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1. worldculturenet.com » Culture Notes Jan. 16 ‘08 on 16 Jan 2008 at 10:25 pm

   […] Carmen explains, once and for all, that Chinese Fortune Cookies were actually invented in Japan. […]

Comments

1. G.D. wrote:

   Jenny has a book about the globalization of Chinese food that should be out pretty soon.

   no promo.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:19 am ¶

2. Cynthia wrote:

   The Japanese also invented the rice cooker. Most good brands are Japanese. My grandmother, who was a teen during WWII, goes on and on about how bad the Japanese are and often talks about refusing to use Japanese-made products, yet, her rice cooker is Japanese. She has also has a Japanese TV, DVD player and my grandfather drives a Toyota.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:20 am ¶

3. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   lol @ GD - good appropriation of term.

   Yeah, Carmen, I can kind of relate to that. I made friends with a girl from China back in 9th grade, and she took me to her house to make me “real chinese food.”

   Do you know I didn’t recognize a DAMN THING she was serving me? She had to explain to me (over the course of a few days) that the fat and sugar laden products I ate from the carryout was not Chinese food.

   Now, the only American Chinese food I eat are spring rolls.

   Eating real chinese food and then going back to the fake stuff is like mixing sugar and splenda - you think they are the same until you can actually compare them.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:47 am ¶

4. Cynthia wrote:

   Latoya: You mean egg rolls. Spring rolls are authentic as far as I know. If you can get them in Hong Kong outside of the touristy places, then it’s authentic I would say.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:53 am ¶

5. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   Are they? I originally wrote egg rolls, then realized I hadn’t eaten an egg roll since high school. I tend to order spring rolls. But those are authentic? Looks like I can officially sever my relationship with Americanized Chinese places.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:58 am ¶

6. Cynthia wrote:

   Yep. There are Vietnamese spring rolls too. Spring rolls are eaten during the Spring Festival, which is around the lunar new year.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 10:11 am ¶

7. Jenn wrote:

   “Red bean soup? Bleah!”

   Blasphemy! Red bean soup is delicious!

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 11:32 am ¶

8. Anonymous wrote:

   #6 I love Vietnamese spring rolls. They’re amazing.

   Latoya: you might want to try Vietnamese spring rolls sometime. Fresh lettuce, bean sprouts, cooked shrimp with sweet, tangy sauce wrapped up in a beautiful translucent rice wrap: better than the fried spring/egg rolls, IMHO. They look like this http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1334/711110165_b31bae6fef.jpg

   On topic: If fortune cookies are indeed a Japanese invention, it was not one of their many better ones

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 11:43 am ¶

9. Latoya Peterson wrote:

   Anon -

   Hon, I live for those. A nice Cambodian lady who used to make them for me a few boyfriends ago. Whole foods call them summer rolls. I call them delicious and want to make them but I (1) jack up the sauce and (2) tear the freaking paper. *sigh*

   And yes, WTF @ fortune cookies. What am I supposed to do with that? Dip that tasteless thing in tea? I love reading my random fortunes though.

   Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 11:49 am ¶

10. meownette wrote:

    I always thought they were invented in San Francisco’s Chinatown…who knows, though, those claims are always disputed.

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 4:12 pm ¶

11. Logan wrote:

    I dare say, I must take offense at your Red Bean Soup comment. In particular, Red Bean Ice Cream is great, and I loved it even with my cold-sensitive teeth.

    Another random thing: I’ve probably had more Taiwanese/Chinese food in my life from Taiwan than I’ve had Chinese in America. I think outside fortune cookies, I’d had nothing beforehand. I tried some when I came back from Taiwan, but there was just a vast difference in the taste of the dumplings, for example.

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 4:21 pm ¶

12. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    LOL! It cracks me up that I spend all day talking about race, but the greatest controversies come from my most random statements.

    (Omarion a better dancer than Chris Brown? Oh the outrage!)

    Sorry guys, I’m just not a red bean aficionado. But then again I also hate tofu and soy milk, so they should probably revoke my Chinese card.

