新鮮出爐的幸運籤餅。

Source: http://www.anyway.com.tw/members/TravelBlog.aspx?uid=judy19740108&aid=34951

 

在荷里活電影中，常見中餐館在顧客埋單時奉上的Fortune Cookie（又稱幸運籤餅）的情節，但在中港台的餐廳里幸運籤餅反而難得一見。籤餅，在美國人眼裡是道地中式點心，在中國人眼裡又成了中餐美式甜品。作為美國如今唯一仍堅持手工生產籤餅的廠家，位於三藩市唐人街的金門餅食廠家從1962年經營至今，足有近半世紀的歷史。老闆余炎相也年屆84，談起幸運籤餅及餅廠的種種，依然言無不盡。

不中不西的「曲」奇

如果你咬定籤餅是中國人的發明，你可能會大錯特錯。原來，曾有日本留美學生在碩士論文中執著論述籤餅乃日本傳入，關於美式中菜的08年暢銷書《幸運籤餅紀事》作者華裔記者Jennifer 8 Lee也和議。但不可否認是中餐廳讓這些可愛的餅仔大行其道。對於籤餅起源的爭議，余老當然淡然，他覺得吃籤餅也像到寺廟裡求籤，心中有一份期待，但形式親切絕不會令你有如臨寶刹的誠惶誠恐。爲了承載小小的籤語，籤餅形狀折叠彎曲，可算對得起「曲」奇的大名。

籤言餅語

籤語無疑是籤餅的精髓所在。與別的籤餅工廠專門製作籤語目錄不同，余老的餅廠並沒有記錄歷來用過的籤語，但籤語一定是傳遞祝福與感恩。《文化地圖》一周年前面世時，就選擇了趣致的幸運籤餅為logo，也是寓意希望刊物能像籤餅那樣每次傳遞出令人期待的message。

「做餅如做人」

余老的餅廠最大的特點是前店後廠，旅客可自由參觀。這個在互動評論網站yelp.com上有四星半（五星半最高）的餅家，已經成為了到三藩市不可錯過的景點，不但每日有各國遊客參觀，接待過市長，還隔三差五有電視臺來錄影。「剛與一家德國的電視臺簽好攝製節目的協議...我的會計師也驚奇我的餅廠在經濟蕭條下不受影響…有一個工友在我這裡做了三十年了，另一個也有二十多年了…」這些話語間當然透出自豪，但更多的是恬然，「做餅就好像做人」余老幾度強調，「我沒什麼學問…」也讓他多次重複。「每位客人進來我都請他試餅仔，48年來只有很少人拒絕我。」這句話使余老在我腦海中立刻具象為到去年港片《撲克王》中那位對每位顧客都笑臉相迎、兢兢業業的澳門杏仁餅店老闆。

淡靜晚年

余老早過了古稀之年，但電話採訪中他對答如流，可以感受到他精神矍鑠。老人家一直孑然一身，無妻子兒女，會感到孤單嗎？「不會，我對我的工友的孫女就像自己的孫女一樣，她們也對我很親。我現在會保重自己，養生要動，養心要静，我每天都會散步，少吃多餐。白天我就到餅廠幫幫忙，晚上有時我會看《紅樓夢》，其實很多名利最後也是一場夢。」

A Casual Chat over Fortune Cookies--- An Interview with Yu Yim-Shueng, Owner of Golden Gate Fortune Cookies Factory

Reporter: Nadia Lo

有時籤語也可以是一組斷估的樂透數字。

http://www.anyway.com.tw/members/TravelBlog.aspx?uid=judy19740108&aid=34951

 

From Hollywood movies, we’ve learnt fortune cookies are usually served when diners ask to pay their bills in Chinese restaurants in the States. Yet this seldom happens in restaurants back in China. Fortune cookies, on the one hand are mistaken as Chinese dim-sum by the Americans, while regarded as American desert by the Chinese on the other hand. Mr. Yu Yim-sheung owns the now only handmade fortune cookie factory in the States, Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, which has been in operation since 1962 in San Francisco. Here I would like to share my casual chat with Mr. Yu, over fortune cookies and beyond.

If you take it for granted that the fortune cookie is an invention by overseas Chinese, you would certainly be surprised by the founding of Fortune Cookie Chronicles, a 2008 bestseller on Chinese food in the States written by an ABC journalist, Jennifer Lee, who shows that fortune cookies actually originated from Japan. For Mr. Yu, it would not be necessary to find out who first made the fortune cookies. But Mr. Yu does consider eating fortune cookies shares the connection with the East Asian religious tradition of fortune telling, in that they both arouse good wishes from the participants. The message of fortune is undoubtedly the soul of a fortune cookie. Some fortune cookie producers even edit catalog for all the messages they attach to their fortune cookies. When CULTaMAP was first published one year ago, a fortune cookie was picked as the logo for the brand new publication to implicate the hope that CULTaMAP would communicate brilliant messages to her audience, just like the fortune cookies.

金門餅食公司的員工在手工製作籤餅。

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Mr. Yu’s Factory is a combination of workshop and shop, which allows visitors to watch the whole procedure of how fortune cookies are manually made. Now the factory has become a must for tourists coming to San Francisco, and attracts constant attention from TV program producers. Mr. Yu is proud that the financial tsunami has not threatened the business of the factory at all. Also, Mr. Yu has built up deep relation with the workers. One of them has worked for the factory for 30 years. When asked about his philosophy of running this tiny fortune cookie factory, Mr. Yu reiterates that it is like management of all kinds, including managing our own lives, which should based on credit, honest and sincerity. “Every time in come a costumer, I would sincerely invite him/her to try my fortune cookies, and only very few have turned down my invitation,” said Mr. Yu. This description immediately makes me visualize Mr. Yu as that old man that runs a Macau almond cake bakery in last year’s light comedy movie, The Poker King.

Considering that Mr. Yu already reaches 84, I was amazed by his swift responses and fluent speeches through the telephone interview. Mr. Yu has not established a family for his whole life. Although Mr. Yu lives alone, he is not lonely. “No, I don’t feel lonely. My factory is like my family. The granddaughters of my fellow workers are smart and have been very dear to me and I might rely on them to run the factory in the future. Now I have learnt to take good care of myself. During daytime, I go back to the factory to help around; in the evening, I sometimes read Dream of the Red Mansions. And I feel that vanity is always like a dream.”