Fortune Cookies

Pretend that you've just finished dining on a sumptuous feast of Chinese food. Now, choose your cookie carefully, crack it open and find your fortune. Fortune cookies are popular with Chinese fast-food restaurants. After a Chinese meal, a plateful of these sweet little things, usually one cookie for each diner, is being served as desserts with good luck wishes. Excitement builds up when you crack open this cookie to find your fortune. The fortune is in the form of a small piece of paper inserted inside the hallow portion of the cookie with quotes and inspiring messages written on it. Sometimes you can find some number combinations which you can take them as your lucky numbers. I always look forward to opening my own fortune cookie whenever we eat in a Chinese restaurant or have Chinese take-outs.

According to Wikipedia.com: “There are approximately 3 billion fortune cookies made each year around the world, the vast majority of them used for consumption in the United States. The largest manufacturer of the cookies is Wonton Food, headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. They make over 4.5 million fortune cookies per year. Another large manufacturer is Peking Noodle in the Los Angeles area. There are other smaller, local manufacturers including Tsue Chong Co. in Seattle and Sunrise Fortune Cookie in Philadelphia.”

There are many other smaller companies that make and sell fortune cookies even over the Internet. You can even customize the “fortune” found inside these cookies when you order them to suit your needs.

In popular culture, there is a common joke involving fortune cookies that involves appending "between the sheets" or "in bed" to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo or other bizarre messages, for example: “ Get away from home awhile to restore your energy (in bed).” We usually read these quotes aloud while comparing our fortunes inside the restaurant and it would start up intense laughter among us.

Here are some more examples:

YOU WILL HAVE MANY FRIENDS WHEN YOU NEED THEM. 9 12 19 32 41 44

YOU WILL SOON BE RECEIVING SOME GOOD WRITTEN NEWS. 14 35 37 40 44 46

A REFRESHING CHANGE IS IN YOUR FUTURE

RESIST A TEMPTATION TO TAKE SHORTCUTS OF ANY KIND.

GENEROSITY AND PERFECTION ARE YOUR ASSETS – AND THEY SHOW

A WISH WILL BE GRANTED AFTER A LONG DELAY. 09 18 27 33 42 47

YOU ARE VERY EXPRESSIVE AND POSITIVE IN WORD, ACT AND FEELING.

BE PREPARED TO RECEIVE SOMETHING SPECIAL. 17 23 33 38 45 47

PARTICIPATION IN SPORTS MAY LEAD YOU TO A LUCRATIVE CAREER.

You can find some more quotes, messages or “fortunes” online, just Google them.

Is there a need for you to take these messages seriously? You may or you may not, just like how you take your daily Horoscope?