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 4:32 pm ¶

13. Kai wrote:

    “hate tofu”…does not compute…nearing state of shock…

    *brain implodes*

    *sizzle*

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 7:19 pm ¶

14. Colin wrote:

    Stereotypes be damned! I love tofu! And red bean soup, while not the “bomb diggity”, is quite teh awesome. Red bean paste and ice cream are also mega-super-bombastic. (Different countries, yes I know) Soy milk makes my leftist politics happy but my mouth sad.

    In terms of what tastes the best, I’m still sucked into the addictive fried foods of soul food, and then comes Japanese food, and then various Latin American delicacies. There is one hot chocolate from a Latin American country I had at a school fair was amazing. It had spices, little bits of what seemed like licorice, and it was just a voyage of chocolate…delicious.

    Omarion a better dancer than Chris Brown? I have not heard such heresy! Where do you base such an argument?!

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:10 pm ¶

15. Lisa wrote:

    Indeed, the “Chinese” food in America bears minimal resemblance to China’s…well, there is no such thing as “Chinese” food in China, the regional variances are too vast. The only consistant offerings are rice and beer.

    The soy milk I’ve had in the US was pretty nasty and bland. The kind in Chinese groceries are peanut, vanilla, chocolate etc flavored, and then the unflavored kinds from the street vendors for breakfast are unflavored but much richer and yummier than the US varient.

    Likewise, tofu offers a lot of different options. I also hate the common soft tofu, but love old tofu and dry tofu and shredded tofu paper and especially stinky tofu. I’d advise tofu-detractors to experiment more expansively before ruling it out entirely.

    I concur, though, that red bean paste is nasty.

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 9:56 pm ¶

16. Mark N. wrote:

    Please tell me you at least like chicken feet in black bean sauce? ok, maybe that’s a stretch, even all my family hates it and leaves them all for me to eat.

    Posted 16 Jan 2008 at 10:48 pm ¶

17. Anonanother wrote:

    Red bean soup and red bean anything is nasty. I don’t know any Chinese person under 26 that likes it.

    As for “soy milk”, which is properly called “soy drink”, there are some that taste good. There’s a brand called Silk with a vanilla-flavoured one and it’s quite yummy.

    As someone already touched on, soft tofu has a unappealing texture and no taste, while hard tofu can be fried and doesn’t disintegrate.

    On topic: Chop suey isn’t Chinese-Chinese food either! Neither is General Tso/Tao’s Chicken! Neither is McDonald’s “Asian Salad”, since East Asian people normally don’t eat salad or raw vegetables in general, at least to my knowledge.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 12:01 am ¶

18. Anonanother wrote:

    Oops, I mean East Asian people in East Asia who eat traditional East Asian food don’t normally eat raw vegetables, at least to my knowledge.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 12:04 am ¶

19. donna darko wrote:

    Blasphemy! How do you finish a great meal?

    Red bean soup, red bean ice cream, green bean ice cream. It’s all good.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 2:01 am ¶

20. justin wrote:

    In NZ we have to put up with this discourse about ‘fish and chip shop chinese’ it’s about denigrating the local and it’s typical colonial thinking .
    The assimilated Chinese who run greasy takeaway shop down the street have been led astray by the western palette. They require some kind of saviour to venture off to their misty native land, to find a dying master chef, so he or she can return to reconnect those savage children to their noble culinary past.
    I like to watch the cooking shows where the host walks through some crowded south east asian markets eating food from hawkers because they don’t know any thing about the restaurants there and I have a similar theory about the western medias coverage of the sex industry, a lot of tourists just spend to much time wandering the streets.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 4:46 am ¶

21. justin wrote:

    Authenticity is oppression. Death to the author!!

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 4:49 am ¶

22. Christie wrote:

    Disregarding the “fortune” aspect and the shape of the cookie, and only in regards to the flavor and texture of the cookie:

    My husband recently visited Kyoto and brought back some really yummy cookies that really reminded me of fortune cookies, in terms of the flavor and type of cookie (they were in a different shape, though). When I ate them I was thinking, “this reminds me of something… oh, fortune cookies!” They were basically just the same type of cookie, but with a bit of cinnamon flavoring thrown in.

