NPR: Fortune Cookie Originated in Japan

Fortune Cookie Originated in Japan

Filed under: News

From a restaurant in Beijing that probably does not serve fortune cookies

found at Jim Benson's Evolving Web

I got Chinese take-out the day Matt and Sharon interviewed me for the job here at the BPP. My fortune cookie:

YOU WILL SOON MAKE A CAREER CHANGE

No joke. And now I pretty much believe anything the fortune cookie tells me to believe. Including, recently:

YOU ARE PRETTY

YOU LIKE CHINESE FOOD

Not really fortunes but definitely true. Anyway, I bring this up because I just saw an article in the New York Times that says the fortune cookie's country of origin is not China, as some people thought, or an american Chinese food restaurant, as I thought, but Japan.

Pashman noticed it too and he's thinking about tracking down the researcher who figured it out. In the meantime, got any fortunes? Even the kind that aren't really fortunes?

Ian Chillag

10:14 AM ET | 01-16-2008 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

In China, understanding what translated menu item names actually mean is usually impossible. This is apparently because in Chinese the name of restaurant food items is not really meant to describe the food in any way. For example, restaurants don't distinguish between bone-in pieces of chicken and boneless chicken bits...hence western travelers tend consume mass quantities of Kung Pao chicken at least once a day because it is the only dish that is typcially made with boneless pieces of meat. Apparently the Chinese government is trying to standardized translated food names in advance of the Olympics. Ya'll should look in to that.

Sent by Jason | 1:36 PM ET | 01-16-2008

"You will live a short and happy life."

I'm 5'6", so I like to think that's what the fortune referred to. I'm still waiting on that second part, though.

Sent by Jeff | 5:19 PM ET | 01-16-2008

Heh, No, there was no fortune cookies anywhere in China at all.

Jason's comments about bones in the chicken are true in that the anglicized foods often don't distinguish - but the types of prep for the chicken are usually somewhere in the original chinese.

But really, go to china, order everything. And just eat. Even if it called "Wikipedia" and you have no idea what it might be.

Sent by Jim Benson | 10:25 PM ET | 01-16-2008

I think research still needs to be done.

Because, the Major part of Japanese culture were adopted from China since 5th century, especially during the Tang Dynasty. :)

Sent by Shawn | 6:37 PM ET | 01-21-2008

I think fortune cookies should be imported to China as China actually has no fortune cookies at all!!!

Sent by Vincent | 4:41 AM ET | 02-13-2008

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