As Vincent Vega notes in Pulp Fiction, one of the great things in traveling abroad is when things seem almost like home, but are just a little different...
Take Jonathan's, for instance. Nice friendly family restaurant, like Denny's or Bob Evans back home. Same laminated color menus, same institutional waiter uniforms, same vinyl booths. But here instead of flounder with lemon-butter sauce, you can get grilled flatfish with saikyo miso sauce.
Instead of spaghetti with meatballs, you can get spaghetti with salmon roe, nori, and scallops.
Instead of meatloaf, you can get hamburg steak with minced daikon, or with creamy gratin cheese sauce and eggplant.
Instead of mac and cheese, baked shrimp gratin.
And instead of chocolate pudding, coffee jelly topped with vanilla ice cream!
We were also big fans of the du-rin-ku ba-ru -- the unlimited soda fountain dispensing such treats as Calpis carbonated or uncarbonated, Melon Fanta, or Cassis juice.
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