A worker shapes freshly made fortune cookies by hand beside an old-fashioned machine at the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco. CHELSEA GE/CHINA DAILY

　　At the end of a meal in many Chinese restaurants across the United States, a fortune cookie arrives with the check. Diners crack it open to find a message inside — lucky numbers, a line of encouragement, or a quiet prediction of what lies ahead.

　　The slip of paper turns the cookie into something more than dessert, providing a brief pause after a meal where curiosity can linger and conversation begins.