Type | Cookie (wafer [1] ) |
---|---|
Place of origin | Japan United States |
Main ingredients | Flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil |
Other information | Unicode emoji 🥠 |
A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie wafer made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", an aphorism, or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation and/or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers. Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other countries, but they are not Chinese in origin. [2] The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century. They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century. The Japanese version did not have the Chinese lucky numbers and were eaten with tea.
There is no single accepted Chinese name for the cookies, with a large variety of translations being used to describe them in the Chinese language, all of which being more-or-less literal translations of the English "fortune cookie". Examples include: 幸运籤饼 xìngyùn qiān bǐng "good luck lot cookie", 籤语饼 qiān yǔ bǐng "fortune words cookie", 幸运饼 xìngyùn bǐng "good luck cookie", 幸运籤语饼 xìngyùn qiān yǔ bǐng "lucky fortune words cookie", 幸运甜饼 xìngyùn tián bǐng "good luck sweet cookie", 幸福饼干 xìngfú bǐnggān "good luck biscuit", or 占卜饼 zhānbǔ bǐng "divining cookie".
As far back as the 19th century, a cookie very similar in appearance to the modern fortune cookie was made in Kyoto, Japan, and there is a Japanese temple tradition of random fortunes, called omikuji. The Japanese version of the cookie differs in several ways: they are a little bit larger; are made of darker dough; and their batter contains sesame and miso rather than vanilla and butter. They contain a fortune; however, the small slip of paper was wedged into the bend of the cookie rather than placed inside the hollow portion. This kind of cookie is called tsujiura senbei (辻占煎餅) and is still sold in some regions of Japan, especially in Kanazawa, Ishikawa. [3] It is also sold in the neighborhood of Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine in Kyoto. [4]
Makoto Hagiwara of Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco is reported to have been the first person in the U.S. to have served the modern version of the cookie when he did so at the tea garden in the early 1900s. The fortune cookies were made by a San Francisco bakery, Benkyodo. [5] [6] [7]
David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, made a competing claim that he invented the cookie in 1918. [8] San Francisco's Court of Historical Review attempted to settle the dispute in 1983. During the proceedings, a fortune cookie was introduced as a piece of evidence with a message reading, "S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie". A federal judge of the Court of Historical Review, from San Francisco themselves, determined that the cookie originated with Hagiwara and the court ruled in favor of San Francisco. Subsequently, the city of Los Angeles condemned the decision. [8]
Seiichi Kito, the founder of Fugetsu-do of Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, also claims to have invented the cookie. Kito claims to have gotten the idea of putting a message in a cookie from Omikuji (fortune slip) which are sold at temples and shrines in Japan. According to his story, he sold his cookies to Chinese restaurants where they were greeted with much enthusiasm in both the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas, before spreading. [9]
Up to around World War II, fortune cookies were known as "fortune tea cakes"—likely reflecting their origins in Japanese tea cakes. [3]
Fortune cookies moved from being a confection dominated by Japanese-Americans to one dominated by Chinese-Americans sometime around World War II. One theory for why this occurred is because of the Japanese American internment during World War II, which forcibly put over 100,000 Japanese-Americans in internment camps, including those who had produced fortune cookies. This gave an opportunity for Chinese manufacturers. [3]
Fortune cookies before the early 20th century were all made by hand. Fortune cookies are made from a simple batter of sugar, flour, water, and eggs. When heated, the dough stays flexible, allowing it to be shaped. As it cools, the sugar crystallizes, creating a crisp, glossy cookie. Traditionally, bakers would bake 3-inch circles of dough, insert a fortune while still warm, and use chopsticks to fold the cookie into its iconic shape before it hardened. [10] The fortune cookie industry changed dramatically after the fortune cookie machine was invented by Edward Louie in the late 1960s. [11] The machine allowed for mass production of fortune cookies which subsequently allowed the cookies to drop in price to become the novelty and courtesy dessert many Americans are familiar with after their meals at most Chinese restaurants today.
There are approximately 3 billion fortune cookies made each year globally, the majority of them consumed in the US. [3] The largest manufacturer of the cookies is Wonton Food, Inc., headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. They make over 4.5 million fortune cookies per day. Other large manufacturers are Baily International in the Midwest and Peking Noodle in Los Angeles. There are other smaller, local manufacturers including Tsue Chong Co. in Seattle, Keefer Court Food in Minneapolis, Sunrise Fortune Cookie in Philadelphia, and Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco. Many smaller companies will also sell custom fortunes.
Manufacturing processes vary, but they generally follow the same procedure. The ingredients (typically made with a base of flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil) are mixed in a large tank and squirted onto fast moving trays. These function like a conveyor belt and are heated to cook the dough. Cookies are compressed with round hot plates to shape and cook them. The cookies bake for approximately one minute and are reshaped. They can be mechanically shaped or folded by hand. When automated, a machine folds the cookie into the correct orientation with the fortune inside. Cooled and hardened cookies are sealed in plastic wrappers, which are inspected before being shipped. Today, most cookies are produced in the United States with the biggest factory located in Brooklyn. [12]
The message inside may include a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers; since relatively few distinct messages are printed, in the recorded case where winning numbers happened to be printed, the lottery had an unexpectedly high number of winners sharing a prize. [13] Authorities briefly investigated Wonton Food in 2005, after 110 Powerball lottery players won about $19 million after using the "lucky numbers" on the back of fortunes. [14] [15]
Fortune cookies are sometimes used for special marketing promotions. For example, the film Kung Fu Panda 3 was promoted by putting quotations from the protagonist of the film on fortune cookie slips. [16]
In 1989, fortune cookies were reportedly imported into Hong Kong and sold as "genuine American fortune cookies". [17] Wonton Food attempted to expand its fortune cookie business into China in 1992, but gave up after fortune cookies were considered "too American". [17]
Cookies from different manufacturers have different ingredients and nutritional content. One cookie typically contains around 80 to 130 kilojoules (20 to 30 kilocalories) of food energy and 5–7 g of total carbohydrates. A cookie may have sugar varying from 0–3 g, between 2–8 mg of sodium, and may have significant (compared to their size) amounts of iron or protein. The small size means they have little overall nutritional value. [18] [19] [20] [21]
Fortune cookies, while largely an American item, have been served in Chinese restaurants in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, among others. [3] In Peru, they are served in chifas , Chinese-Peruvian fusion food restaurants.[ citation needed ]
There are also multi-cultural versions of the fortune cookie. For instance, the Mexican version of the fortune cookie, called the "Lucky Taco", is a red taco-shaped cookie with a fortune inside. [22] The same company that makes the Lucky Taco also makes a "Lucky Cannoli", inspired by Italian cannolis. [22]
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)American Chinese cuisine is a cuisine derived from Chinese cuisine that was developed by Chinese Americans. The dishes served in many North American Chinese restaurants are adapted to American tastes and often differ significantly from those found in China.
A cookie or biscuit is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.
Tahini or tahina is a Middle-Eastern condiment made from ground sesame. Its more commonly eaten variety comes from hulled sesame, but unhulled seeds can also be used for preparing it. The latter variety has been described as slightly bitter, but more nutritious. It is served by itself or as a major ingredient in hummus, baba ghanoush, and halva.
Cha chaan teng, often called a Hong Kong-style cafe or diner in English, is a type of restaurant that originated in Hong Kong. Cha chaan tengs are commonly found in Hong Kong, Macau, and parts of Guangdong. Due to the waves of mass migrations from Hong Kong in the 1980s, they are now established in major Chinese communities in Western countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Likened to a greasy spoon cafe or an American diner, cha chaan tengs are known for eclectic and affordable menus, which include dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. They draw comparisons to Western cafés due to their casual settings, as well as menus revolving around coffee and tea.
Omikuji (御御籤/御神籤/おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally "sacred lot", these are usually received by making a small offering and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. As of 2024, vending machines sometimes dispense omikuji.
Mantou, often referred to as a Chinese steamed bun, is a white and soft type of steamed bread or bun popular in northern China. Folk etymology connects the name mantou to a tale about Zhuge Liang.
