Ken wrote on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:41 -0700:

?? Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
?? another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
?? similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
?? dishes the restaurants *do not* make. The rather good
?? (even if the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in
?? Rockville, MD is a case in point. I might even be able to
?? learn some Chinese characters from their menu (in English
?? and Chinese)

KB Interesting that a restaurant with the "Shabu-Shabu" (a
KB Japanese dish) has a menu in English and Chinese.

Bob is a good Chinese, i.e.. don't let ethnicity stand in the
way of profits! The owners are actually Taiwanese and may have
felt that Shabu-shabu was more recognizable than the other name
sometimes used in self-consciously Chinese places: Mongolian Hot
Pot. Even so, they do allege Mongolian origins for the dish.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not