Fortune Cookies, Made In Long Island Just Like Lindsay Lohan
Carolyn Nardiello of the NY Daily News tells us where fortune cookies come from: "The next time you eat Chinese food, chances are the fortune cookies that complete the meal began their journey in a nondescript building in Long Island City, Queens. Wonton Food pumps out 4.5 million of the crunchy, message-bearing treats every day from its 70-worker plant on 37th St., near Greenpoint Ave. It is the largest fortune cookie maker in the nation, with equipment rumbling around the clock."
No, the fortunes aren't actually Chinese proverbs (the article says they're written by "moonlighting grad students"; yes, the lucky numbers are random and picked by computer (but they're printed on multiple fortunes, which makes for interesting lotteries); and no, there are no fortune cookies in China as they were invented in San Francisco early last century. Wonton Food "tried to market fortune cookies in China in the early 1990s, even setting up a factory there. But it didn't catch on, and they pulled out after a year." The founder's nephew Derrick Wong says, "Most of the people in China never even heard of fortune cookies."
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3 Comments:
I feel bad for ruining your delightful headline, but I don't think LIC Queens is technically Long Island. Is it?
LoDega at 2:51PM on 03/13/07
It depends on what you mean by "technically"—LIC is part of Queens and therefore under the jurisdiction of NYC, but both Queens and Brooklyn are geographically on Long Island. Normally I'd say it wasn't, but I just wanted to talk about LiLo!
Lia Bulaong at 4:49PM on 03/13/07
Fair enough! Sorry to gripe!
LoDega at 2:36PM on 03/14/07