The Fortune Cookie Quest

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

No dish of General Tso's, chow mein, or beef and broccoli is complete without a fortune cookie at the end. In fact, factories churn out an estimated *three billion* of these folded confections every year, mostly for the U.S. market. So how did fortune cookies become not just a quintessential part of Chinese takeout, but also an American cultural icon? This episode, we crack open the history of the fortune cookie to get at the conflicted origins—or, at the very least, the winning lottery numbers—hidden within. With the help of author Jennifer 8 Lee, we trace the origin of this oracular cookie back in time: from a court case pitting one set of cookie pioneers in San Francisco against their Angeleno rivals, all the way to the tiny town that may have started it all...a town that's (gasp!) not even in China! Your fortune today: listen carefully, and all will be revealed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We have asked you to play a game that this time we're calling
0:07.2	Say as for Cookie!
0:09.6	Yay!
0:10.6	Today, Guestropad is still on Aedis and instead we're gonna play Wait-Wait-Wait-Don't
0:16.3	Tell Me!
0:17.3	That actually sounds like a fabulous plan and I would definitely enjoy it, but Cynthia,
0:21.6	you know that's not what's happening.
0:23.6	That's it.
0:24.6	Why not listen to just a little bit more?
0:27.1	I like cookies.
0:28.1	One of the most famous cookie people around is Wally Amos, better known as Famous Amos,
0:32.7	you've seen this cookies.
0:34.2	What is Famous Amos' other claim to fame?
0:38.4	Was it A as a talent agent he discovered Simon and Garfunkel?
0:42.3	B, he set and still holds the world record for number of cigarettes smoked at once.
0:49.0	Or C, he happens to be a champion Morris dancer.
0:52.5	Hey, you're gonna go for A as a talent agent you discovered Simon and Garfunkel?
0:58.0	Yes, you're right, that's what he is.
1:00.5	Wally Amos!
1:02.5	It's true, that story is totally wild.
1:06.5	And now we can reveal that Guestropad is making an episode about one of my all-time favorite
1:11.9	duos, The Only One, where I can sing quite possibly every single song they ever sang together,
	...

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