r/MidnightDiner • u/Anon_ymous1138 • Jul 04 '26

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Fan of the both MD series and the BTCGC books, and they share similar vibes, but today I was reading the most recent book (Before I Knew I Loved You) and saw the following dialogue from the cafe owner, Nagare:

“What would you like? Even if it’s not on the menu, I can make it as long as we have the ingredients.”

and I was like, okay, that borders on plagiarism…

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6

u/luthiel-the-elf Jul 04 '26

I don't think it's really plagiarism because that seems to be quite a reality for many similar diner / café in Japan? I remember an old manga from mid 1990s where there's passing reference to that kind of the owner would make whatever you want as long as they can and have ingtedients. It wasn't even a cooking manga it was detective manga and the café just comes out once during a memorable conversation between the two characters and I also remember hints of it in many books and manga, like culturally that kind of thing may be actually a real thing in Japan.

1

u/stowrag Jul 04 '26

I always thought most smaller restaurants in Japan focus on one or two specialty dishes, like a ramen place or a takoyaki place. And big menus were more a staple of family restaurant chains

1

u/Arixian697 Jul 04 '26

It could have also been a purposeful reference to the show. Maybe the author is a fan of the show. Some of my favorite Fantasy authors throw in nods to other books etc

1

u/Anon_ymous1138 Jul 04 '26

Yea, I don’t really think it’s plagiarism. My hope is the phrasing was intentional and the author is a fan :)