I almost said "Denny´s" for their breakfasts, but thinking about it I would prefer the kind of development that happened in London in the 90s. When I arrived in the 80s the most exotic thing to be had was Spaghetti bolognese and now London is at the forefront of culinary innovation, with Paris looking rather staid in comparison. In other words a culinary innovation through individual efforts rather than by means of a franchise. If you implant a franchise first in a cuisine adhering to traditional cooking methods you only expand the national palate by so much , retraining it to yet another narrow, standardised benchmark of what food is acceptable or not and within a short period the culinary landscape will look just as stale. But yes, it will mean a wait until the time is ripe.
As far as requesting picante and not getting picante is concerned I had the funniest experience in a taqueria in Mexico. I reached for the picante hotsauce sitting on the table and the waiter all but slapped my hand telling me "muy picante" and whisked the bowl away. I told him in Spanish that "yes that is fine,me encanta salsa que pica". "Pero,no.Muy picante "."Si ! excellente!"
As I would not give up he finally called his mother out of the kitchen,who proceeded to give me the same warnings, but finally she relented and gave me back the hot sauce. It was hot, but I could not possibly show it ,honor depended on it and mother had placed herself at the table next to me watching my progress with a wary eye. We became good friends after that though..
