HYDERABAD: In today’s episode of mistaken origins, I present to you the famous and beloved fortune cookie! But wait, mistaken origin? Isn’t the fortune cookie obviously from China?
Well, that’s what we all thought at first, but if we dig a little deeper, we find early findings of this sugary oracle originating from Japan! These fortune cookies were first found in an illustration from a 19th-century book of stories, ‘Moshiogusa Kinsei Kidan’. It was later proven that the cookies were sold at bakeries on the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan.
Known as ‘Fortune Crackers’ (Tsujiura Senbei) or ‘Written Fortune Crackers’ (Omikuji Senbei), the illustration depicts the baker grilling wafers in black irons over coals. This process is followed in present-day bakeries as well. So, back in the early 1900s, a Japanese immigrant, Makoto Hagiwara, the owner of the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, was the first to serve the modern version of the cookie in America. He inserted thank you notes to the people who stood by him when he was fired by an anti-Japanese mayor and was later reinstated by a new mayor.
We’ve already experienced so many twists and turns (similar to the process of making a fortune cookie actually), but there’s more! Did you know that the Japanese fortune cookie is flavoured with sesame and miso? They’re darker than the ones made popular in America and also have the messages put at the exterior bend rather than being folded inside.
So, as much as we can say that the Japanese gave us the fortune cookie, it was actually the Chinese who mass-produced it and made it popular. The company, Wonton Food, produces an average of 4.5 million fortune cookies per day! It’s fascinating to note that Donald Lau, VP, Wonton Food, was responsible for writing thousands of fortunes. But he hit a writer’s block in 1995 and that’s when the company hired their first official fortune cookie writer!
One of the most distinguishing attributes of a fortune cookie is the style in which it is written. The Japanese wrote poetic fortunes, while the Chinese gave predictions and even wrote some proverbs. So, the next time you get a fortune cookie, chances are that they have a Chinese origin since they’ve written over 15,000 fortunes!
These fortune cookies are a common sight in many old-school Chinese restaurants in Hyderabad as well. Walk into Chung Hua, Haiking, Alex’s kitchen & Ming’s Court -- you are presented with these crunchy, mildly sweet cookies brought to you with the check at the end of a meal. You know that when you open them, whether you actually eat them or not, you’ll get a fortune, some advice, lucky numbers or a new Chinese word.
(Vishal Fernandes is a business traveller and a widely recognised luxury lifestyle blogger)