Fortune Cookies

At one point the Japanese must have said, fish head and rice and pickles must not go over well with the American population.

Smart people. The quote is from a New York Times article about the origin of Chinese fortune cookies. The funny thing about those cookies is that they don't have them in China, which never made much sense. Now it seems, Yasuko Nakamachi has traced their origins to Japan. The majority of people thought they were started by the Chinese in their California restaurants in the early 1900's, I know I did. She says the Japanese realized their food wasn't as palatable to Americans as Westernized chop suey so they opened Chinese restaurants and that is how the cookies became intertwined with Chinese restaurants. Here is the article in case you are interested...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/dining/16fort.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th