Fortune Cookies

  

Fortune cookie

(Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

 Did you know?

    The exact provenance of fortune cookies is unclear.

    A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla and oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside.

    A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom and lucky numbers.

    Fortune cookies before the early 20th century were all made by hand.

    Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in United States and some other countries, but are absent in China.

    The factory in China ran out of business. (Consider exporting to North America where everything is made in China.)

    Shuck Yee from Oakland, California invented the fortune cookie machine that changed the industry dramatically. The machine allowed for mass production of fortune cookies, which become the novelty and courtesy dessert in many American based Chinese restaurants.

    Although many people do not take the message in a fortune cookie serious, many of them consider it part of the game that the entire cookie must be consumed in order for the fortune to come true.

    How the cookie is selected might change the outcome—with closed eyes, passing a cookie to another person at the table, or choosing the cookie that’s pointing directly at you.

    Messages include promises of finding the pot of gold, the perfect partner, good health, travelling the world or lucky numbers. The first the most popular.

    Some cookies have no message inside. (That’s kind of rude)

    “The hands holding this paper will not do dishes again.” (Can go either way) 

    “Beware of cookies bearing fortunes.” (This employee/writer is on thin ice, getting fired)

     Legend has it that a couple of Chinese immigrant women landed jobs at a fortune cookie factory in America. Amused by the unfamiliar concept of a fortune cookie and after several attempts translating the fortunes into Chinese, they came to the conclusion that the cookies do not contain wisdom, but "bad instruction."

The piece of paper might be (un)fortunate, but the cookie "good idea".