Waiter dishes out revenge in a funny book on tipping

TIPPING. It’s a time-honoured ritual and sacred practice in the United States, and breakers of the rule are doomed to end up as social pariahs. Especially so in restaurants where waiters do not fade gently into the kitchen.

As waiter-turned-writer Steve Dublanica, 40, explains it, waiting on tables is a tough, low-paying job, and wait staff rely on the 15%-20% tips for life-support.

“You’re expected to be a food-allergy specialist, cellphone rule enforcer, eye candy and joke teller,” he says.

Once, a man and a woman spent way too long together inside a toilet. Other diners waited impatiently for their turn, so Dublanica had to knock on the door to check on the couple.

“When did making people stop having sex become part of my job?” he wonders.

Another time he stepped in to rescue a man who was choking on his food. The guy lived, but left Dublanica livid with anger. That customer, who turned out to be a doctor, left him a mere 8% tip.

“Next time, I would let him die!” he fumes in his book, Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter, which made its debut on July 29.

The book, which spells out in detail waiters’ revenge on nasty customers, and tips on tipping, has earned the former waiter quite a bit of public attention.

This newfound fame was unbelievable for Dublanica himself, who spent nine years working in New York restaurants and, in 2004, started a blog to chronicle his misadventures.

“I’m overwhelmed and grateful for the response to my book. If you had told me a week ago that I’d be on the Today show, I would say you were smoking some kind of illegal substance,” he says in an e-mail interview.

These days, he is often asked whether waiters really spit into the food to spite rude customers.

“Actually, very few waiters do it,” he admits. “There are far more elegant ways to get revenge – like telling someone that their credit card has been declined when it really hasn’t.”

“But, it’s okay for diners to think we might spit in their food. Deterring bad customer behaviour through fear is fine by me.”

According to him, waiters in the US are not paid a salary. In New York, tipped workers are paid US$4.60 (RM15.20) an hour, way below the minimum wage of US$7.15 an hour. The tips they earn are also shared among bartenders, busboys and the rest of the staff.

Dublanica stresses that he's always been a good tipper, even before he became a waiter.

“My brother has been in the food business for a long time, even before I waited on tables. He made sure I was aware the tip is 15% to 20%. Now, after all the attention Waiter Rant’s been receiving, if I leave less than a 20% tip I’ll burst into flames!” he says.

According to Waiter Rant, foreigners tend to feign ignorance about the American tipping practice. The worst, apparently, are the Russians and British.

Other categories of tippers include:

> The 10 per center: Diners, usually the old folk, who still think it's the 1950s, and leave a 10% tip;

> The flat tipper: Spill hot soup on them or treat them like royals, their tip is still 15%; and

> The whore: Pretty women who think flirting with the waiter is considered a tip.

In addition to the humour, Dublanica provides some insights into the risque goings-on in the restaurant – about conflicts between waiters and cooks, and how they trade insults.

His book also offers snapshots on life: cheating spouses often go to restaurants at odd hours, New Year's Eve is the best night of the year to make money, and filthy toilets are often an indication of unhygienic kitchens.

What’s next from this ex-waiter who, as a teenager, wanted to become a priest?

“I’m a big detective fiction fan, so maybe I will write a book about a food critic marked for death, or a former waiter turned private detective who saves his pancetta!”

The awesome magic of newspapers

IT WAS Sept 10, 1963, and the simple black and white photograph on the front page of the late edition of Daily News became the defining moment in life for a five-year-old boy.

The picture captured a tender moment, his mother consoling his sobbing little sister who was upset that she could not follow her brother to class on that first day of school, as she was still too young.

That night, his mother brought him along to buy a copy of the Daily News. The boy, David Ng, was thrilled to see his family picture on page one, and with that, an indelible impression formed in his mind of the awesome “magic” of newspapers.

Today, Ng is executive editor of New York’s Daily News, the fifth largest newspaper in the US and the top within the New York metropolitan area, with a daily circulation exceeding 700,000.

