Fortune Cookie (photo by Michael Connors, courtesy of morguefile.com)

In breaking news, the New York Times has reported that the debate over origin of the fortune cookie may have been settled. Japanese researcher Yasuko Nakamachi says the cookies are almost certainly of Japanese origin, despite their ubiquitous presence in Chinese restaurants around the world. About 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year. Most are made in the U.S.

In the New York Times article Ms. Nakamachi points to “...many references to the cookies in Japanese literature and history, including an 1878 image of a man making them in a bakery.”

Ms. Nakamachi is a folklore and history graduate student at Japan’s Kanagawa University. Her quest to determine the origin of the fortune cookie covered a span of six years. Her time was spent at Japan’s National Diet Library, pouring over old documents and drawings, and traveling to shrines and temples across the country to conduct interviews.

If you’d like to read the New York Times article cited above go to: Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie