The commonly held notion that they
were invented in China typically comes from the fact that they are
primarily served in American Chinese restaurants. However, you will
not find fortune cookies in actual Chinese restaurants, nor will you
find historical records of a similar food item in China.
The largest manufacturer of fortune cookies, Wonton Food, based in
New York, even once tried to introduce fortune cookies to the
Chinese in the late 1980s. After three years, they gave up, as they
simply were not a popular food item in China.
The people often credited with inventing fortune cookies were
Japanese immigrants to America. Fortune cookies were actually
invented in Japan.
A researcher, Yasuko Nakamachi, encountered a fortune cookie-shaped
cracker, called a Tsujiura Senbei, made by hand in a family bakery
near a Shinto shrine outside of Kyoto, Japan. This cracker, not only
looked like a fortune cookie, it also contained a fortune, called an
“omikuji” (fortune slip), and was traditionally sold in shrines and
temples.
Around 3 billion fortune cookies are consumed annually world-wide,
with most consumed in the United States. Wonton Food produces around
4.5 million fortune cookies per day.
As an aside, Chop Suey, which translates to “break into many
pieces,” is commonly believed to be a Chinese food invented in
America. Not so. It was invented in Taishan, a district of Guangdong
Province, China.