Makoto Hagiwara was a Japanese-born American landscape designer responsible for the maintenance and expansion of the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, from 1895 until his death in 1925. Hagiwara is often credited with the invention of the fortune cookie in California.
Dragon's beard candy or Chinese cotton candy or Longxusu is a handmade traditional art of China. It is a traditional Chinese confectionary similar to floss halva or Western cotton candy, which can be found in many Chinese communities. Dragon's beard candy was initially created in China, but soon spread in popularity in other parts of East Asia and South East Asia, becoming a regional delicacy in South Korea in the 1990s, and Singapore in the 1980s, as well as more recently in Canada, and the United States.
Bing is a wheat flour-based Chinese bread with a flattened or disk-like shape. These foods may resemble the flatbreads, pancakes, pies and unleavened dough foods of non-Chinese cuisines. Many of them are similar to the Indian roti, French crêpes, Salvadoran pupusa, or Mexican tortilla, while others are more similar to cakes and cookies.
Kompia or kompyang is a bread product that originates from Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian Province of China as well as Fuqing. It is popular in Fujian and has spread to other areas including the Ryukyus, Taiwan, and parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia and the Malaysian towns of Sitiawan, Sibu, Ayer Tawar, Sarikei, Bintangor and other places where the dominant Chinese community is of Fuzhou and Fuqing ancestry.
Shumai is a type of traditional Chinese dumpling made of ground pork. In Cantonese cuisine, it is usually served as a dim sum snack. In addition to accompanying the Chinese diaspora, variations of shumai are found in Japan and Southeast Asia, such as the Indonesian siomay. In Australia, it developed into dim sim.
Hotteok, sometimes called hoeddeok, is a type of filled pancake known as a popular street food in South Korea. It originated in China, and was first brought into Korea during the 19th century.
Chinese desserts are sweet foods and dishes that are served with tea, along with meals or at the end of meals in Chinese cuisine. The desserts encompass a wide variety of ingredients commonly used in East Asian cuisines such as powdered or whole glutinous rice, sweet bean pastes, and agar. Due to the many Chinese cultures and the long history of China, there are a great variety of desserts of many forms.
Leche frita is a Spanish sweet typical of northern Spain. It is made by cooking flour with milk and sugar until it thickens to a firm dough which is then portioned, fried and served with a sugar glaze and cinnamon powder.
A piaya is a muscovado-filled unleavened flatbread from the Philippines especially common in Negros Occidental where it is a popular delicacy. It is made by filling dough with a mixture of muscovado and water. The filled dough is then flattened with a rolling pin, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked on a griddle. Piaya is best eaten warm.
A wonton is a type of Chinese dumpling commonly found across regional styles of Chinese cuisine. It is also spelled wantan or wuntun in transliteration from Cantonese 雲吞 / 云吞 and wenden from Shanghainese 餛飩 / 馄饨. Even though there are many different styles of wonton served throughout China, Cantonese wontons are the most popular in the West due to the predominance of Cantonese restaurants overseas.
Jiaozi are a type of Chinese dumpling. Jiaozi typically consist of a ground meat or vegetable filling wrapped into a thinly rolled piece of dough, which is then sealed by pressing the edges together. Jiaozi can be boiled (shuǐjiǎo), steamed (zhēngjiǎo), pan-fried (jiānjiǎo), or deep-fried (zhàjiǎo), and are traditionally served with a black vinegar and sesame oil dip. They can also be served in a soup. Jiaozi have great cultural significance within China. Jiaozi are one of the major dishes eaten during the Chinese New Year throughout northern China and eaten all year round in the northern provinces. Their resemblance to the gold and silver ingots (sycee) used in Imperial China has meant that they symbolize wealth and good fortune.
DanBing (dànbǐng), also known as egg pancake or rolled egg crepe, is a Taiwanese breakfast dish. Different regions makes the dish differently, in most cases, the dough is made by kneading flour, potato starch, glutinous rice flour, and water into a thin dough, and an omelet is baked on top of the dough. In Taiwan, dan bing is mainly sold at breakfast shops, restaurants as well as night market food stalls. They are also sold commercially in supermarkets, where the dough is frozen in plastic packaging, and egg is added as the dough is heated.
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