B928 <=> B930 (BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 929)

“Well then, sitting in the said restaurant with this famous orangeade and watching the passers-by in the hope of seeing among them the Mister I awaited, I began casually looking around at the objects in the restaurant also.

“On the table at which I was sitting, I saw among other things also what is called the ‘menu’ of the restaurant.

“’Menu’ there on your planet, is the name given to a sheet of paper on which are written the names of all the varieties of food and drink available in the said restaurant.

“Reading the contents of this paper, I found among other things that no fewer than seventy-eight different dishes could be ordered there that day.

“This staggered me, and I wondered what on earth kind of a stove these Americans must have in their kitchens to be able to prepare seventy-eight dishes on it for just one day.

“I ought to add that I had been on every one of the continents there, and had been the guest of a great many beings of different castes.

“And I had seen food prepared innumerable times, and also in my own house. So I already more or less knew that to prepare a single dish, at lest two or three saucepans were required; and I reckoned that as these Americans prepared seventy-eight dishes in one kitchen they would certainly need about three hundred pots and pans.

“I had the fancy to see for myself how it was possible to accommodate on one stove three hundred saucepans, so I decided to offer what is called there a ‘good tip’ to the waiter who served me with the orangeade, to let me see the kitchen of the restaurant with my own eyes.