What is the history and origin of fortune cookies? When did fortune cookies drop the ad fortunes?
I forget now whether it was history channel or discovery channel. The “fortune cookie” was developed in Chinatown(s) in San Francisco (and other communities) around the gold rush era. I forget the exact details about how they came up with the idea, but that and chop suey are both technically american inventions. (chop suey roughly translating into “whatever’s handy”) the concept was later exported to china, where they became popular as an american import. I am not aware that there were ever “bad” fortunes, although I am sure that over the years they have changed from cryptic to complimentary to inane. I believe they originally contained “chinese” proverbs. my three favorite fortune cookie messages: “Help, I am being held prisoner in a chinese fortune cookie factory” “Inspected by number 12” and ad-libbed by a helpful relative after the person needed help opening his cookie…