    So I can totally believe the idea that the cookies themselves come from Japan originally. No idea where the distinctive shape and the fortune come into it, though.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 4:49 am ¶

23. Logan wrote:

    You know, thinking about Chinese Food a little more, I’m surprised that I can’t find Stinky Tofu here in the States.

    Stinky Tofu, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of tasting it, is a Tofu-like substance that smells like it has been sitting in a dumpster on a blistering 100 degree day for the entire day, which considering Taiwan I wouldn’t be surprised at. Anyways, the taste is a real sharp taste, which while I could see being an acquired taste, is enough to make even the most hardened eater vomit, as I saw happen with my group. I wanna see some people who’ve only had “Chinese” try that and see their reactions. XD

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 4:50 pm ¶

24. Globalistgirl wrote:

    Oh, Carmen, you were serious about the red beans? I thought you were kidding! I like red bean paste on both American and Swedish pancakes as a nice alternative to maple syrup and sugar or jam, respectively. The syrup and jam get a little sweet fairly quickly, but with red bean paste it’s still sweet and dessert-y, and you don’t get tired so quickly.

    My favorite “Chinese dessert” are pumpkin cakes 南瓜饼 nánguābǐng, though I’ve been trying to find them frozen in expat stores, but no luck yet for me. If anyone has a recipe, PLEASE post it

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 7:59 pm ¶

25. RobynT wrote:

    I think the Japanese “fortune cookies” are called senbei. When I Google it, it looks like senbei are sometimes salty rather than sweet, but this page shows the kind I grew up eating: http://www.dcwhawaii.com/candy/hicandy4.html

    If you look closely you can see the coconut wafer cookies basically look like flat fortune coookies.

    Posted 17 Jan 2008 at 9:41 pm ¶

26. justin wrote:

    Senbie are rice crackers. Red bean soup and red bean paste are very different, it’s like comparing some kind of peanut soup to peanut butter. My mum makes red bean soup all the time, the problem with hers at least is not the flavour it’s the powdery remnants of dried beans and their skins that settle at the bottom of the bowl.

    Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 1:10 am ¶

27. Jaye wrote:

    If anyone knows, I wanted to find out if having peanut sauce with Vietnamese salad rolls is “authentic” or not, because that is how I’ve always eaten them. Then recently I went to a new Viet restaurant where the owner served it with, what seemed to me, Chinese hoisin sauce, and I almost gagged, nothing wrong with hoisin sauce, but just not good with salad rolls. When I asked the owner about it, he said peanut sauce was the unauthentic “westernized” version, and just really looked down on the idea. I had no idea that peanut sauce was Western.

    To add in, tofu is good deep-fried with chilis and rock salt, but then it kind of takes away from the whole ‘healthy’ aspect.
    I hate red bean paste, soup, whatever, but I hate beans in general. Any Latin American restaurant, I will not eat refried beans.
    And I have always hated soy milk, even when I was a kid, but I didn’t make the connection, because it was called by the Chinese name and in these little juice-like carton boxes. So when I got older and everyone started talking about how soy milk was healthier, I finally decided to try some and realized…hey, I’ve drank this crap before. But all the other kids around me walked around with little packets of it, and still do, I see it around all the time, I just didn’t know what it was called in English.

    Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 4:04 am ¶

28. justin wrote:

    The peanut originally came from south america.

    Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 8:46 am ¶

29. Cynthia wrote:

    Sauce: I think “authenticity” varies region to region. In Hong Kong/authentic Hong Kong Chinese restaurants in Canada, you eat spring rolls with Worcestershire sauce, for example.

    Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 10:30 am ¶

30. donna darko wrote:

    There’s a brand called Silk

    Isn’t Silk always sweet? Blech. I like the Edensoy flavors.

    Logan, you can find stinky tofu in Chinatown grocery stores. Yeah. I like it.

    Posted 18 Jan 2008 at 12:57 pm ¶

31. snoogles wrote:

    red bean soup isn’t just chinese…koreans eat it too.

    gosh, food can be so political!

    Posted 19 Jan 2008 at 10:44 am ¶

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