Vanilla culinary products, in each of which a piece of paper with wise saying, aphorism or prophecy, has long been baked in public consciousness with Chinese culture. We checked how correct this connection is.
The world knows about cookies with predictions mainly thanks to the United States - there these products are served in Chinese restaurants, which is reflected in many works of art. For example, in the comedy of 2003 "Plague Friday" The plot is built on the fact that the elderly Chinese brings the heroines Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan “cookies of happiness”, and those, having read the predictions, find that they have changed their bodies. With short films "Cookies with a prediction" The famous film director Darren Aronofsky began his career. As part of the advertising campaign of the cartoon "Kung Fu Panda-3" quotes of the protagonist could detect In the cookies sold in cinemas. Throughout America, a game is popular, the participants of which should add the words “in bed” to the counted predictions. Moreover, there are cases when people became millionaires, picking up lottery tickets for the numbers indicated inside the cookies.
Serve this entertaining dish in Chinese restaurants outside USA - for example, in Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico and even in Russia.
However, any attempt to find traces of mentioning cookies with predictions in the literature on traditional Chinese cuisine will be unsuccessful. Moreover, they did not know about such a dish in China for most of the 20th century. When in 1989 in Hong Kong Standed The import of the product from behind the ocean, then there all this went under the label "Real American cookies with predictions." In 1992, the Brooklyn company Wonton Food even Built The corresponding factory in mainland China, but the startup did not live long: the local population considered the novelty “too American”, and production soon closed.
Where did this dish come from? It is known for certain that back in the 19th century, something similar was prepared in Japan, where it has long been popular Omikuji - Paper with predictions that could be pulled out in local temples. The cookies, called the “Tsujiura Sanbei”, differed from Western analogues in that which was larger, darker, contained sesame and paste Miso instead of vanilla and oil. At the same time, a piece of paper with a prediction did not hide inside the cookie, but invested in it. Such cookies are made in Japan and Today.
Apparently, the Japanese immigrant was well acquainted with the traditions of the ancestors Makoto Hagivara - landscape designer who created Japanese tea garden, one of the main attractions of San Francisco. It is for him that some Sources They attribute the invention of a modern, American version of cookies with predictions. According to this legend, Hagivara lost his job for a while, but his friends supported him as best they could. And when in 1914 the new mayor restored the Japanese as a sign of gratitude to the friends of his friends, and inward put thanksgiving notes. Later, Hagivara began to serve cookies in his tea garden, and then imagined Panamo-Pacific exhibition In San Francisco.
The palm of the championship from Hagivara tried to take away David Jung, the founder of the famous Los Angeles company for the production of Hong Kong Noodle noodles. He argued that for the first time he baked cookies with predictions in 1918. In 1983, a half -stage The court of historical reviews He examined the lawsuit of the representatives of the two largest cities in California and came to the conclusion that the cookies were still invented at the site of the court, in San Francisco. The material has become decisive proof In the form of a set of round iron grilles, on which the Hagivar family supposedly baked cookies.
There are other, less popular versions of the invention of the dish, and they are mainly associated with Japanese immigrants. However, the question inevitably arises: how so it happened that the cookies migrated from Japanese restaurants to Chinese? According to the main versions, to contribute to this, the unenviable share of Americans of Japanese descent during the Second World War could contribute. About 100,000 people, including cookies, got into concentration camps, which gave the market to Chinese manufacturers.
Nemtaine origin of cookies with predictions with humor beat in the novel Amy Tan "Club of Joy and Good luck" (1989). According to the plot, two immigrants from China are arranged in a factory that produces such cookies. At first they are amused by the concept of the product, but after several attempts to translate the content of pieces of paper into Chinese, they decide that it is not wisdom, but “incorrect instructions”.
Thus, modern cookies with predictions were invented in the United States, and its roots most likely stretch to Japan. In theory, the Chinese of American origin could have a hand in the popularization of goodies, but China itself has nothing to do with it.
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