Seems perfectly clear to me. I assume because that may explain why it’s part of the American-Chinese eating out experience and not the English-Chinese eating out experience. It’s an American tradition that just didn’t catch on abroad.
My apologies to chowder and Lobsang. I should be more careful in posting. In any case, here’s the Wikipedia entry on fortune cookies:
They were introduced in the U.S. in the early twentieth century. They are apparently vaguely similar to a certain kind of Japanese cookie.
Me too. However, if you ever find yourself in China and tempted by a dish called something like ‘Fish Maw and Sea Cucumber’, my advice would be to pass it in favour of something else.