Fortune Cookies

Anyone who has been to a Chinese restaurant has had, or at least seen, fortune cookies. These almond or vanilla flavored treats not only taste great, but they have a surprise inside – a small strip of paper with a prediction or saying printed on it. The fortune cookie is a cookie with a piece of paper inside with words of supposed wisdom and/or prophecy.

Theories abound to the origin of the fortune cookie, but what is certain is that no matter how the cookie originated, it has become a permanent part of Chinese-American culture.

Theory 1:     It is believed that fortune cookies first appeared in the United States in 1914, made by Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese man in San Francisco. He owned the business that is now known as the Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden and served the cookies with tea.

Theory 2:     However, there is another belief that the cookies did not make their first American appearance until 1918, when the Chinese-American man David (Tsung) Jung, who also owned the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, began serving cookies stuffed with biblical passages to his customers.

Theory 3:     The 49er theory also originates in northern California. In the mid-1800s, many Chinese immigrants worked to build the country's railways in Nevada and Canada. They wanted to celebrate the Moon Festival, a holiday where it is customary to give special cakes with messages inside. Seeing as they had only biscuits, they improvised and created the fortune cookie.

Up until World War II fortune cookies where mainly popular in San Francisco area restaurants. Soldiers returning from World War II , would go to their local Chinese restaurants and inquire as to why they did not serve the same cookies that the shops in San Francisco did. A number of Americanized Chinese restaurants copied the idea and fortune cookies became very popular. Mainly served as a dessert after every meal at many restaurants. In addition to a fortune, fortune cookies may also contain lucky numbers (used by some as lottery numbers) and a Chinese phrase with translation.

The first automated production of Fortune Cookies took place in America in 1964 before that they were made by hand.

Although they are served almost exclusively in Chinese restaurants abroad, fortune cookies are almost unknown in China. Places that serve them call them "Genuine American Fortune Cookies."

Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, not China!