A fortune cookie is a candy with a fortune inside. But there may be no other food that is treated so badly.


When you eat at a Chinese restaurant in the U.S., fortune cookies appear on the tray with the bill. However, the cookies are not very hygienic because they are not wrapped and are placed naked on top of the bill. For this reason, not many people eat the cookies, and after they are broken in two and the fortune inside is removed, they are sometimes thrown away. Yes, fortune cookies are treated as "fortune containers".

However, there are not many people who look forward to the fortune. The people who write and translate the fortune messages are people who are not very good at English. As a result, many of the messages in the omikuji are not clear at all, no matter how many times you read them.

The fortune cookie is believed to be a Chinese custom by many Americans. But in fact, it originated in Japan.

According to the New York Times, the original fortune cookie was brought to the United States from Japan by Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant. After that, the cookies spread throughout the U.S. by the hands of Japanese Americans. However, during World War II, Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps, and during this time, the fortune cookie production facilities were taken over by Chinese immigrants.


Today, fortune cookies have spread to Chinese restaurants almost all over the world, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The only place where fortune cookies are not yet widespread is in restaurants in mainland China.

The fortune cookie is still abused as both a cookie and a fortune. However, it is true that they feel lonely when they are not on the bill tray. There are also rare occasions when fortunes are included that are both meaningful and informative. On such days, I feel a little better, which is strange.