<Tr> <Th> Main ingredients </Th> <Td> Flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Cookbook: Fortune cookie Media: Fortune cookie </Td> </Tr> <P> A fortune cookie is a crisp and sugary cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and sesame seed oil with a piece of paper inside, a "fortune", on which is an aphorism, or a vague prophecy . The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation and / or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers; since relatively few distinct messages are printed, in the recorded case where winning numbers happened to be printed, the lottery had an unexpectedly high number of winners sharing a prize . Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States and other Western countries, but are not a tradition in China . The exact origin of fortune cookies is unclear, though various immigrant groups in California claim to have popularized them in the early 20th century . They most likely originated from cookies made by Japanese immigrants to the United States in the late 19th or early 20th century . The Japanese version did not have the Chinese lucky numbers and was eaten with tea . </P> <P> As far back as the 19th century, a cookie very similar in appearance to the modern fortune cookie was made in Kyoto, Japan; and there is a Japanese temple tradition of random fortunes, called omikuji . The Japanese version of the cookie differs in several ways: they are a little bit larger; are made of darker dough; and their batter contains sesame and miso rather than vanilla and butter . They contain a fortune; however, the small slip of paper was wedged into the bend of the cookie rather than placed inside the hollow portion . This kind of cookie is called tsujiura senbei (辻占 煎餅) and is still sold in some regions of Japan, especially in Kanazawa, Ishikawa . It is also sold in the neighborhood of Fushimi Inari - taisha shrine in Kyoto . </P>

What do the numbers mean on a fortune cookie