0117 Fortune Cookies

For everyone who thinks that everything was first invented by the Chinese, here’s a surprise: fortune cookies were NOT. That’s right. New research shows that fortune cookies, those ubiquitous desserts that come with the check at every Chinese restaurant in America, were invented in … Japan. And not recently either. There are references to tsujiura senbei or fortune crackers in a 19th century book of stories that show a baker making the cookies in the same way they are currently made at a shop in Kyoto. No one is exactly sure how the senbei made the leap to U.S. Chinese restaurants, but even the Japanese agree it was fortunate, marketing-wise: by 1960, this dessert had become so much a part of American culture, they were used in two presidential campaigns. Sweet! #ceas #hacker #japan #tsutsui