As executive editor, he is the No 3 guy, making him one of the highest ranked Asian-Americans in the industry.

In a way, Ng’s story is like a fairy tale come true for poor immigrants who came seeking the American Dream.

His parents arrived from Hong Kong in the 1950s; his father worked as a truck driver and the family of five lived in cramped conditions in a Lower East Side tenement.

“I was born in New York. As a kid, you wouldn’t know much about poverty. As far as I was concerned, life was good,” he reminisced.

He started school not knowing a word of English. “My mother, in her infinite wisdom, had forbidden the use of the language at home. Her rationale was that we would eventually speak English well one day.”

His teacher asked for his mother once, telling her: “Your son doesn’t speak English at all.”

“I know that,” Ng’s mother replied. “That’s why I sent him to school.”

So the teacher taught him by pointing to the blackboard or the book. “That’s how I began to learn English,” Ng said.

A communications graduate of Marist College, Ng has spent 30 years in journalism.

“The biggest story that I have ever seen was obviously 9/11. It was a story that changed lives,” said Ng, who was then assistant managing editor of The Star-Ledger.

Though a true-blue newspaperman, he hoped not to see a bigger story than that ever again.

What does he think of journalists today?

“They are getting younger!” he laughed. “They are so much smarter now, more tech-savvy than I am. They grew up with technology as their second language.”

As executive editor, his duties include the day-to-day operations of putting the paper together. “We are always trying to find a story for page one and writing the headline, which has to capture the reader with just three or four words.”

The competition is especially tough in New York City, the media capital, and where the Internet is changing the rules of the game.

“It is very fast here,” Ng said, snapping his fingers repeatedly. “You have just a microsecond to attract someone walking past the newsstand to buy your paper.”

Daily News and its tabloid rival New York Post are not above calling each other names, as the US newspaper industry faces one of its toughest times with falling circulation, job cuts and declining advertising revenue.

To the Post, its nemesis is Daily Snooze; while Daily News once described the popular Page Six gossip column of the Post as “Page Sick”.

Ng, who smiled when reminded of this, said: “This is New York City. It’s part of the rivalry. Daily News is a brand name here. We are more recognised.”

(Ironically, he worked almost 13 years for the New York Post from 1980).

Daily News has an editorial strength of 350.

He remains optimistic about the future of newspapers in the US despite the bleak analysis everywhere.

“Every year is a tough year. This is not the first time the industry is in jeopardy. We are going through a transition. It is cyclical; it will be difficult, but we will reinvent ourselves,” he said.

That means breaking exclusive stories on the Internet “because you don’t think it will last till the next day”.

News coverage has changed, too. “If a fire breaks out at 8am, it would be all over the TV. I can’t do a story and say there’s a fire. We will have to find a new, fresh angle to it,” he said.

Does he fit into the stereotype image of a screaming editor?

“In my 20s, I was a yeller. But I’m now 50, older and more mellow; and you realise that you don’t get anywhere by yelling.”

He is grateful for his family. He's married to a Scot, and they have two daughters, aged eight and 14.

His life, he said, had been shaped by the education that his parents had given him. Nothing in his background would have suggested that he would be a “success”, if not for them, he said.

It is his hope that he had answered whatever doubts his parents might have in taking the decision to leave Hong Kong for their children’s sake.

So for what he has become today, the byline goes to his elderly parents.

Expect cops to go strictly by the book in New York

THE New York Police Department (NYPD) came under unwanted attention two weeks ago for the manner in which it dealt with a detective who went from hero to zero to hero again.

It all began when the off-duty detective came across a brawl and tried to stop it. But someone from the group opened fire. He shot back, hitting the gunman, who turned out to have a criminal past, in the leg and arm.

But the detective was later removed from duty and stripped of his gun because a breathalyser test – required following the 2006 Sean Bell case where police shot at the unarmed bridegroom – found his alcohol level at 0.09, above the legal limit of 0.08.

