PapaWasabi

Mustard chicken sandwich, topped with a spicy daikon radish salad. McDonald's, move that tired fat posterior over, MosBurger brings nouvelle cuisine to fast food. Mos, which is a name only the Japanese could love, stands for mountains, ocean, sun. Why? Don't ask. Japanese corporations are big on this mushy stuff - it takes people's minds off the bottom line, I guess.

I am told that MosBurgers founders went on a hamburger eating tour of the States to find the perfect hamburger for Japan. In the end, they agreed it was a stupid place to look, and instead went about making a Japanese burger. The burgers are good enough, but what really sets this place apart is the innovation. They combie Indian with Tex-mex with Chinese. And the food is as often as not quite healthy. Mos is always a treat. Contrast this with staid McDonald's (Makudo, as it's known here) who precede every rare menu change with a decade of market research, only to come up with something that tastes a lot like everything else on their menu.

Now, if only the staff were as creative as the menus. In a rather showy attempt to demonstrate their inflexibility to a newcomer here, I requested a fish sandwhich with jalepenos. No can do, they say. It's not on the menu. I'll pay for the jalapenos, and put them on myself. Again, no. Finally they agreed to sell me a chili dog, hold the bread, hold the chili, hold the sausage, hold everything except the japapeno peppers. Deal. I paid three bucks for a few jalapeno peppers just to make a point. This is why I never get ahead in life.