The above (hilarious) video has nothing to do with Missouri (unless you count Springfield's claim to American-Chinese food fame, cashew chicken). Still, contemplating why we eat weird little cookies after meals at Chinese restaurants - when the Chinese themselves seem more shocked to find paper in the middle than if they cracked it and a bird flew out* - would be a welcome bit of introspection.
From the writer who penned a story on fortune cookies in China for the NY Times:
Americans find high emotional attachment to the slips inside their cookies, looking to them for winning lottery numbers and becoming upset when the fortunes inside are unfortunate. The Chinese, on the other hand, would often tell me after trying the curved vanilla-flavored wafers, “Americans are so strange, why are they putting pieces of paper in their cookies?”
* Whew, finally worked in an Airplane! reference.
3 comments:
The author of the story you cited is also the author of Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It's a great book about the history of Chinese food in America. Lee is an entertaining and talented writer.
I'll second the recommendation for Jennifer 8 Lee's "Fortune Cookie Chronicles." I knew something about the stream of illegal aliens who work in the Chinese restaurants-- I helped teach some of them English in ESL courses at Douglass-- but there's much more in the book, particularly about where our version of "Chinese" food comes from.
That's it. Fortune Cookie Chronicles is on the "must read" list. Thanks for the rec.
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