Personal Dork Assistant

Home-Style Cooking

Starbuck drew howls of derision when they opened branches in Vienna, understandable in the coffeehouse capital of the world. On the other hand, an American company selling Chinese food in China seems to make a lot of sense.

Diner Frank Li, a project engineer on a trip from Suzhou, says the restaurant's link to KFC and Pizza Hut is a draw, not a drawback. "Those places are good quality," he says. "You know what you're going to get. They are a very professional company that must know what it's doing, and I think the quality here shows that."

Could Panda Express be far behind? How about some PF Changs? Will the Chinese public love the lettuce wraps? Hey, it's been ages since I've had a so-bad-it's-good orange chicken. Given the scary food supply situation in China, a monotonous multi-national backing may not be such a bad thing. Taco Bell in Mexico can just go straight to hell, though, far as I'm concerned.

Fortune cookies is the "dessert" staple of the Americanized Chinese cuisine. I've always just kinda assumed that the Chinese immigrants just made it up when they opened their restaurants in America. Just shows that I'm no historian. Apparently fortune cookies actually originated from Kyoto, from the snack stands that surround the temples of the city.

It was only in the late 1990s, outside Kyoto near one of the most popular Shinto shrines in Japan, that she saw that familiar shape at a family bakery called Sohonke Hogyokudo.

“These were exactly like fortune cookies,” she said. “They were shaped exactly the same and there were fortunes.”

The cookies were made by hand by a young man who held black grills over a flame. The grills contain round molds into which batter is poured, something like a small waffle iron. Little pieces of paper were folded into the cookies while they were still warm. With that sighting, Ms. Nakamachi’s long research mission began.

If you think about it, it's not a surprising finding considering the many Japanese immigrants pre-WW2, and the long Japanse tradition of sweets and crackers. Will definitely have to make a pilgrimage when I make it to Kyoto.