Relish Austin

Hailing from the Ozarks, Addie Broyles expanded her cooking (and eating) skills on the West Coast and Spain before settling in Austin, mainly for the aguas frescas at the taco stand down the street from her house where she, husband Ian and son Julian are now attempting to grow their own food in the backyard. They recently welcomed another baby boy and two chickens to the family.

Relishing food is about taking time to enjoy what has become the often hurried and mundane task of nourishing our bodies. Relish Austin is Addie's search for things that make her go "mmmm." High brow, low brow. Fast food, slow food. In Central Texas. On the Web. On the streets. In your garden and in your kids' lunch box. In your refrigerator and on your dinner table.

Relish Austin is also the name of Addie's print column that appears in the Austin American-Statesman a few times a month.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are by Addie Broyles.

"Try some of Austin's best margaritas on our Gowalla trip. Just don't try them all in one day."

Check out Relish Austin on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

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The entry titled "Why do Americans love fortune cookies so much?."

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Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2012 > January > 18 > Entry

Why do Americans love fortune cookies so much?

By Addie Broyles | Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 09:53 AM

Americans are obsessed with fortune cookies.

I don’t have a clear answer to why fortune cookies, which are about as Chinese as crab rangoon, are so popular here, but it’s a subject that Austin food blogger Allison Wright explores on her blog, Not A Fortune.

I interviewed Wright for a story in today’s paper about the fascinating world of fortune cookies, which former New York Times reporter Jennifer 8. Lee has covered extensively on her blog/book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. Did you know they were invented in Japan and that more than 3 billion of them are made every year? In the 1980s, a U.S. fortune cookie maker (almost all the world’s fortune cookies are made here) tried to introduce the cookies in China, an effort that was so unsuccessful, the company stopped trying after three years, according to a 2008 NYT story by Lee, who made this video a few years ago to show just how foreign fortune cookies are in China.

What interests me the most is the rituals and superstitions we’ve created around fortune cookies. Some people insist on keeping every fortune they’ve ever received. Others, like Wright, can’t open a fortune cookie without taking at least a bite of the cookie. To some, the little scraps of paper are simply a meaningless source of “in bed” jokes, but it’s hard to discount the emotional impact that fortunes can have on people and the decisions they make.

In a guest post on Not A Fortune last year, a friend of Wright’s who’d had a miscarriage and was hoping to get pregnant again shared a story about just how comforting and foretelling a few words on a little piece of paper can be.

Photo by Alberto Martinez for the Austin American-Statesman.

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