Let midnight snack shine its real light on me

I was a fan of the hit Japanese TV series Shinya Shokudo, known in English as Midnight Canteen, telecast in the late 2000s. I watched the first 10-episode series as well as the second. Centered on a small eatery in one corner of a shopping district, each episode of the series narrated the stories of its proprietor and his customers on whose request he cooks a special dish or two.

Good food and heartwarming stories were the two selling points of the series.

The series has become a hot topic of discussion on social media again after its Chinese adaptation on TV, using the same title, debuted on Beijing Satellite TV on June 12 and can be watched on many video-streaming sites. Many have ridiculed the Chinese adaptation and a major Chinese TV and movie review site has given it a rating of 2.3, the lowest ever, on its site. In stark contrast, the same site had given the Japanese original a 9.2 rating.