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Fortune Cookie... This is a somewhat a 3-part blog. The first part is... Chinese food in America is not the same food people eat in China. Most Americans don't know this. Yeah, we have dumpling, noodles and rice dishes from the corner Chinese restaurant but the exclusive Chinese cuisine doesn't have the number 4 pork special! About a week ago there was a blog about some places serving on the menu. While I dislike hearing about it, when I visited China, I saw at the market along with goat, ram complete with horns. There were live eel in buckets along with buckets of live fish. If you want fresh... the market has what you want. Americans like to joke about the corner eatery catching stray animals in the alley and serving them up to unsuspecting customers. I've heard jokes and stories for years and honestly can say I have no proof if they do or not. Without proof, you have to believe the restaurant is serving beef when the menu says beef. The 3rd part of my blog has to do with the small treat at the end of the meal. After you pay, they hand you a Fortune cookie. It's a folded piece of thin sweet cookie and you break it open to find a small strip of paper. Fortune cookies have changed slightly over the years. When I was young, Fortune cookies only had a short saying we (as ) thought it would have been from the teachings of Confucius. For example: “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” Somehow we felt enlightened to read these, but soon forgot them. Fortune cookies have adapted to modern times. On one side you have the wiseman's quote and the other side has Lottery numbers and Chinese lessons showing the Chinese word, pinyin (phonetic sound) and English translation. For example: 水 ( Shuǐ ) water Again, I'm told fortune cookies are NOT part of Chinese culture... so it must be something made for Americans... A token of gratitude or a thanks for paying the bill? Who knows? . Anyway, I wish you a good appetite and a good fortune. . . 
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I can answer all 3 parts of your blog. The first part "Chinese food in America" is NOT authentic Chinese food. That is correct. In China or Taiwan, we don't eat "sweet, sour Chicken" or "egg roll", .... those dishes are for American. Chow-Mein, or Chow-Fun are family dish NOT supposed to serve by restaurant. Those are the "left-over" food to cook together, NOT authentic Chinese food. The 2nd part of your blog is talking about buy the animal "alive" and kill at home for fresh food. Yes, Chinese buy Chicken, fish, .... alive. I personally NEVER bought any animal "alive" because I can't kill them. The only exception is "Crab". Yes, I bought crab alive and cook in hot boiled water. They die in one minute or less. That is the only animal I bought alive, cook alive. I am sorry, crabs. There are no "fortune cookies" in China or Taiwan. Fortune cookies are for Americans. That is true. I once got a fortune cookie that said very true for the circumstance I was in at that time. But most of the time, the fortune cookies just said the "happy" or "fortunate" things to please the customers, so that they will come back again. One more thing I want to say is Chinese food have many different cuisines in different provinces. In Si-Zang (四川) province, the food is hot and spicy, in Shanghai the food cook with lots of soy sorce (every dish look dark), Hu-Nan cuisine is also hot and spicy, however, Kwong-Tong dishes (廣東菜) are delicious to me because they are NOT spicy. I like their "Dim Sum" which need many preparation and wrap in shape. Lots of Hong-Kong Chinese cook Kwong-Tong cuisine in California and I like Cantonese cuisine. I can cook Taiwanese cuisine and make Japanese Sushi rolls and cook scrumptious and moisture turkey dinner for Thanksgiving holiday every year. I can use oven well. Honesty is the best policy.
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Probably because we seem to be a gullible society 
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