Your Fortune Is in Another Cookie
/The proper way – the only way – to eat a fortune cookie is to eat the cookie first, and then read the slip of paper. Otherwise, the fortune couldn’t possibly be true or come true.
How terrible when other people don't know this golden rule -- and to watch them happily tear into a cookie and read aloud Someone you know will give you money or True love is around the third corner or Something lost will turn up soon while the broken halves of the cookie lie on the place-mat alongside dirty chopsticks. Or, worse yet, your dining companion eats the cookie and reads the fortune at the same time, crumbs tumbling out of his or her mouth along with the lucky phrase.
If a fortune is never to come true, does that mean that, in fact, it’s opposite will? These are dangerous times.
When faced with such an unaware dining companion, a person who does indeed understand fortune cookie etiquette has two options: sit quietly and let the other person mistakenly believe that Happy events will soon take place at home or 2) tell them the truth: that their good luck will not arrive because they rushed to read the fortune before eating the cookie.
This is the marshmallow test come to a Chinese restaurant near you. But this time: eat the cookie first and delay the gratification of learning that Beauty surrounds you because you create it.
Is the fortune cookie the best part of the meal? Possibly. What is absolutely clear, though, is that it is an essential part of the meal.
There is a Chinese restaurant here in Madrid which is good enough for takeout. Delivery isn’t quite their thing so if you want to eat Chinese food at home, you must walk to the restaurant on calle Horteleza, choose from the menu, and wait. They always forget to include the fortune cookies with the takeout so this last visit, I checked the bags before leaving. Nope, no shiny little wrappers filled with fortune cookies. I’d have to ask for them: ¿Podria tener las galletas de fortuna?
-- Que? -- Galletas de fortuna? -- COMO? -- Galletas? -- No. No entiendo. Lo siento. No entiendo.
At this point, the kind Spanish-speaking Chinese waiter didn’t seem to care any longer if I paid or not. He wanted me out of there. I tried one more time:
-- Perdona. Sabes galletas? Fortune cookies?? Cuando las abres, hay una frase de suerte?
Blank stare. I was getting nothing. In fact I was being ushered out the door. Quickly.
The next day at work, I relay the story to my colleague from China and ask What was up with that crazy waiter?
But it was me, not him. Apparently, fortune cookies are an American thing and the Chinese waiter honestly had no clue what I was going on about. I was the crazy one: demanding free cookies filled with fortune.
