The food that we eat has always presented many
mysteries. At least to me. Most people
probably don’t think about it, but there are probably some interesting stories
about how we discovered some of the different grub we consume. How many people do you think died before we
found the edible kinds of mushrooms? How
was bacon discovered (I think we’re all thankful that it happened no matter how
it was discovered) Who thought that the
brown lumpy potatoes in the dirt could be eaten in so many different ways? See what I mean? Just consider yourself lucky we didn’t have to
be the people to do the trial and error on all this stuff.
One of the foods I’ve always been curious about is the
fortune cookie. What’s up with those? A
small mostly tastless yellow cookie folded into some weird shape, that tells us
the future and a handful of lucky numbers.
The only other food that has the abbility to tell the future is Taco
Bell. Every meal says “you will be visiting the toilet in the near to immediate
future” Sorry that was pretty gross, but
for those of you with an elementary sense of humor (like me), you got a chuckle
out of it. Where does the fortune cookie
come from? Well for everyone that has
been bothered by this question, I’ve gone to the liberty of digging up the
mystery. You're welcome.
 |
| Mmmmmm lies about the future |
Much to my surprise, the fortune cookie does not actually originate
in China, despite the fact that it comes with Chinese food. They don’t even
serve them in China.
They aren’t even a cookie. It’s kinda
like Myspace, nobody is exactly who they say there are. All these years this Chinese fortune cookie
has been masquerading as all kinds of things it’s not. It’s not Chinese. It’s
not a cookie. And I don’t think anyone has ever gotten an accurate fortune out
of one of those things. BUT several people have reportedly won the lottery
based on their fortune cookie numbers. (At least that’s what the internet tells
me)
So let’s figure out what exactly this crispy little imposter
is. The origin is a little fuzzy but
scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago . . . stay
classy San Diego. Sorry, that’s kind of
a habit. The fortune cookie is claimed
to have been popularized by Chinese immigrants in California in the early 20th
century. They based their recipe on a
Japanese cracker that is similar, but is a little larger and made with
different ingredients. The fortunes
themselves may come from the Japanese temple tradition of handing out random
fortunes, which is called omikuji. Here
are several different stories; about how the
fortune cookie was created, so you can read them and pick your favorite.
The Evolution of the
Fortune
The fortune cookie became a staple in Chinese restaurants
following WWII and the evolution of the fortune began. The early fortunes were often times biblical
sayings and pieces of great wisdom from wise men like Confucius or Ben
Franklin. Over time they began to include smiley faces, lottery numbers, jokes,
Chinese language lessons and general bogus predictions of the future. Most of the fortunes are non-sense and in my
experience, inaccurate. Getting an
accurate fortune is like asking a magic 8 ball for advice. It’s probably just
coincidence if it’s right, but it usually isn’t. Which is a great segue into the main reason
for my writing this post . . .
If I made fortune
cookies . . .
Fortune cookies have been used for various reasons over the
years other than just spreading wisdom and predicting the future. They have
been used in political campaigns and customized for birthdays or weddings. But generally, when you order Chinese, your
fortune cookie will not tell you anything to get excited about. If I were making fortune cookies, I’d give
people some subtle but very realistic fortunes that would have a pretty good
chance of coming true, and freaking someone out. Get a few fortunes in a row that come true,
and you’ll have some true believers. I’ll provide a few examples for your
reading pleasure
- You will be moving slower than usual tomorrow morning. Find ways to appear more productive at work that you actually are. (These would be distributed on Sundays and Mondays for the early week doldrums)
- You will make several bad decisions soon that will have very little impact on your quality of life. But they will make you feel really dumb.
- You’ll bump in to someone soon that looks oddly familiar. You don’t actually know them, so don’t fret over it. (When this happens it usually bugs people like crazy, so this will help relieve that stress)
- You will find trying something new is fun and exciting, but you’re not going to be very good at it. Ever.
- You will get some really annoying song stuck in your head. When this happens listen to Michael Jackson instead. He’s really great. RIP MJ.
Now what amazes me is that Chinese restaurants haven’t
started using the fortune cookie as a way to increase business. It’s a
brilliant marketing strategy. Put some coupons in the form of fortunes in the
cookies!
- Two Thursdays from now you will enjoy a meal at Generic Chinese Restaurant at 25% off! It will be very satisfying.
- The third Saturday of the month you will use a buy-one-get-one-entrée-free at Generic Chinese Restaurant. You have a very hungry friend that enjoys orange chicken.
- This fortune will magically become a free side at Generic Chinese Restaurant. You will choose fried rice.
If you own a Chinese restaurant feel free to contact me for
my services. I’ll work for sweet & sour chicken. Also, if you have some great ideas for
fortunes like the ones above, leave them in the comments below.
As always, thanks for reading folks.
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