For Fortune Cookie Day, I’m featuring here in this blogpost a few fortuitous snapshots: that last pic (of the 4 above) is of a an informative museum panel that provided a brief history of the fortune cookie in America and was on display some moons ago as part of the “CHOW: Making The Chinese American Restaurant” exhibit at the Museum of Food & Drink (MOFAD) back when the museum was based in Williamsburg Bklyn (now they’re in DUMBO Bklyn). ..
The other pis are from a more recent time earlier this year when I got to pleasantly (& surprisingly!) hang out with my Cali-based baby sis on a whim when she landed in NYC on the same day i found out she was even headed this way for a brief-ish business trip… Her hotel was listed as being in SOHO but much to my (second!) pleasant surprise it turned out to actually be smack dab in the middle of Manhattan’s Chinatown! An amazing place i never get to play home town tourist in enough at all. Many of ya’ll who follow me and read these posts also by now know that my baby sister is almost evangelically vegan whereas i am a proud and pretty adventurous omnivore. That said, “we” (read: she) found a VEGAN Dumpling & Dim Sum spot we settled in at which had a comforting old-school feel and vibe (a la time travel to an earlier NYC) and the food was fresh, hot , well flavored, aromatically fragrant and delicious! (it’s called Bodhi Kosher Vegan Restaurant by the way: 77 Mulberry Street, NY NY 10013)…
But back to FORTUNE COOKIES: …
Anyway, look closely at the ‘fortunes’ in the palm of her hand (in the middle pic or second pic from the left) . Ok, so… like… am I way off base or is that first one intentionally written to sound like some type of Chinese-American version of Ebonics ?? … More importantly — WHO writes these little fortune strips of paper? …Is it someone(s) who honestly and proudly speaks this way without shame and just likes to share their preferred linguistic form of ethnically expressing themselves across cultures this way with others… OR some colonizer-heritage outsider who’s “nostalgically” imposing an inappropriate mockery —intentionally or not?… OR a bonafide Chinese-American heritage person who owns the co and decided that writing them in some kind of Chinese-American ‘broken’ English simply SELLS? ….Ah the questions have bubbled up at a rapid pace…Maybe i’m late to this whole inquiry since i cook and consume more meals at home than i eat out at restaurants but I’ve gotta investigate this at least a little bit …
I’ve flagged this accordingly as a topic for discussion with my a few of my Chinese-American foodie friends for starters to explore and find out more. Am I being vicariously hypersensitive or is this actually an issue? STAY TUNED….