A public outcry ensued. Even mayor Michael R. Bloomberg backed the detective, while others wondered what an off-duty cop was supposed to do in a situation such as this. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, as they say.

Eventually, the detective was reinstated and praised by the police chief for his courage and outstanding job.

On a more mundane level, New York police officers have done quite a remarkable job, with few a disgrace to their badge. However, transplanted Malaysians here, who have all kinds of stories to share about them, often find the cops too strict for their liking.

Businessman Danny Lye told of the time he kept circling around the block looking for a parking spot when he spotted a man inside his car apparently about to drive off.

Thinking he was about to get lucky, Lye waited for the space, at the street parking near a busy Queens neighbourhood.

But for what seemed a long minute, the other car stayed put. As an exasperated Lye decided to drive off someone tapped on his window. It was a policeman, who promptly handed him a US$115 (RM370) summons for “double parking”.

Lye tried explaining, then pleading. But the answer from the officer each time was: “Tell that to the judge.”

No talk of cash “incentive”?

“Don’t even think about it!” Lye almost shouted.

“You may just find yourself thrown to the ground and handcuffed.”

One waiter related an occasion when he rushed out of the restaurant to hand over a pre-ordered lunch to a customer who had called in earlier.

“It was less than a minute,” Johnny Ang said. Still, the customer was booked for stopping his car at a “No Standing” area, which means no parking, not even with the driver sitting inside and the engine running.

Another time, a food supplier got a summons for throwing a cigarette stub to the ground after enjoying a smoke outside the restaurant.

“He was plain unlucky,” Ang laughed.

A friend, Michelle Choo, discovered that her art of persuasion, honed through years in journalism and later the insurance business, did her no good in dealing with the NYPD.

She parked at a space meant for unloading goods for “just two minutes”, she maintained, “to rush into a clinic to hand over some documents.”

When she saw a police officer issuing a ticket, she yelled: “Stop! I’m coming.” Too late. A US$95 (RM310) fine came her way, still.

“That’s how it is here. They don’t negotiate with you, they don’t listen to you,” she said.

The local talk is that police officers are all gung-ho because they have to meet a quota of summonses over a given time.

“That’s not true,” said Paul Browne, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

“Police officers are expected to do their job.” Otherwise, they would need to write a report to their supervisor, he added.

Such zero tolerance for crime, even so-called minor ones like graffiti, is to send out the message that serious offenders will be in even bigger trouble.

Take, for example, subway passengers who try to evade paying the fare.

“We focus on this, too, because if a person sneaks into the subway, there is a chance he has an intention to commit crime, maybe to rob other passengers,” Browne said.

Likewise, policemen would help enforce the rule that forbids people from walking between subway cars, often for the person’s own safety, but which “also happens to be a technique used by robbers to check out passengers in other cars,” Browne said.

“We have undercover cops on the subway to look out for people like that.”

Unfortunate is the passenger who dozes off or is intoxicated, because he or she is a target for robbers, he said.

Browne said one out of five policemen in the 36,800-strong force was foreign-born, from about 50 countries as far flung as Albania, China, Thailand, Iran and Yemen.

“It is a very diverse department, representing a very diverse society,” he said.

Many of these officers speak more than one language.

“We don’t want people to be discouraged from reporting a crime because they are not native English speakers,” said Browne.

A policeman's starting annual salary is US$35,881 (RM117,000); entry requirement is 60 college credits with a minimum 2.0 Grade Point Average. (New York magazine quoted police commissioner Ray Kelly as saying “people don’t join the police force to become rich, but this is the most expensive city in North America.”)

Browne explained also that the cops, if they were forced to open fire, would shoot to stop the person posing a danger in that situation.

“No officers shoot to wound; that’s only in the movies. Police officers are trained to shoot around here,” he said gesturing to his chest area.

An FBI report showed that New York remained the safest big city in the United States last year, with 2,432 crimes per 100,000 people.

