in SF ..they won.

The article is based in large part on the new book "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles" by Jennifer 8 Lee. She found evidence that the cookie wafers with may have originated in Kyoto!

The funny thing is in spite of several attempts to introduce them, they are still not popular in China! The lastest attempt was in the mid 1990s by The Wonton Food company.

[Anonymous]

Ah, the fortune cookie. I would highly recommend seeing the film "The Killing of the Chinese Fortune Cookie". The filmmakers travel to China, Japan, San Francisco, and beyond, to find out where exactly the cookie came from. There are several interviews, and the editing of the film is actually quite strong. Also, the film does a great job of showing just how powerful fortune cookies have been intertwined into the American cultural stream of consciousness - one of the Miss America contestants framed her fortune because she believed it to have supernatural power. Also, there are numerous clips from film and comics that shows how the fortune cookie has appeared in more ways than one.

Though the film begins to drag at some point, it is very entertaining and very informative.

[Anonymous]

I've been known to keep a fortune... or two. :} According to the rules of Fortune cookie superstition: does the fortune still come true if you pick and choose the ones you want to save?

[Anonymous]

Speaking of fortune cookie myths, theres the one where you only eat half if you want it to come true and leave the rest as an offering. Then theres the one about adding "in bed" to the end of the fortune

[Anonymous]

I once visited a restaurant that had one wall covered with fortune cookie messages; it was very interesting to read how the content of the messages have changed.

[Author]

Posts