Fortune cookie

From Free net encyclopedia

Image:Fortune cookie broken 20040628 223252 1.jpg Image:Fortune cookie 20040628 223108 1.jpg Image:Cookies factory.jpg

The fortune cookie is a cookie with a piece of paper inside with words of wisdom or prophecy, sometimes served at Chinese restaurants throughout the United States and Canada.

Fortune cookies are served as snacks after meals at some North American Chinese restaurants. In addition to a fortune, fortune cookies may also contain lucky numbers (used by some as lottery numbers) and a Chinese phrase with translation.

Served almost exclusively in North American Chinese restaurants, fortune cookies were ironically not invented in China. Places that serve them call them "Genuine American Fortune Cookies". Authentic Chinese restaurants typically serve cold sweet mung bean or red bean porridge followed by chilled orange slices at the end of the meal.

A number of web pages now include fortune cookie-like words of wisdom or other quotes. The Unix program fortune is sometimes used to generate these messages. There are software applications that will append a "fortune cookie" within a user's e-mail signature tag; that is, a random quote, item of trivia, joke, or maxim printed at the bottom of the sender's e-mail message. There are many different fortune cookie databases in public distribution, and some users will often assemble their own lists from various sources.

1 Origins of the fortune cookie
2 Fortune cookie payout
3 Fortune cookie etiquette
4 References
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit]

Origins of the fortune cookie

Both San Francisco, California and Los Angeles, California lay claim to the origin of the fortune cookie. Makoto Hagiwara of Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco is said to have invented the cookie in 1909,<ref name="Martin_2004_8">Template:Harv.</ref> while David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, is said to have invented them in 1918.<ref name="Brunner_2005_5">Template:Harv.</ref>

San Francisco's Court of Historical Review ruled in 1983 in favour of San Francisco, but although the court was presided over by a Federal judge, the court itself has been criticised as being less than serious, and biased in favour of San Francisco. Its conclusions, therefore, might not be the final word on the subject.<ref name="Brunner_2005_5">Template:Harv.</ref>

[edit]

Fortune cookie payout

The Powerball drawing of the March 30, 2005 game produced an unprecedented 110 second-place winners, all of whom picked five numbers correctly with no powerball number. The total came out to $19.4 million in unexpected payouts. 89 tickets won $100,000, but 21 additional tickets won $500,000 due to the Power Play multiplier option.

Powerball officials initially suspected fraud, but it turned out that all the winners received their numbers from fortune cookies made by Wonton Food Inc., a fortune cookie factory in Long Island City, Queens, New York. Apparently, number combinations printed on fortunes are reused in thousands of cookies per day. The five winning numbers were 22, 28, 32, 33, and 39. The sixth number in the fortune, 40, did not match the powerball number, 42.

[edit]

Fortune cookie etiquette

Generally accepted fortune cookie etiquette states that the entire cookie must be consumed prior to reading the fortune for the fortune to come true. Failure to comply may not result in bad luck, but will null-and-void the message and lucky numbers.

There is a common joke involving fortune cookies that involves appending "in bed" or "between the sheets" to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo.

[edit]

References

{{Harvard reference

| Surname1    = Martin
| Given1      = James
| Year        = 2004
| Title       = Fortune Cookies: A San Francisco Invention
| Journal     = About.com
| URL         = http://sanfrancisco.about.com/cs/daytrips/a/fortunecook.htm
| Access-date = August 11, 2004

}}.

{{Harvard reference

| Surname1    = Brunner
| Given1      = Borgna
| Year        = 2005
| Title       = The History of the Fortune Cookie
| Journal     = Infoplease
| URL         = http://www.infoplease.com/spot/fortunecookies.html
| Access-date = May 10, 2005

}}.

[edit]