July 20 is National Fortune Cookie Day!
These crispy golden cookies are without a doubt the best part of eating at a Chinese restaurant: There’s just something thrilling about breaking open the cookie at the end of your meal and reading your fate on that tiny slip of paper. But did you know that fortune cookies aren’t really fromChina? To celebrate the upcoming holiday of big fortunes in small packages, here’s a brief history of everyone’s favorite takeout cookie.
Fortune cookies as we know them today aren’t Chinese at all: According to popular opinion, they’re actually American, inspired by the Japanese. They were first made in the early 1900s inCalifornia. But who is responsible for inventing the idea has been a topic of great debate over the years. As the history books have it, two people have tried to lay official claim to the fortune cookie’s fame: Makoto Hagiwara and David Jung.
Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant, said he started serving them at the Japanese Tea Gardens inSan Franciscobetween 1907 and 1914. They were his version of Japanese rice wafers called “senbei,” and inside they held thank-you notes for the public rather than fortunes. Jung, a native ofChinawho immigrated toLos Angeles, founded the Hong Kong Noodle company in 1916 and claimed he invented the fortune cookie in 1918. He said he handed them out to poor, joblessCaliforniamen as a way to inspire them, but there was never any official record that the idea was his.
In an attempt to get to the bottom of things, the San Francisco Court of Historical Review hosted a mock trial to sort out the cookie’s past. After a long and quirky trial, the court finally ruled in favor of Hagiwara and announcedSan Franciscoas the home of fortune cookies. And yet despite the court’s decision, many people continue to credit Jung as the mastermind behind the fateful golden cookie. Still others argue that the fortune cookie has completely different origins. Up to this day, the question “Who invented the fortune cookie?” is very much an open case.
But no matter where they came from, fortune cookies are—and always will be—a staple of Chinese-American cuisine. Today, their popularity has reached such larger-than-life proportions that giant fortune cookies have become one of the hottest gift items for every occasion, from birthdays to Valentine’s Day. So on July 20, go ahead and celebrate by cracking open a humongous fortune cookie with an equally huge good fortune inside!
What’s the best fortune you’ve ever gotten after opening a fortune cookie?
