Fun Food Trivia
TRIVIA QUESTION: While my name is synonymous with Chinese food, I am not commonly found in Chinese restaurants outside North America. Whoever invented me (more than one person claims the honor!) was probably inspired by the Chinese custom of placing messages in cakes and sweets. What am I?
TRIVIA ANSWER: Fortune Cookie. In North America, no Chinese restaurant meal would be complete without the crescent shaped cookie containing words of wisdom (and, in more recent years, lottery numbers). Some sources claim David Jung, founder of Los Angeles' Hong Kong Noodle Company, created the fortune cookie in 1916, possibly to brighten up the survivors of World War I with the happy messages contained inside. Other sources, however, credit Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who designed the breathtaking Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In 1993, San Francisco's Court of Historical Review held a mock "trial" to settle the matter for once and for all. To no one's surprise, the court backed Hagiwara's claim, ruling that the honor of inventing the fortune cookie belonged to San Francisco.
While the fortune cookie was invented in the twentieth century, the original inspiration for it probably goes back further in time, to the railway boom of the mid-1800s. Unable to enjoy traditional mooncakes during the annual Autumn Moon Festival, Chinese railway workers substituted biscuits with messages inside. According to legend, in 1368 AD, mooncakes themselves were used to pass messages - plans for a Chinese rebellion against the Mongol warlords who had conquered northern China.
Despite their popularity in the United States, fortune cookies have never caught on in China.
Recipe:
Fortune Cookies
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5 Minute Chocolate Fortune Cookies
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