This was the lowest crime index rate among the country’s 10 largest cities. The highest? Dallas.

His safety tip for everyone? Safeguard your possessions and be alert to your surroundings – criminals look out for people who are not paying attention.

Hollywood just keeps them enticed and entertained

TWIN births, the messy divorce of an ex-supermodel and Material Mom’s supposed affair; the past week saw headlines made in tabloid heaven for a public consumed by celebrity fervour.

It is a daily American pastime – perhaps even an obsession – that has spawned a global fascination as well.

Why not? This is the home of Hollywood, the dream machine that gave the world breathless stories, true and false, and personalities from Brangelina to Britney.

People, the weekly celebrity magazine, has a circulation of 3.6 million. Time averages about 3.3 million while the country’s top-selling newspaper USA Today is just about 2.5 million.

The past week had been such an intoxicating time that one tabloid called it “gossip glory days” for all the salivating stories about the A-List of show-business.

Even CNN loves a good gossip. Lara Logan, a CBS journalist once stationed in Iraq, was a Sunday morning topic last week on the cable network which discussed how she became tabloid fodder when she got pregnant with somebody else’s child even as her own divorce was not finalised yet.

Time and again, newspapers such as the New York Post get complaints from readers who questioned its choice of putting, say, Lindsay Lohan on the front page when the country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan and soldiers are dying.

It is the perennial chicken-and-egg question.

Celebrity sells, surely, because of the ready and willing market. Even aging, fading stars are still seen on TV here, appearing for advertisements promoting everything from beds to real estate. Think Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) and Erik Estrada (CHiPs).

This being the Paris Hilton generation, pseudo-celebrities are also aplenty here through their reality shows that are a staple nowadays on American TV.

TMZ.com, a major celebrity gossip site, gained enough traction to have its own show.

Show-business is big money, indeed. Radio host Ryan Seacrest earns about US$12mil (RM38.8mil) a year, by Forbes' estimates. Late-night TV show host Jay Leno gets US$25mil (RM80.9mil).

The Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles is often crowded with not just tourists but people dressed up as Superman, SpongeBob, Batman, Catwoman and Spiderman – all eager to pose for pictures for a tip.

Last year, Los Angeles received 2.7 million foreign tourists, making it the second-most popular city among international visitors, after New York.

Los Angeles, indeed, is a movie-making town producing an assembly line of movies, TV shows and the likes.

In the morning, the TV series Heroes was shooting an episode outside a Carl’s Jr in downtown LA. Later that evening, a beer commercial was being made nearby.

Seeing stars, or perhaps even stalking them, is fair game here. Maps detailing where celebrities live are sold at US$2 (RM6.50).

Even scientology here is known officially as the “Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre”.

Tour guides such as John M. take delight in offering morsels of gossip to his entourage.

“Ben Stiller has a reputation of not being very nice to the public,” he said.

“You can see all the high walls around his house,” he added, as he drove a group of visitors around Beverly Hills.

To the gawkers, he advised: “Keep a look out on who’s jogging or driving past you.”

And, according to him, “the Range Rover is the number-one car among celebrities.”

Tours are aplenty for the curious or morbid. Discover where American sweetheart Shirley Temple grew up! See the hotel where Janis Joplin died!

One company promises its customers the “Hollywood Movie Star Experience” for that behind-the-scenes feel.

A two-hour “movie stars’ homes” package, meanwhile, will take visitors to “over 40 magnificent houses of the rich, famous and infamous,” according to the leaflet. “You may very well see more glitz and glamour than some will ever see in a lifetime!” it promises.

Sound enticing enough, no?

John M., for instance, would point out houses belonging to Carmen Electra, Will Farrell, Orlando Bloom and Quentin Tarantino, among others. He knows the prices of these posh homes, too.

True blue fans don’t just want to know where they live, as the paparazzi in them would want to know where the stars eat and where they come out to play.

“That’s Il Sole over there. It’s Jennifer Aniston’s favourite,” he said, referring to the restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. He also marked out Ketchup, an eatery partly owned by Ashton Kutcher.

Also on Sunset Boulevard is another celebrity hangout, which is the Beverly Hills Hotel, or “Hotel California to the Eagles,” John M. said.

One evening, just outside Kodak Theatre, there was a stall selling Barack Obama t-shirts for US$10 (RM32). One of the messages on the T-shirt says “No more drama, vote Obama”.

An understatement surely, especially so in a state whose governor is a former movie star. Moreover, “Governator” Arnold Schwarzenegger is a Republican while his wife supports the Democrats. That itself is enough to juice up the stories.

In La-La Land, the drama must go on. Every day.

Zamruni – A man of many interests

GOLF is the name of the game for diplomats, right?

Not so for M. Zamruni Khalid, the new Consul-General in New York. He looked almost pained when a staff member suggested over lunch last Thursday that he came for a golf event that weekend.

“Maybe, one day, you will develop a passion for it,” someone said.

Zamruni nodded somewhat but his face told a different story.

(For the record, he turned up at the driving range and quite enjoyed himself.)

The new boss at the Consulate-General of Malaysia has other interests for his spare time. He prefers books and museums, the latter probably the result of having spent almost five years in France.

It was also in Paris where he laboured over his thesis for a Masters in Comparative Politics that he wrote entirely in French.

“I remember asking myself ‘why am I subjecting myself to this? It was tough,” Zamruni said, laughing.

But he has always liked languages and now the French-speaking Zamruni is deciding whether to pick up Arabic or Spanish.

Growing up in Kuala Terengganu the middle child among nine offspring, he loved geography and often devoured his father’s encyclopaedias.

“I memorised the flags of other countries and their capital cities. I can identify the flags of all UN nations,” he said.

Likewise, he knows the currencies as well. Guatemala? Quetzal, he said.

Asked about his boyhood days, he paused for quite a while. “Memories?” he repeated, thinking long and hard. “My childhood is so ordinary,” he grinned.

As a kid, he was never naughty but always studious and shy. Almost a geek, if you must.

Zamruni, who earned an accounting degree from Purdue University, Indiana, spent a year in the then Arthur Andersen in Kuala Lumpur after graduating before beginning his “national service”.

His 14 years with the Foreign Affairs Ministry has seen him posted to Hanoi (1996-2000) and Paris (2000-2002).

“Hanoi was very dynamic. It was just opening up when I first got there. No cinema for English movies, no fast food, no bookstores. I felt lonely and isolated during the first few months,” he said of his posting as a second secretary.

Throughout his stint, he saw the city grew with bigger streets, more traffic lights and motorcycles replacing bicycles on the road.

“There were some occasions when we slaughtered chickens and cows ourselves,” he said, when asked about halal food.

Zamruni paid tribute to Malaysia’s ambassador to Vietnam then, Datuk Cheah Sam Kip, for being his guiding light. “I really learned a lot from him.”

The senior guy taught the young man what to do, whom to meet, etc, upon arriving in a country. “Datuk Cheah laid the foundation for me, letting me gather the bricks and build the bridge,” he recalled.

In France where he was also second secretary; he recounted a meeting with then president Jacques Chirac whom he described as a gentleman (“he would kiss a lady’s hand”) and an admirer of Asian culture.

“All of us were wearing Baju Melayu and samping when we were at the presidential palace. You could tell that he really admired it.”

It is a different ball game now for Zamruni since he assumed the New York posting on June 16, his highest promotion so far.

As the Consul-General, his task is to look after Malaysian interests and student welfare, besides providing the usual consular services such as issuance of passports and visas, and registration of births and marriages. Malaysia has 20 consulates abroad.

“Prior to this, I have always dealt with multilateral issues. So, being sent here is itself a challenge for me. I would need to deal more on the human side now, meeting people and to be close to the Malaysian community and to provide services for them,” he said.

