rss feedWith fortune cookies, sometimes the outside is as important as the crispness and inside
I’ll admit that finding balance, in terms of thought, can be difficult when weighing the fact that a drought is hurting millions of people in China’s southwest provinces.
And that it hailed and rained Friday morning in the Seattle area. When it did, my wife remarked that it sure would be nice to share some of our rain with that part of China.
It’s especially hard to find balance in thought when, well, you see an appealing advertisement for chocolate-dipped fortune cookies.
But I’ll admit: In this case, the advertising at Uwajimaya, the large Asian supermarket in Seattle, worked.
Just take a look for yourself.
My family and I had finished shopping at Uwajimaya the other day – when I waited for my wife and son right near the eyeglass store and bank.
For some reason, I looked up and spotted the advertisement that you see in the photograph above.
The tease in English: “missing something Sweet?”
But the chocolate covered cookie – in the famous fortune cookie shape – is what prompted me to say: “Hey, check this out.”
My wife and son had arrived. I gestured to the sign.
I finally walked around to the chocolate area to hunt down what the advertisement had conveyed to shoppers and visitors.
This is what I saw:
Very nice, I thought.
The thought of rich chocolate mixing with the crispness of the cookie quickly came to mind.
Then, I looked around and spotted this box below.
Wow, I thought – a richer taste because it’s dark chocolate that you’re eating.
More thoughts swirled in my mind: “This is getting even better!”
That is, until, I saw this box – which reminded me of all my sweet-tooth moments when I would go to the store and buy Orange Milano cookies.
Now, if the mood strikes, I can buy dark chocolate orange fortune cookies.
Sweet. Sweet. Sweet.
At Uwajimaya, the 3.5-ounce package of six dipped cookies sells for $4.99 before taxes.
Yes, I spotted the advertisement hanging from the ceiling.
I walked over and surveyed the delicious-looking treats.
But no, I didn’t plunk down any money for them on that visit.
My wife reminded me that Mother’s Day is coming up – and that might be a good moment to try some.
I wonder if the cookies are similar in taste to some of those European ones that are dipped or partially-bathed in chocolate.
I’ll just have to find out at one point, likely in May.
The brand sold at Uwajimaya is Emily’s Chocolates and is from the Puget Sound region – Fife, in this case.
Yes, there’s a peppermint chocolate flavored fortune cookie, too.
The company is part of AMES International.
I should note, as I’ve done before, that fortune cookies are often associated with Chinese restaurants in the United States.
They’re the crispy treats with the sometimes amusing fortunes stuffed inside.
But one working theory goes that a Japanese family might have actually introduced them in California.
Around the time I wrote about fortune cookies in the Seattle area a few years ago, I talked with a person who makes chocolate-covered fortune cookies.
As I recall, she had a small business and wanted me to include her in my newspaper article.
We chatted on the phone and I asked where she made her cookies.
She paused and declined to say. That gave me a strange feeling since, well, journalists like honesty when a simple is asked.
When I worked as a journalist, I was aware that some people – but not all – wanted to get their name or company in print as a form of institutional validation or free advertising.
Yes, there are times when what you do at your business is interesting in and of itself – such that a news feature would let others know of what you do.
In this case, I already had enough information for my article and proceeded with what I had.
When I was in graduate school in New York City, I went to a fortune cookie factory in Brooklyn to do research for a paper I wrote for a class.
The manager was kind enough to talk with me.
I told him how I always enjoyed walking through the alleys of San Francisco Chinatown as a kid and looking in the fortune cookie factories to see the process.
I watched older Chinese women, who reminded me of my grandmother, sit behind tables and insert fortunes inside the cookies and fold them.
I recall that they had fingertip coverings for protection because the cookie can be hot.
The manager in Brooklyn told me that his factory uses a specialized machine and the cookies never touched a human hand.
It went from baking to folding to being wrapped in a plastic bag in an automated process.
My thought: Wow.
Times change.
I asked to go inside the factory to see his machines since I was accustomed to cookies being folded by hand.
He politely declined my request, saying that the fortune cookie business is competitive in the United States and his technology, essentially, was a trade secret.
Again, I thought: Wow.
Times change. It’s only a fortune cookie.
I asked how many cookies his factory churned out each year. I forgot his exact number but I know it was hundreds of millions.
We chatted for a bit about who writes those fortunes.
He said he has hired freelance writers in the past.
One memorable fortune, as he told me, was when someone typed up and inserted into cookies this message: “Help! I’m being held prisoner in a fortune cookie factory.”
I laughed when he told me.
Since then, I’ve heard of similar messages being found in fortune cookies.
So, I don’t know if what he told me was urban legend – or if it actually happened at his factory.
Or, others might have just retold the story that he recounted such that it became widespread.
The manager, though, said a police officer called him up once and inquired whether anyone actually needed help.
If you are interested in seeing a video of how fortune cookies are made, The Seattle Times recently posted this clip.
Yes, I obviously hope the drought will end in China’s southwest – obviously, because millions of innocent people are being affected.
And I suppose that it is possible to hold a variety of thoughts in your head at one time.
Fortunately, what Homer Simpson once said is not always true:
Every time I learn something new it pushes something old out of my brain.
Finally: If you have eaten chocolate-covered fortune cookies, please let me know how they taste.
Thanks!
