FORTUNE COOKIE Thread

[iLander]

Well, I'm hoping that from time to time, others will contribute to this thread when they get odd/interesting/funny fortunes, so we can all enjoy a light-hearted topic together.

I'd also be interested to know (from someone who is in a position to know*) if fortune cookies are an authentic Chinese food, or if it's just an American invention. I've eaten in some Chinese restaurants, and when I ask for a fortune cookie, they look at me like I've just grown another head.

Also, are there fortune cookies in other countries, outside of America?

Meanwhile, here are my odd fortunes from last night, which I would like some help understanding:

"Praise a fine day at night" What the h@ck does that mean?

"Only when free from projections, we can be aware of reality" So the fortune cookie writer is taking a psych class? What the . . . ?

Whatever happened to "You will travel to distant lands" or the one I never get "Money will shower upon you soon"?


*maybe you live in China, or are Asian, is what I mean by this, since it has bothered me for years, and I would like a definitive answer.

 

[princesss]

I never got them when I was living in Asia. I think fortune cookies are American creations, along with Chop Suey.

 

[chemgirl]

I've never been to China, but used to rent my spare room to an international student from China. She would just laugh and shake her head whenever I ordered Chinese food. She said she didn't really recognize anything, and the things that look similar to food from back home tasted different. She did develope a taste for Western Chinese food, but as something totally individual and not associated with China. She found me a few authentic Chinese restaurants and she's right, other than the few meals on the menu for the non-Chinese patrons, the food is really different. One staff member saw white little me come in, laughed, offered me a fork, and recommended the chicken balls

She wasn't really familiar with fortune cookies, but it could be a regional thing.

 

[princesss]

I've never been to China, but used to rent my spare room to an international student from China. She would just laugh and shake her head whenever I ordered Chinese food. She said she didn't really recognize anything, and the things that look similar to food from back home tasted different. She did develope a taste for Western Chinese food, but as something totally individual and not associated with China. She found me a few authentic Chinese restaurants and she's right, other than the few meals on the menu for the non-Chinese patrons, the food is really different. One staff member saw white little me come in, laughed, offered me a fork, and recommended the chicken balls

She wasn't really familiar with fortune cookies, but it could be a regional thing.

SO true! Living in Singapore we got AMAZING food, but dang - sometimes I just wanted some American Chinese food. When you've got a craving for General Tso's, nothing else will do.

 

[elrohwen]

The best one I had in college was "It is a good day"

Funny thing is that an editorial in the school paper was about that exact same fortune a week later. I guess it was a good day for a lot of people!


DH's best fortune was a year ago. The fortune was somehow cut in half, the long way, and all you could read was "worst". Not sure what the rest of the fortune would've said if it hadn't been cut off, but it was definitely the worst fortune.

eta: Fortune cookies were developed by Japanese immigrants living in the Bay Area for their Chinese restaurants. Definitely not authentic, and they weren't even developed by Chinese immigrants The "ancestors" (if you can call them that) of the modern fortune cookie are Japanese in origin so the immigrants developed the idea to appeal to their western customers.

 

[ForteKitty]

Whoa.. it's got a pretty interesting history!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie

 

[vintagelover229]

I got my first "real" one (by real I mean something that made sense, lol) this past summer when I was in Palm Springs and right before I made the international move to be with my bf. I don't eat the cookies bc I don't like them and I always smash them with my palm to open them. I did this and actually hurt myself and drew blood on my palm this time! I actually got the last cookie and it said, you or someone you know will be married soon

And 2 of the lucky numbers were 4 and 44 (and 4 is my SO favorite number). Alas we still aren't married, but it's been less than a year since I got the cookie and so I guess it depends on your definition of soon. We will be getting engaged though soon (and the ring had been bought right around that time too!)

I still have that one too

 

[packrat]

I don't have any funny/weird ones but several years ago JD and I and some friends had gone out to eat at the Chinese place-back when we were just friends. We were sitting next to each other and my fortune said something like "Your future is right next to you"..I can't remember exactly, but I saved it for kicks and giggles. After we got married I had it on the fridge.

 

[MonkeyPie]

I have a couple I have saved because they’re funny.

“Oops…wrong cookie.”

“You may fall into a spell of shininess…don’t buy it.”

“This fortune was not meant for you.”

And the amazingly epic:
“Only pretty people get what they want.” Niiiice.

 

[Lauren8211]

This fortune still makes me laugh...

 

[redfaerythinker]

I have two.

1." Come back later, i'm sleeping. Yes, even cookie's need their rest."

2. "Children are our future, for they will inherit the national debt."

I'm thinking that the fortune cookie writer was having a little too much fun that day.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Alas! Like it is unfortunate. LOL love it.

 

[aviastar]

I have one keep in my wallet; I got it just as I was in the middle of writing my thesis regarding the intrinsic (from an evolutionary and brain function standpoint) value of creativity and why it's important to support arts education as a valid expression of the brain's need to create things and it was in that dark phase where none of the research makes any sense and you can't find anything you are looking for until you catch one key point that brings it all together and makes it make sense (this one never made great sense, actually, I loved the topic, but the research is just too new to make any conclusions about anything, so I took everything I had worked on and focused down to the more manageble 'music' rather than 'creativity' and it worked out much better )

ANYWAY- my fortune said:

Don't pursue Happiness. Create it.


It was really quite empowering.

 

[princesss]

To answer the original question, right before I applied for my current job, a few of my friends ordered Chinese for lunch and my fortune said "People will find it difficult to resist your propositions." I taped it to my paper clip holder and it's actually right next to my laptop on my desk. I guess it was true, because I've been in the job for a year now

 

[Cehrabehra]

I have a collection of them in storage in america.... but two spring to mind.

One was the day we left to move to China. I went to Panda Express (my last meal in america lol) and my fortune said, "you will set food in many lands..."

but the best one ever was the one right before we got engaged that said, "accept the next proposition you hear" lol

 

[manderz]

My mom has gotten the two coolest fortune cookies I've ever seen. Once, when she was single, she got a fortune cookie that said "You will be married within one year." She wasn't even seeing anyone at that point in time. Sure enough, she met my dad and was really married within that year. A couple of months ago, she got one that said "Ignore previous cookie."

 

[Dee*Jay]

"ignore previous cookie" - I swear that made me laugh out loud!

 

[Ara Ann]

My hubby got the best one a couple of years ago...it read: "You love Chinese food." True, true.


There is one I have kept on our fridge too, it reads: "Treasure what you have." And I do.

 

[iLander]

Reviving this old thread, because we got a puzzler the other day.

"If all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail."

Say what?

You know, I read Zen koans for fun and this one has me flummoxed . . .

I'm thinking of having it made into a T-shirt, though.

 

[justginger]

This is what I got from the Chinese restaurant in my hometown, over conversation about my radical move to the southern hemisphere. It had be to captured for posterity.

 

[Starzin]

MonkeyPie, RedFaery and Manderz...positively the funniest things I've read in ages! Thanks for the laugh (and I do mean out loud)

 

[Sparklelu]

love these!
When Dh and I were just barely engaged he got one that said MAKE LOTS OF MONEY, WIFE WILL SPEND IT, and I have!

and this one I got from one of my students who asked if I put the fortunes in the cookies at school that day..We had just talked about using YOUR personal learning style to get the most out of studying!