On one side was the Los Angeles contingent, which argued that the inventor of the fortune cookie was David Jung, a Chinese immigrant from Canton, the founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles shortly before World War I.
Fortune cookie writer full#
The media had arrived in full force - local and national, newspaper and television. The courtroom, located on the fourth floor of San Francisco's City Hall, was filled to standing room only. The critical 1983 debate: Who invented the fortune cookie, and where? The identity of an American icon was at stake. Lee explains how fortune-cookie lucky numbers connected Powerball winners in 2002, as well as how an overwhelming majority of fortune-cookie "fortunes" originate from one of two sources: Wonton Food in New York City or Steven Yang, who does not speak fluent English and works out of a warehouse in California.Ĭhapter 3: A Cookie Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma In a way, I had bought into the myth of what is really 'Chinese,'" she says. "It was a disconcerting discovery, like I was adopted and there was no Santa Claus at the same time.
"My interest started when I was about 13, and I found out that fortune cookies weren't Chinese," Lee says. Lee, a reporter for The New York Times, says the book is the product of an obsession. That curiosity led to a book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, which is due out in March.
The food in the little white takeout boxes was so different from the meals her mom prepared. Her mother's traditional dishes filled the supper table, so Lee was perplexed by the dishes in Chinese restaurants. Lee says she grew up as an ABC - or American-born Chinese.įrom prom to pop culture, her parents encouraged the three Lee children to embrace America, even as they stressed Chinese culture in their household. Read an excerpt from the book about the origins of the fortune cookie.
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