Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie

Fortune cookies are popular in Chinese restaurants the world over, everywhere but China. Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi theorizes the absence is because the cookies originated in Japan, as evidenced by references in Japanese literature and art decades before the early 1900s. California restaurants with Japanese owners introduced the dessert between 1907 and 1914, reports author Jennifer Lee in the New York Times. Restaurants near shrines in Kyoto still make cookies in the traditional Japanese way, with one of 23 fortunes tucked inside. By contrast, Chinese American cookie makers provide thousands of fortunes. The dessert soared in popularity after World War II – US soldiers, returning home from the Pacific theater by way of California, asked for fortune cookies in their local Chinese restaurants. Descendants of restaurant owners who introduced the cookies in the US credit Chinese Americans for recognizing a good idea and expanding its potential. – YaleGlobal