Culture

The empty fortune cookie

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I love eating. Sometimes I think I’m a foodie but sometimes I’m annoyed by the term. Seriously. Anyway, I’m not here to deconstruct the “foodie” term. Not today, at least. I love eating most cuisines, and the saucier and spicier the better. I remember when I first moved down to Washington, DC and I got try to Ethiopian food for the first time. What a divine experience. And when I tried Cajun and Creole food for the first time, I wondered where had it been my whole life.  Occasionally I like a good ole burger as well. Although, meat is not my favorite, as my son tends to say when trying to say he doesn’t really like something.

Whenever possible, keeping in mind my shellfish allergy, I try to take the food road less travelled. I’m up for a good adventure. 


I will confess that one of my least favorite foods is Americanized Chinese dishes. I grew up with General Tsaos chicken. Who didn’t? I’ll even share a secret, Chinese restaurants on the upper West side of Manhattan used yo serve really cheap wine to us underage adventure seekers. Yes, its true. So, in a way I grew up and grew away from Americanized Chinese restaurants. Give me a northern China cuisine restaurant any day. Although, I will admit I still every year or so, I eat at a cheap fast food Chinese restaurant. I’m a foodie but not really a food snob. I can eat street tacos as well as a chimichurri steak. So where am I going with this?  Theres a point here my friends.

The other day we went a fast food Chinese restaurant in South LA. I ordered something spicy and some broccoli because I was actually craving something green and leafy. It occasionally happens. I dug into my food and then wanted dessert. So, I opened up my fortune cookie. I broke it in half expecting a fortune  (I was being literal, I suppose). Sigh. There was no fortune. It was a non-sign sign. 

I am extremely superstitious and started thinking about my non-fortune cookie. I could have thought of it as a bad sign. Then because that day and week had been extremely trying, I took my fortune to be that of a blank slate or an open road. I could have, for a second, thought of this as being akin to a closed lane but I know I’m on this particular path for a bit and then there will be another path. Other lanes will open up before me.

This may be a particularly trying time where I an wondering why did I stay on, but as long as I’m learning I’m ok to stay where I am. I do dream of going back to my beloved New York but even my own eight-year old son told me this week that we should go back to New York in five years. Ok. What do we do in these five years? That’s a lifetime.
Thus, thank you empty fortune cookie. I know my life is not set and I will be ready to move into the next adventure when the time is right. 

 

Categories: Culture, food, mental health, photography, Psychology, writing prompt

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42 replies »

  1. One day, come join me in Bali. The food is totally ‘to die for.’ And keep in mind, I have a serious health problem at the moment with not being able to eat. But somehow, today, arriving here, I could manage the Nasi Champur.

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  8. I was at dinner with a group of friends, two people didn’t get fortunes in the cookies, but I got three in mine. Since then I’ve been referred to as Larry ‘three fortunes’… I feel so fortunate.

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  11. I’ve never gotten an empty fortune cookie before…
    …SADLY.
    But I hope I will someday!!!
    They say no news is good news! It’s far better than getting a creepy fortune… No?

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  14. Chicken dishes in actual China can be a bit scary. They have a tendency to just randomly chop up the chicken so what you think is just a piece of meat actually has little slivers and shards of bone in it.

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  16. Pingback: Why is this the year of my empty fortune cookie? – psychologistmimi

  18. Coucou toi, mon Ami, Amie
    Je viens déposer
    Le soleil dans ton coeur
    Ma douceur dans ton âme
    Un ciel étoilé dans ton regard
    Lorsque ton coeur
    Parlera à mon coeur
    Nos âmes brûleront ,d’une douce chaleur
    Lorsque je viens te rendre visite
    Il me semble que je prends ta main
    Afin d’être unis d’une grande amitié Céleste
    Agréable journée ou soirée belle semaine
    Gros bisous Bernard
    https://i.postimg.cc/mDfnBnfK/BONJOUR-BONSOIR.jpg

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  21. Perhaps your whole future was in the cookie, shrunk into this little invisible thing that lived in the cookie, playing and frolicking as all little invisible things that live inside hollow cookies tend to do.
    Now it’s loose, like the cursed demonic entity in a horror movie –
    except more frolicky and cookie-loving –
    sitting invisibly on your shoulder, waiting for the day it can expand and fill your life with its futuristic wonderment.
    Ok, frolicky or not, it’s starting to sound like a bit of a smug little invisible shrunken-future thingy now.

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