I walked into the band room on a cold winter morning. I ran over to my bag after my friends and I had been talking about fortune cookies and as I was opening the package, the cookie broke all over the floor. I screamed in a movie–like voice, “NO!!!” I quickly picked up the pieces with my friend and I ran over to the garbage can. I guess I had a little too much sugar in my cereal this morning because next thing I know I was out the door. Not running out the door, but falling. I had apparently tripped over the carpet and now was sitting on the ground. My friends were laughing at me all because of a broken fortune cookie. While I was on the ground I looked at my message and read, “Take a trip with your friend.” I laughed at the irony.
From this event, I have been wondering about the fortune cookie. Where did it come from? Why did it become so popular?
Many people think that fortune cookies comes from China due to the fact that we eat them at Chinese restaurants. However that is not the case. They are from a place that has an estimated 37 million people living there. California. Yes, the cookies originate from the United States. People are not exactly sure where it originated or who made them. According to Chinese-fortune-cookie.com there are multiple areas in California where the cookie could have originated. The two main areas are Los Angeles and San Fransisco. David Jung, a Chinese immigrant was said to have created the Hong Kong Noodle Company and was said to create the cookie in 1918. However, the other possible candidate for creating the fortune cookie was Makoto Hagiwara. He was a Japanese American immigrant that lived in San Fransisco and invented the cookie in 1914. He is also the creator of the Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.
Now, fortune cookies are made all over the United States. Outside of California one can go online to Fortunecookiesupply.com and get fortune cookies in a large package of 1000 cookies.
If someone is interested in learning about fortune cookies and seeing how they are made, they should go and visit Chinatown in San Fransisco or Oakland, California and take a tour. The tour is even free! This is the information website: San Francisco Fortune Cookie Factory.
By PAIGE SMITH
