(Roughly) Daily

Quotidian philosophical observation and advice wrapped in a suger cookie shell– fortune cookies, almost unknown in China, have become the customary prize at the end of a Westernized Chinese meal… and a big business for the two companies that turn out millions of “wisdom slips” a day.

Wonton Food, Inc. is the world’s largest manufacturer of fortune cookies and fortune cookie messages. It was established in 1973 and is based in the New York City area, with an additional factory in Houston. Wonton Food ships between 4.5 million and 5 million cookies per day to restaurants and chains throughout the U.S. and to Canada, Latin America, and Europe.

Yang’s Fortunes, Inc., founded in 1996 and based in San Francisco, just handles printing, cutting, and packaging fortunes to send off to clients baking them into cookies. Yang’s churns out about 4 million fortunes per day.

Learn how they avoid oracular overload at “Who Writes the Messages in Fortune Cookies?”

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As we compare our fortunes, we might send distilled birthday greetings across the Yellow Sea to Kobayashi Issa; he was born on this date in 1763 (though some scholars cite yesterday; and others, May 5).  A lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū sect, Issa (a name meaning “one [cup of] tea”) was one of the “Great Four” haiku masters (with Bashō, Buson, and Shiki).

Everything I touch

with tenderness, alas,

pricks like a bramble.

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