Crack open a fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese meal, and you might find a prediction of good luck, a bit of wisdom, or even a set of lucky lottery numbers.
But here’s the bizarre part: The fortune cookie isn’t really Chinese.
Its history appears to lead instead to Japan.
Researchers have traced the cookie’s ancestors to Japanese crackers known as tsujiura senbei. Bakeries near Kyoto made the larger, darker crackers with fortunes tucked into the fold. An illustration from 1878 even depicts a Japanese baker making the treats with iron grills remarkably similar to those later used for fortune cookies.
How they became an American Chinese restaurant tradition is a little less certain.
Several California businesses have claimed a role in creating or popularizing the modern cookie. One story credits Makoto Hagiwara, the Japanese immigrant associated with San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden, with serving fortune cookies there in the early 1900s. Los Angeles businesses also have made claims to the cookie’s American beginnings.
Then came World War II.
After the United States forced Japanese Americans into incarceration camps, Japanese-owned bakeries on the West Coast closed. At the same time, Chinese restaurants were becoming increasingly popular. Chinese entrepreneurs began producing and serving the cookies, and the association between Chinese food and fortune cookies took hold. By the end of the war, the cookies were spreading across the country.
Eventually, machines replaced much of the hand folding, allowing fortune cookies to be mass-produced.
Today, breaking open that crisp cookie and comparing fortunes has become a familiar ending to a Chinese restaurant meal in America.
So, the next time your cookie promises wealth, romance or a wonderful opportunity, remember its own story is full of twists.
Bizarre Bytes gives us those unusual facts that you only need to know for Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, or to stump your in-laws.
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