2006-09-03 12:04:47 · 8 answers · asked by muffin 1 in Dining Out ➔ United States ➔ Other - US Dining Out
In the United States.
"The origins of the Fortune Cookie as we know it today were laid down by the Chinese 49'ers who worked on the building of the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada into California."
2006-09-03 12:12:04 · answer #1 · answered by Jay S 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
For many centuries the Chinese have marked special occasions and festival times such as harvest and New Year with the giving and receiving of Moon Cakes these were made from Lotus Nut Paste.
During the 13th and 14th centuries China was occupied by the Mongols. When plans were made in Peking for a popular uprising to oust the invaders, much thought was given how news of the date of the uprising could be circulated without alerting the Mongols.
The story goes that the Mongols had no taste for Lotus Nut Paste and so the Chinese hid the message containing the date in the middle of their Moon Cakes replacing the yolk with secret messages. Patriotic revolutionary, Chu Yuan Chang took on the disguise of a Taoist priest and entered occupied walled cities handing out Moon Cakes. These were the instructions to co-ordinate the uprising which successfully formed the basis of the Ming Dynasty.
Thus the tradition of giving cakes with messages was born and became a popular way of expressing wishes of goodwill or good fortune on an important occasion.
The origins of the Fortune Cookie as we know it today were laid down by the Chinese 49'ers who worked on the building of the great American railways through the Sierra Nevada into California.
Work was very hard and pleasures were few in isolated camps, those hard workers had only biscuits with happy messages inside, to exchange at the Moon festival instead of traditional cakes with happy messages, thus the FORTUNE COOKIE was born. This became something of a cottage industry and as the Chinese settled in San Francisco after the railway and the Gold boom the custom continued. Today it is almost impossible to have a Chinese meal in America and Canada without finishing with a Fortune Cookie.
More and more businesses and even governments are having promotional messages printed on the opposite side to the fortune. The HONG KONG police used them in anti - drugs campaigns and the US followed.
The first automated production of Fortune Cookies took place in America in 1964 before that they were made by hand. In recent years fully automated facilities have been set up in the UK to produce Fortune Cookies that are now gaining increasing popularity in Chinese restaurants and Take-Aways across the U.K. and Europe.
2006-09-03 19:12:25 · answer #2 · answered by < Roger That > 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Right here in San Francisco!
And... it was actually invented in 1909 by a Japanese man, Makoto Hagiwara, the founder and designer of the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. Hagiwara later founded the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory on Ross Alley in Chinatown, which still operates today and will make fortune cookies to order using your own printed fortunes. Although the exact origin of fortune cookies is controversial and many similar sweet cakes are traditional in both Chinese and Japanese cuisine, there is little dispute that the actual fortune cookie in its current form was invented right here... this was even verified by a Federal judge.
No wonder San Franciscans love ethnic fusion cuisine so much... we've been doing it for almost a hundred years!
2006-09-03 23:42:27 · answer #3 · answered by Fogjazz49-Retired 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
One history of the fortune cookie claims that David Jung, a Chinese immigrant living in Los Angeles and founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company, invented the cookie in 1918. Concerned about the poor he saw wandering near his shop, he created the cookie and passed them out free on the streets. Each cookie contained a strip of paper with an inspirational Bible scripture on it, written for Jung by a Presbyterian minister.
Another history claims that the fortune cookie was invented in San Francisco by a Japanese immigrant named Makoto Hagiwara. Hagiwara was a gardener who designed the famous Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. An anti-Japanese mayor fired him from his job around the turn of the century, but later a new mayor reinstated him. Grateful to those who had stood by him during his period of hardship, Hagiwara created a cookie in 1914 that included a thank you note inside. He passed them out at the Japanese Tea Garden, and began serving them there regularly. In 1915, they were displayed at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, San Francisco's world fair.
Judicial Activism
In 1983, San Francisco's pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review held a mock trial to determine the origins of the fortune cookie. (In the past, the Court had ruled on such pressing topics as the veracity of Mark Twain's quote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" and the origins of the Martini. *) To no one's surprise, the judge (a real-life federal judge from San Francisco) ruled in favor of San Francisco. Included among the evidence was a fortune cookie whose message read: "S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie." Equally unsurprising, Los Angeles has denounced the ruling.
2006-09-04 10:10:53 · answer #4 · answered by Bob 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't know when or where it all started, but my boyfriend got one with a quote from Yoda, saying "do or do not, there is not try"
2006-09-04 23:51:31 · answer #5 · answered by Susan S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
about 100 years ago
2006-09-03 19:09:58 · answer #6 · answered by amberharris20022000 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i think 100 or more in china or japan
2006-09-03 19:10:28 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
In australia ...
2006-09-03 19:07:33 · answer #8 · answered by Arcie 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