| With the Chinese New Year rapidly approaching, | | | | the development of the fortune cookie. One version |
| thoughts turn to colorful parades, fire crackers, | | | | proposes Hagiwara created the cookies with a |
| spectacular fireworks exploding in the sky, and a | | | | thank-you note inside as a gift of gratefulness to those |
| plethora of food. What would a celebration be without | | | | who did not abandon him during his misfortune. |
| those crunchy fortune cookies with the hidden | | | | Another version says he made the cookies as |
| messages? | | | | refreshment for the visitors strolling through the |
| No one knows for sure where fortune cookies first | | | | Japanese Tea Garden. In 1915, his cookies were on |
| made their appearance. There are several schools of | | | | display at San Francisco's world fair, the |
| thought. Historically speaking, the first mention of secret | | | | Panama-Pacific Exhibition. |
| messages hidden within a cookie occurred during the | | | | In the early 1900s, entrepreneurs proposed a plan to |
| 13th and 14th centuries. China was occupied by the | | | | transform San Francisco's Chinatown from a poor |
| Mongols. In order to get word of the upcoming revolt, | | | | slum area into a tourist destination. The city promoted |
| the patriotic revolutionary Chen Juan Chen disguised | | | | decorations, parades, and architecture reminiscent of |
| himself as a Taoist priest so that he might be able to | | | | China. It is said the increased tourism led to the |
| enter walled cities which were occupied by the | | | | creation of fortune cookies so the visitors might have |
| Mongols. He was able to move safely through these | | | | a dessert item. To this end, in the 1930s, a worker at |
| cities under the guise of a priest and thus, able to hand | | | | San Francisco's Kay Heong Noodle Factory designed |
| out moon cakes to other revolutionaries. It was said | | | | a plain flat cookie. While the flat cookie was still warm, |
| the Mongols did not care for the taste of lotus nut | | | | it was folded around a slip of paper on which was |
| paste, an ingredient usually contained in moon cakes, | | | | written a prediction or some Chinese wisdom. |
| The Chinese replaced the lotus nut paste yolk with | | | | Still another version involves 1918 Los Angeles. It states |
| secret messages, successfully alerting the | | | | that it was invented by Chinese immigrant David Jung, |
| revolutionaries of the uprising which would be the | | | | proprietor of the Hong Kong Noodle Company. Jung, |
| foundation of the Ming Dynasty. | | | | worried about all the impoverished, unemployed men |
| Another Chinese custom involving cake rolls with | | | | milling around the area near his business, passed out |
| messages is that when a baby is born, it is customary | | | | free cookies which contained uplifting verse, written for |
| for the family to send out cake rolls containing a birth | | | | Jung by a Presbyterian minister. |
| announcement. | | | | Fortune cookies were traditionally made by hand using |
| An additional version of the origin of it involves the | | | | chopsticks but in 1964, Edward Louie of San |
| Chinese 49ers who laid down the railroad through the | | | | Francisco's Lotus Fortune Cookie Company, designed |
| Sierra Nevada mountains during the California Gold | | | | a machine that automatically folded the dough and |
| Rush. The Chinese workers had few pleasures but | | | | inserted the fortune. |
| they did exchange, during the Moon Festival, biscuits | | | | Although they are served in Chinese restaurants |
| containing happy messages in place of the traditional | | | | throughout the world, they are almost unheard of in |
| moon cakes. It has been suggested that in San | | | | China. In the few places they are available in China, |
| Francisco, a cottage industry making fortune cookies | | | | they are advertised as "Genuine American Fortune |
| sprung up after completion of the railroad and the Gold | | | | Cookies." |
| Rush. | | | | In 1983, in an attempt to finally ascertain the origins of |
| The generally accepted version of the origin of it goes | | | | them, there was a mock trial in San Francisco's |
| back to 1914 San Francisco. Japanese immigrant | | | | pseudo-legal Court of Historical Review. San Francisco |
| Machete Hagiwara, a landscape designer, developed | | | | was declared the winner, with Los Angeles denouncing |
| the plans for the renowned Japanese Tea Garden in | | | | the decision. |
| Golden Gate Park. He was fired by San Francisco's | | | | Chinese, Japanese, or American? It does not matter - |
| anti-Japanese mayor around the turn of the 20th | | | | the cookies are delicious, no matter from whence they |
| century, leaving him in financial distress until he was | | | | came. |
| reinstated by a later mayor. There are two versions to | | | | |