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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Why do Chinese restaurants abroad give out fortune cookies?
I've never once seen a fortune cookie in China, not even in a huge supermarket. Why then are they such a standard thing in Chinese restaurants abroad?
The fortune cookies did not originally come from China but Japan which was then went to California where it was a hit in the Chinese restaurants.
But many also believe that it originated in the Chinatown of San Francisco
Without arguing, there are various theories and claims to the origin of fortune cookies. Two places in California seem to have the most credibility, on one a gentleman from Japan started them at a restaurant and were a hit with customers. The other one was in another city, a gentleman from China introduced them to its customers. If I recall correctly, the cities were San Francisco and LA.
But without a doubt, the so called fortune cookie was inspired from an old Japanese cookie with a paper inside.
Originally popular,, maybe because they were free? Wheres the egg rolls here?
I think fortune cookies could be a hit here. I already had some cheap snack that tasted just like them. Maybe they shouldn't put the fortune on the inside though.
HappyExPat:
They were tried a few years back, and were a total failure. Not as being given at a restaurant and the end of your meal, but as cookies in a bag. It seems that Chinese dislike for sweet things (or what they percibe as sweet) was the cause of its failure.