I absolutely love fortune cookie sayings. The humble fortune cookie never fails to amuse or enlighten. We’ve picked the best for you!
It’s a delightful treat at the end of what’s usually a great dinner. We love a good fortune cookie here at Kitchen Authority.
But did you know its history and origins are both murky and up for debate?
In fact, the truth was so important to people that it has even been the subject of a court case!
What Are Fortune Cookies Made From?
A fortune cookie is
a light sugary, crisp cookie and while the recipe can vary from
restaurant to restaurant it will typically be made of flour, sugar,
vanilla and sesame seed oil.
The “fortune” is written on paper and hidden inside. This paper is not edible as many first time consumers of fortune cookies learn by surprise.
The messages inside are often translations (of varying quality) of traditional Chinese proverbs.
In more recent times, in America, they are often jokes or snippets of horoscopes too.
This is because she found a block print, made in 1878, in Japan which showed a man using the kind of hand-grinder common in the Kyoto cookie mills of today.
Her other reason is
simpler still – Chinese cookery isn’t big on desserts. In fact,
while Chinese main courses and starters are among the world’s
finest, the country’s desserts are nearly universally derided even
by the Chinese themselves.
Why are fortune cookie is found in so many Chinese-American restaurants?
Well, it appears that misery is to blame. During World War 2, in a moment of shameful history, America rounded up most Japanese-Americans and placed them into internment camps.
Seeing a gap in the market, Chinese-Americans decided to pick up the slack and by the time the war had ended it was the Chinese and not the Japanese who had become permanently associated with the fortune cookie.
Chinese restaurants were so popular, in fact, that they had become a nationwide sensation during this time.
Mass Production of Fortune Cookies
While fortune cookies may once have been made on a restaurant by restaurant basis, this is often no longer the case.
There are 3 billion of the cookies consumed each year and most of them made for the U.S. market.
The biggest producer of cookies is Wonton Food Inc. of Brooklyn, NY and they are said to churn out nearly 5 million of the cookies each and every day!
It’s fair to say that a cookie is a cookie, and these aren’t the kind of products that you want to eat a lot of.
On average fortune cookies contain about 30 calories and pack in around 7 grams of carbohydrate (including 3 grams of sugar – though some brands don’t have any sugar in them).
They also contain small amounts of salt, iron and possibly protein.
Overall, they’re not nutritious but are fine in small quantities.
Fortune Cookies And Popular Culture
The fortune cookie is gently mocked in Amy Tan’s superlative novel from 1989, The Joy Luck Club.
Two Chinese immigrants find themselves stuffing fortunes into cookies and discovering the fortunes are not so much wise as “bad instruction”.
In America, where they’ve become almost an essential part of culinary culture, there are many different fortune cookie inspired products and one of our favorite is the fortune cookie “magic 8 ball”.
Over in Italy and Greece they like their fortune cookie themed toilet paper, the fortunes are revealed when the paper becomes moist.
There’s really no accounting for the varied sense of humor in different cultures, is there?
101 Awesome Fortune Cookie Sayings
As promised, we
bring you a ton of funny and wise fortune cookie sayings that really
have appeared in fortune cookies.
All of these sayings
have really been found in fortune cookies:
Delight the world with compassion, kindness and grace
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Some days you are pigeon, some days you are statue. Today, bring umbrella.
The fortune you seek is in another cookie.
Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.
Your reality check about to bounce.
Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
When blind leading the blind……..get out of the way.
Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
Only difference between rut and a grave is depth.
Experience is what you have left when everything else gone.
A closed mouth gathers no feet.
A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
A cynic is only a frustrated optimist.
A foolish man listens to his heart. A wise man listens to cookies.
Your road to glory will be rocky but fulfilling.
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
Patience is your alley at the moment. Don’t worry!