JUL 20, 24 .. NATIONAL TODAY.. PATTI’S FORTUNE COOKIE STORY..

NATIONAL TODAY.. Is the source of a lot of the information on these “Holidays”.

Another “no brainer” day selection for Patti and me. We both love Chinese Food and  we always enjoy the Fortune Cookies.

Down at the end of the Post, Patti shares a very cute story about Fortune Cookies. We hope you enjoy it.

On National Fortune Cookie Day, celebrated on July 20, we picture you enjoying a crunchy, sweet delicacy! Every year, Americans commemorate the cookie that is a staple of Chinese meals. These crisp, folded biscuits have a buttery flavor to them. When you open them, you’ll discover a piece of paper with a message nestled inside.

The phrase will range from profound wisdom to hard puzzles to basic common sense.

Some fortunes incorporate quotations from well-known thinkers. Every year, about three billion fortune cookies are created and consumed by ecstatic admirers. We hope you all enjoy National Fortune Cookie Day!

All most all of us who dine at Chinese restaurants in the United States receive a fortune cookie after our meal, which makes us identify this practice with Chinese culture.

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.

Some Japanese candy shops began creating small crackers folded into shapes that allowed a message to be tucked inside the bend as early as the 1870s —not into the hollow area. These original crackers would have been darker in color and made with miso and sesame seeds, giving them a less sweet flavor than today’s fortune cookies.

When Japanese immigrants came to California and Hawaii in the late 1800s and early 1900s, it was thought that the fortune cookies of today’s American-Chinese restaurants were based on this notion.

Today, the majority of fortune cookies are consumed in the United States. “Wonton Food” in New York and “Yang’s Fortunes” in California are the major producers of Fortune cookies.

Fortune cookies are produced with simple components such as flour, sesame seed oil, butter, vanilla, and sugar and have a bland, mild flavor.

First they are prepared in the shape of a round disk. When they are still warm from the oven, a fortune is placed on one side of the cookie and then it is folded over and squeezed together.

The fortunes are little pieces of paper with advice or aphorisms written on them. They are frequently printed with lucky numbers or Chinese words. “Wanton Food” prints over 15,000 distinct fortunes. The promise of a fortune, however, has endeared these cookies to millions and has kept them tearing them open today and throughout the year.

Some tid-bits..

Every day, nearly four million cookies are produced and each contains its own fortune.

Brooklyn-based Wonton Food is the world’s largest producer of fortune cookies and claim to have 15,000 unique fortune cookie messages.

The first fortune cookies were not like the ones we see today, it was originally produced using sesame oil, and it was browner and larger than the present version.

The directions are simple: First, open the package, then use both hands to break open the fortune cookie. Next, obtain the fortune and read it before eating the cookie.

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Patti’s fun Fortune Cookie story.

Patti and I both love Chinese Food and  we always enjoy the Fortune Cookies.

Patti always loves to tell this true story to friends when we are eating Chinese food together.

When Patti was about 5 years of age, she and her family had finished a Chinese dinner and were opening their fortune cookies. 

Suddenly Patti’s mother, as she was reading her Fortune Cookie, “Loudly exclaimed ah-h-h-h .. oh my”.

Patti and her brother startled, said.. “What is it? What does it say Mom?” 

Reading her Fortune Cookie message very seriously, her mother read, “Help! I am being held prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie factory!”

From Patti: Then my mother began to laugh as only my mother could. My brother and I breathed a sigh of relief and began to laugh as well.

My mother had quite a sense of humor. 

When we would take road trips, as we began to get restless, she would sing her “laughing song”, meaning she would just start laughing and pretty quickly everyone in the car was laughing along with her.

Great memories. I can never eat a Chinese fortune cookie without thinking of my mother! 

Lots of smiles.

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Cap and Patti

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