h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Update: Fortune Cookies - A88013955
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - Not Banned in China - U1590784

Update: Fortune Cookies A3169
Original authors: Old Writing Team

Reason for update:

1. I saw a link from the Library of Congress on Twitter, and was intrigued.

2. I looked up 'fortune cookie' in the Edited Guide and found something that didn't intrigue.

3. I decided to update.

Full disclosure: I haven't eaten a fortune cookie in decades, as I need my oracular pastries to be 100% guaranteed gluten-free.

Bookmarking this to read later, but I had a quick look and think the introductory section is spot on

If we ever get to America again, I'll get the wife to bake you a cake!

Thank you both.

Thanks for this update
Never had a fortune cookie, but then I don't frequent Chinese restaurants (food allergies).

I read the Entry just now and like it very much

The only thing I did wonder was: what is the cookie? Not just a stale biscuit, I presume!

Pretty much. It's a thin, hard, sugary biscuit.

I've often been to Chinese restaurants but never had a fortune cookie - do they have these instead of prawn crackers?

Anyway, did this entry change much?

<BB<

From before it was updated? The original entry was what comes after 'this is what it said in 1999'.

I don't know what a prawn cracker is, and since I have celiac and am allergic to seafood I probably couldn't eat one.

A fortune cookie is a sweet, crunchy cracker that breaks open to release a slip of (inedible) paper with a 'fortune' on it. They usually bring them with the cheque and you read it and eat it (or not) after the meal.

The restaurant gives you a cheque? So they pay you to eat there?

<BB<

You DON'T call the reckoning a 'cheque'? What's wrong with you people?

Of course we spell it 'check' as in, 'Will you have dessert or coffee?' 'No, thanks. Check, please.'

We get a bill.
A cheque is a written instruction drawn on a bank account to pay the person or company written on the top line the amount that is written underneath. Very rarely used in restaurants as it is so much easier for the waiting staff to bring the contactless reader over. (In the UK you NEVER let your bank card out of your sight or allow it to be taken away, or ideally even touched, by restaurant or shop staff).

<BB<

In the US, a bill (or invoice) is something that is sent in the mail. You can contact the billing department to argue about bills.

Some restaurants will accept checks to pay for restaurant checks, although they usually prefer cash, credit, or maybe debit card these days. I agree that you probably shouldn't let the servers make off with your card, although some restaurants allow this. Mostly people pay the check at the checkout these days.

A lot of times when the word use is different in different countries with the same base language, it's because something wasn't invented until after the cultures split. I'm pretty sure that's the case with restaurant checks/bills - people didn't write these things down on paper in the 18th Century. (Just like fork etiquette is different because nobody had forks back then.)

Here's one: if you leave laundry or dry cleaning to be picked up later, what do you call the claim slip? We call it a 'ticket' - and I know that goes way back because of old (bad) jokes about Chinese laundries that date to the late 19th Century.

I'm not very familiar with dry cleaning etc, but 'ticket' sounds about right to me Are the jokes something to do with 'tick it'?

I've not often been to Chinese restaurants or similar, but I have had prawn crackers (savoury) served before the meal and on other occasions fortune cookies (sweet) did indeed arrive with the demand for payment I'm not sure what a prawn cracker is, either, but it does contain seafood - it is like crispy foam!

"(In the UK you NEVER let your bank card out of your sight or allow it to be taken away, or ideally even touched, by restaurant or shop staff)"

My only experience of a credit card being taken away as security for a meal was in London in about 2000 - we were in an unfamiliar area and getting desperate, so we just agreed to it... Thankfully all was fine, but is much better to keep the credit card in one's hand and use the contactless machine etc these days, yes

I recall applying the update last time, so I'll do it again now

Thanks everyone - the update has now been applied

Sorry - didn't spot the reply.
Nope, never had dry cleaning done either but I would have thought that either receipt or ticket would do, not sure if there is a specific word for it.

<BB<

Oh and the only way I can think of to describe a prawn cracker is it is vaguely like a prawn cocktail Skip, only not at all.

<BB<

The jokes were very bad, as I said, and relied on the alleged humour of mocking Chinese accents in English. Later transferred to 'jokes' about Chinese restaurants.

At one time, I taught English to the staff of most of the Chinese restaurants in a small corner of North Carolina. Mindful of the jokes, we worked hard on accent reduction until everyone could say 'fried rice' with confidence.