Separate tastes

“入乡随俗”的中国菜

导读：中餐在美国越来越受欢迎，但是细心的小伙伴们仔细看一看菜单，内心恐怕要崩溃了。左宗棠鸡、炒杂碎、幸运饼干……这些在美国最受欢迎的中国菜连很多中国人自己都不知道它们原来是中国菜。当然，传统中国菜之前并没有这么受欢迎，国外的中餐厨师为了迎合美国人的口味作出改变，反而在海外掀起了中华美食的热潮。

Chinese food is not a foreign concept to the United States. But in the past, certain recipes have gotten lost in translation.

美国人对中国菜早已司空见惯。不过，一直以来，很多中国食谱在漂洋过海之后都已面目全非。

The latest example is the Chinese smashed cucumber trend that has recently popped up in New York City.

最近的例子就是风靡纽约的拍黄瓜。

The New York Times reported that many of Manhattan’s restaurants now offer smashed cucumbers dressed with sauces such as sesame oil with garlic and yogurt.

《纽约时报》报道称曼哈顿的一些餐馆现在开始供应用大蒜、芝麻油和酸奶调味的拍黄瓜。

Julia Goldberg, a sous-chef at Superiority Burger in the US, told The New York Times: “There’s something about the roughness, and the variety of shapes and sizes, that you get with smashing that is incredibly satisfying.”

美国超级汉堡餐厅的副主厨茱莉亚?高德堡告诉《纽约时报》：“拍出来的黄瓜很粗糙，形状各异，大小不一，不过这是个很棒的体验。”

This isn’t the first time that US chefs have embraced Chinese cooking techniques, while steering away from original ingredients. Nor will it be the last.

当然这不是美国厨师第一次采用中国的烹饪方法，同时对原始菜谱进行改革。当然也不会是最后一次。

As a child, I became friends with two Chinese girls and had the unique experience of eating dinner at their house. Their mom made rice, dumplings, different kinds of vegetables and pork. I had never tasted such delicious Chinese food, not even in restaurants.

我小时候和两个中国小女孩是很好的朋友，所以我有幸在她们家吃过独特的中国菜。她们的妈妈会做米饭、饺子、各种蔬菜和猪肉。我从未吃过这么可口的中国菜，就连中餐馆做的都比不上它们。

What I had when I ate out was sweet and sour chicken, dumplings, crab rangoons, miso soup and noodles. Those dishes might not sound all too uncommon in China, but the difference is uncanny.

我在外面吃过酸甜鸡、饺子、炸蟹角、味噌汤和面条。这些食物并不是在中国都不常见，不过烹饪方式实在是相差太大。

Chefs in the US lean on flavors that American taste buds are attracted to, but by evolving the taste in this way, the original Chinese recipe is sometimes ignored.

在美国，厨师们会根据美国人的口味调整菜谱，不过经过这种口味的演变，原始的中国菜谱有时候就被改得面目全非了。

General Tso’s Chicken, chop suey and fortune cookies are among the most popular Chinese dishes in the US. However, “Chinese people don’t crack open fortune cookies after every meal... Most Chinese people don’t even know what chop suey actually is,” Shanghai-based journalist Jamie Fullerton told Business Insider.

在美国，左宗棠鸡、炒杂碎和幸运饼干是最受欢迎的中国菜。但是“中国人餐后基本不吃幸运饼干……大部分中国人甚至不知道什么是炒杂碎”，驻上海的美国记者杰米?富勒顿告诉《财经内幕》。

“In the 19th century, what we call Chinese food in the US... was a lot of seafood, shark fins, bird’s nests, and a lot of shrimp,” Yong Chen, author of Chop Suey Nation: The Story of Chinese Food in America, told Yahoo Food. “But American diners rejected that.”

“上个世纪，我们在美国管中国菜叫……很多海鲜、鱼翅、燕窝、龙虾，”《炒杂碎的国度：中国菜的美国奇遇记》一书的作者陈勇告诉雅虎美食频道。“不过那时美国食客并不买账。”

Chefs specializing in Chinese cuisine want Americans to try their food. So they changed the ingredients, the cuts of meat and the presentation to suit American palates.

擅长做中餐的厨师想让美国人尝尝他们的手艺。于是他们依据美国人的喜好调整了配料、切肉的手法和摆盘的样式。

This is a cultural compromise to make consumers happy. At the same time, they are turning the food into something less Chinese and more American.

这是为了迎合消费者做出的文化让步。同时，他们也让食物变得少了些中国味多了些美国味。