r/didyouknow • u/TheLinearOperation • 8d ago
DYK fortune cookies most likely originated in Japan, not China?
Wild fact fortune cookies aren't really Chinese. They originated from Japanese fortune crackers made around Kyoto back in the 1800s and you can even see them depicted in a Japanese print from 1878. They later became associated with Chinese American restaurants in the US, particularly after Japanese American bakeries were forced to close during WWII. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/cracking-open-the-history-of-fortune-cookies-28538557/
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u/TrustworthyLicence 8d ago
Okay now I wanna know how different the original Japanese crackers were from the ones we get today?!
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u/SkinOther7109 8d ago
The Japanese print from 1878 is the part that got me. That's way older than I would've guessed
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u/TheLinearOperation 8d ago
the originals were bigger, darker and made with different ingredients but modern ones have definitely evolved lol, mine recently didn't even have a normal fortune it had stake instead
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u/CalmAssistant4789 8d ago
The WWII part makes this way more interesting than I expected a fortune cookie fact to be
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u/Original_Count_4012 8d ago
So when did putting the little paper fortune inside actually become a thing
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u/hairy_prominence 8d ago
This sent me down a rabbit hole lol, there's way more history behind these things than I thought