He already has a list of organisations that he wanted to meet.

Zamruni loves being in the Foreign Service. “The work is never a routine. You are always doing different things.”

The downside is the frequent uprooting. “Each posting is usually about three years. You get to know people and by the time you have cultivated friendships, it is time to leave. A bit disruptive, but that’s life.”

At 40, Zamruni is still a bachelor. Not for long, though, as he is engaged to a teacher whom he met two years ago. The couple will be married next year.

Besides reading “serious stuff”, he likes novels such as Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Kite Runner by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini.

Zamruni, who listens to oldies from the 50s (P. Ramlee, Saloma, Normadiah), is keen to explore the theatre and museums here. “Is Mamma Mia really good?” he asked of the Broadway play.

Golf, clearly, isn’t the only game in town.

Gay city parades as America celebrates with Pride

THEIR lean, rippling bodies glistened with sweat under the summer sky. Bare-chested in the tightest of briefs, the men danced on the street and blew kisses to the crowd.

The music was loud, but louder still were the sexy bustiers, wigs and feathers in all hues, which made quite a fashion statement. Drag queens reigned the day, surely.

“Slap & Tickle,” one banner said.

Yes, it was the 39th annual New York City LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Pride March in Manhattan last Sunday.

“Have a nice gay!” greeted one poster.

“Slap & Tickle”, meanwhile, was to promote an off-Broadway play “on how drugs, politics and HIV have changed the landscape for gay men” in the United States.

Parade participants ranged from the weekly newspaper Gay City News to the LGBT alumni, faculty, staff and students of Cornell University.

“Queer and Proud Every Day,” according to marchers from the College of Staten Island.

Among the VIPs who marched in the parade were Christine C. Quinn, New York City Council Speaker, the first openly gay person elected to the post.

One woman carried a sign proclaiming love for her gay son.

Mementos such as key chains and bead necklaces were tossed to the crowd, who reached out with eager hands. Rainbow flags and balloons added colour to the passing floats.

Amidst the gaiety, a message was sent out to the next US commander-in-chief through a banner strung across a parading van with sketches of Barack Obama and John McCain.

The community wants a national strategy to end AIDS, and the plan to be drawn up by the new president within his first 100 days in office.

But perhaps there is more reason for gays to celebrate in New York now. While the state does not allow homosexuals to marry, its state agencies were directed, in May, to recognise same-sex marriages that took place outside of New York.

Massachusetts and California are the only two states that permit gay couples to be legally wed. Others such as New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont allow what they term as civil unions.

News reports showed that almost 11,000 gay couples have tied the knot in Massachusetts since the state legalised such marriages in 2004. Most of them who walked down the aisle were lesbians.

California began recognising gay marriages about three weeks ago.

Local newspapers such as The San Diego Union-Tribune front-paged the landmark event for several days.

Its headline “Just Married” said it all on June 18, a day after what the newspaper described was “a sense of history” when 230 marriage licences were issued to same-sex couples.

A news report carried interviews with churches which hold on to the belief that marriage is sacred, and strictly between a man and a woman.

The gay community there then reportedly began compiling names of priests willing to bless homosexual couples.

Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres is also among those planning to get hitched, now that California has lifted the ban on gay marriages.

“I’m seeing someone now. If we want to get married one day, we’ll go to California to do it, or probably somewhere in Europe,” said Patty Caki, a make-up artist with a local TV station in New York City.

A native New Yorker, he observed that things had improved for the gay community here.

“Sometimes, people still see you differently although I personally have not had any unpleasant experiences,” said Caki.

Hate crimes persist, though. He cited the 2006 assault of gay singer Kevin Aviance by a group of youths, who also screamed anti-gay slurs at him.

“And, the only reason the attack made the news was because Aviance was quite a celebrity,” said Caki, who came to watch the Pride march on Fifth Avenue, wearing a knee-length dress and full make-up.

