beXnlog

Fortune Cookies

Whether you like the cookie or not, everyone read the messages! My sister started a practice where each person is given a fortune cookie from someone else at the table, as opposed to picking your own. That way, it sort of seals the belief that fate is given, not self-chosen. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fate!

Not that all fortune cookies hold your fate imprinted on little slips of paper, but when you get an accurate or amazing message, it does seem so. If you ever wondered about who wrote the messages, check out this article. Apparently there's a 25 year old in San Francisco writing and editing dozens and dozens a week. Thanks, AAM.

Modelminority has a great article about the history of fortune cookies. It's an American invention, people! Although the exact inventor is unknown, this article suspects it was the Chinese miners who built the Western half of the transcontinental railroad. Most people seem to conclude it was either Chinese American David Jung or Japanese American Makoto Hagiwara. The largest manufacturer of fortune cookies in the world is right here in New York: the Wonton Food Inc, plus an article about them. They were the first company to print lottery numbers and "learn chinese" on the backs of the fortunes.

All this research on fortune cookies has me drooling for Chinese food. No restaurant that i know of in Chinatown gives out fortune cookies, though. I'm sure the tourists are utterly confused.

posted by beXn @ 5:01 PM