🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <210420041138148239%timcmay@removethis.got.net>,
Tim May  <timcmay@removethis.got.net> wrote:
>As for those Japanese visiting, part of the novelty of the "Central
>Texan" place was just that: the novelty of massive amounts of beef and
>pork ribs, brisket, chicken, sausage, etc. The Texas/Western theme,
>with sawdust on the floor, added to the experience.
>
>Similar to the novelty Americans may find in Japan, where they also
>tend to eat food they don't often get at home (less so today than it
>was a generation ago).

In the late 1980s I once read a book called JapanThink/AmeriThink,
written by an expatriate businessman working in Japan.  An amusing
little book, which listed, among other things, what Japanese
consider good reasons for vacationing in the United States.

You'd think one of the reasons would be "you get to eat the kind of
food you only read about in Japan."

Close.  One of the reasons was "you get to eat the kind of JAPANESE
food that you only read about in Japan."

The "Benihana" experience, at the time, was purely an American
phenomenon.  The concept of "performance cooking" has since caught
on in Japan.

When I went to Japan, I had a similar experience as an American
observing what the Japanese consider to be "American" cuisine.
McDonalds would serve hamburgers with rice, for example.

Also, some U.S. restaurant chains that are all but dead here live on
in Asia.  There was a Shakey's Pizza place in Yokosuka (I haven't
seen a Shakey's in the United States since the 1970s), and a bunch
of Swensen's Ice Cream places in Singapore.

-A