Having never seen fortune cookies in Hong Kong or mainland China, I have often wondered why they are associated with Chinese food. The answer is here. Now, on to the next mystery: how did large spring rolls come to be called "egg rolls"? In China, an egg roll is a crisp sweet rolled-up cookie.
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Funny you should mention these conundrums this week. We are having a multicultural Primary activity this Saturday and of course are highlighting China as one of the countries. Not surprisingly, in our planning meeting the other women suggested that I serve fortune cookies to which I delivered my lecture about fortune cookies being an American invention. I had no idea I was wrong.
Also, around Christmas I bought soome Pirouette cookies which are really similar to the egg rolls from HK. I was making a cake that called for the cookies, but got hooked on them and ate them all a week before Christmas. Anyway, as I was gorging, I explained to Bil the whole egg roll misunderstanding and he looked at me like I was crazy. I guess he didn't understand why I was so obsessed over such a seemingly small matter.....
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