A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of wisdom or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers, some of which have become actual winner numbers.
Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States and some other countries, but are absent in China. The exact provenance of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century, basing their recipe on a traditional Japanese cracker. Fortune cookies have been summarized as being "introduced by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately ... consumed by Americans."
Read more about Fortune Cookie: Origin, Manufacturers, Around The World, Asian Stereotype, Translations of Name, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words fortune and/or cookie:
“There are certainly not so many men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women to deserve them.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)
“Living by basic good-mothering guidelines enables a mom to blend the responsibilities of parenthood with its joys; to know when to stand her ground and when to be flexible; and to absorb the lessons of the parenting gurus while also trusting her inner voice when it reasons that another cookie isn’t worth fighting over, or that her child won’t suffer irreparable trauma if, once in a while, Mom puts her own needs first.”
—Sue Woodman (20th century)