“I love the parade. It’s fun, it’s expressive,” he said.

Really, what’s not to revel about the parade? As New York Post put it, “marchers represented an array of sexual subcultures from ... butch-femme lesbians to big hairy men flaunting their paunches”.

The Japanese are coming, again

AT Nobu New York, getting a table is a problem “unless you’re Cameron Diaz”. That was Zagat’s description of the high-end Japanese restaurant co-owned by actor Robert De Niro, which allows up to one month's advance reservations.

It is, according to a newspaper columnist, New York’s legendary inaccessible restaurant.

More shock-and-awe news: at Masa in midtown Manhattan, cancellations made less than 48 hours before the reservation would mean a fine of US$150 (RM490) per person.

But to the moneyed folk, that is a paltry sum because the average cost of a dinner for one (plus drink and tips) at Masa is about US$485 (RM1,584).

Nobu and Masa are among “America’s Top Japanese Restaurants”, according to the latest guide from Zagat Survey, which is based on views submitted by 139,000 respondents in 49 cities.

The little red guidebook is a collaboration between Zagat Survey and the Organisation to Promote Japanese Restaurants Abroad (Jiro).

The Japanese have, indeed, invaded the American taste bud with an estimated 10,000 places throughout the country where people can go for their sushi and sake. In New York City, there are 800 to 1,000 Japanese restaurants.

“Just 10 to 15 years ago, the cuisine was not on the map as far as the American taste was concerned,” said Tim Zagat, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Zagat Survey. “Back then, mention Asian cuisine and people would think of Chinese food.”

The menu, so to speak, has changed drastically. “In New York, Japanese cuisine has far surpassed any other Asian food,” he said.

According to him, Japanese restaurants ranked among the top 20 in the city, getting much higher ratings than the top Chinese restaurants.

“Almost every major American city voted Japanese ahead of others,” he said. It is number one in cities such as Baltimore, Denver, Austin, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Washington DC and Seattle.

In most other cities, residents would name a Japanese restaurant as second or third on the roll of honour.

Zagat listed four factors for the Japanese appeal: the discipline and professionalism of Japanese chefs, fresh ingredients, elegant presentation and healthy preparation methods.

“Many of the best Western chefs in the United States have been extremely influenced by Japanese culinary techniques,” Zagat said.

Launched in 1979, Zagat Survey provides reviews on the best places to eat, drink, play and stay. It publishes guides covering 100 countries. No establishment is allowed to pay to be included in the survey.

Ordinary folk, however, may find Zagat’s recommendations quite out of reach in terms of pricing.

“I haven’t been to many of the restaurants that they recommend because they are so expensive,” said one Japanese correspondent.

Besides, nothing compares to what he gets in Tokyo. “It’s not so fresh here,” he said.

It is a view shared by food writer Asao Teshirogi.

“Japanese food is very expensive here. The quality is not as good as what we get back home, but I would say it is still quite good here overall,” she said.

“Ramen, for example, is a very popular casual food in Japan but even at the most expensive place, you can eat it for less than US$10 (R32.62). A basic ramen would cost about US$6 (RM19.58). Here in New York, it would set you back at least US$9 (RM29.37), which means US$12 (RM39.15) including tax and tip.”

At one new ramen restaurant, she ended up paying US$14 (RM45.69), double what she normally pays in Japan.

The good news, however, is that more ramen shops are opening here.

“Until recently, we could not find decent ramen in New York. And the new ramen shops are getting better,” she said.

She has no comments about Nobu or Masa since she has not patronised them yet. “But I assume that high-end restaurants here are as good as those in Japan.”

Jiro, the collaborator in Zagat’s guide on America’s top Japanese restaurants, noted that there was now a worldwide boom in Japanese food.

“Many people in Japan believe that it is time to take advantage of this trend,” it said, which was why the organisation was formed last year.

Its main agenda is to accelerate the promotion of Japanese food culture to the world. So, watch out. The Japanese are coming. Again.