原创 2017-10-19 胡宗锋 罗宾
胡宗锋和（英）罗宾·吉尔班克 独家授权
中国出版集团、中译出版社“外国人写作中国计划”丛书之中、英文版《罗宾博士看陕西》
胡宗锋和（英）罗宾·吉尔班克中、英文版《罗宾博士看陕西》在第二十四届国际图书博览会上发布
Shaanxi Through Dr. Robin’s Eyes
罗宾博士看陕西
（英） 罗宾·吉尔班克
Feasts Nearand Far, Old and New
新老结合，远近闻名
左起：罗宾，胡宗峰，魏锋
“Eat noodles to get fat and rice toslim down” or was it the opposite way around? I cannot quite remember how thatsaying goes, but if this rendition is correct it possibly explains why, withthe exception of chow mien, Britishfolk spurn noodles. The last time I visited London in 2010 tourists were stillgravitating towards Soho where the adjacent“Chinatown” (as memorably described by Lao She as it was in the 1920s in Mr. Ma and Son) continued to dispenseAnglicized versions of dishes like kungpao chicken and sweet and sour pork ribs. The food itself is not esteemedon its own merits. Typifying this attitude is the success of one particularestablishment “Wong Kei” (旺記), which was opened in the 1970s. In years past,the staff gained notoriety for their brusque manner of dealing with customers.Servers would eschew the pleasantries of saying “please” and “thank you,”instead herding patrons who arrived alone to share cramped tables withstrangers, and, worst of all, greeting pairs of diners by asking “are you atwo?” whilst waving a couple of fingers directly in their faces. In the UK,that gesture is the equivalent of extending one’s middle finger as a rebuke.Even though the fare at “Wong Kei” is good for its kind, in latter daysemployees were doubtless pandering to, and even capitalizing upon, thisreputation for rudeness. On display above the counter were t-shirts andmerchandise referencing its renown, a practice which I understand was phasedout when the restaurant underwent a revamp in early 2014.
“吃面胖，吃米瘦”还是恰好相反呢？我记不得这句话是从哪里来的，如果这话当真，那我们就知道为什么英国人除了炒面对其它面食没有兴趣。2010年我去伦敦的时候，苏豪依旧是旅游者的天下（苏豪Soho是伦敦的一个繁华小区——译者注），区内的“唐人街”（和老舍二十世纪二十年代在其小说《二马》中的描述一样）还在买英国风味的“宫保鸡丁”和“糖醋排骨”。饭菜本身并没有什么特色，让人们改变态度的是二十世纪七十年代在这里成功开张的“旺记”。多年来，这家店里的伙计以对顾客的粗鲁而臭名昭著，他们不说让客人高兴的“请”或“谢谢”，而是赶独自来的顾客和生人挤在一张桌子上。更糟糕的是，如果是两个顾客，伙计会问“你们二？”并且是一边问一边在客人面前晃着两个手指。在英国，这个动作相当于竖起中指骂人。虽然“旺记”的价格在同行中不贵，但其后来的员工毫无疑问还在演绎甚至是在发扬和光大其粗鲁的声誉。店里的柜台上摆着体恤衫和推广自家名声的商品，我想他们是觉得自己的经营方式有点过时了，于2014年初对饭店进行了一番从新装修。
To be frank, my countrymen have yetto really get their heads around the diversity of regional Chinese cuisines.This is a shame because the BBC for one has produced some excellent programmeson that theme, not least Exploring China: A Culinary Adventure first broadcast in 2012and regularly rerun on one or other of its channels. Co-presented by Ken Hom (谭荣辉), who made his fortunefrom being the first person to introduce the wok to England, and thenymphishly-charming Taiwanese Ching He Huang (黃瀞億)it showcased a number of locales from Xinjiang to Yunnan, with each episodefilming natives cooking as they usually would do in their own homes. Theviewing figures were modest and within a year or so the tie-in book was on saleat rock-bottom discount, apparently having suffered the fate of beingremaindered. The text had one or two glaring typos, such asrecommending that half a pound of baijiube added to a single jar of Sichuan-style pickled radishes as a preservative(my personal habit is to toss in three small cups, emulating the first round oftoast recommended by the Rites of Zhou).However, based on the lukewarm reception that publication received, one cantend to question if old stereotypes about the Chinese being fastidious and“inscrutable” in their eating habits are still deeply-ingrained in our nationalconsciousness. This was reinforced by me chancing upon during research, of allthings, a newspaper article recounting Li Hongzhang’s diplomatic mission tomeet Queen Victoria and her ministers in 1896. It was reported back thenthat:-
坦率的讲，我的英国同胞其实真的对中国菜肴的地方风味缺乏了解。这真是有点让人羞愧，因为““英国广播公司”就播放过这方面的精彩节目。至少《发现中国：美食之旅》在2012就开播了，并会在其它的频道定期重播。该节目的主持人是华裔名厨谭荣辉和娇媚的华裔台湾主持人黄瀞亿。谭荣辉由于首次将炒菜引入英国而发财。这个节目介绍了一系列从新疆到云南的中国美食，每一个片段都拍摄的是当地人平时在家里做饭的情景。该节目的收视率一般，不到一年多，和节目同时推出的烹饪著作就以最低价在甩卖了，显然是市场命运不佳。该书有一两个明显的错误，比如说要保存四川的泡菜就得给每个坛子里加半斤白酒（我个人的习惯是只加三小杯，仿效的是《周礼》中“乡饮酒礼”的前三杯）。然而，从这本书被冷淡的遭遇人们也许会问，是不是英国人认为中国人饮食习惯“挑剔”和“不可思议”的老观念依旧根深蒂固。我的调查更加证实了这一点，1896年，一篇报纸上的文章报道了李鸿章出使英国和维多利亚女王以及其大臣们见面的情况，当时的报道如下：
Theex-Viceroy has with him as many as four cooks, for he never dines out withEuropeans. He accepts invitations to dinner, attends the function, and thenfasts. Li is said to only eat two meals a day … His dinner, usually taken athalf past six, consists of 12 or 14 courses, and is served by a trustedpersonal attendant. Roast duck is always a principal dish. Then comes freshpork, which strange as it may appear to Western epicures, is eaten with jam,followed by cucumbers. Shrimps are partaken of with leeks, gherkins, andmushrooms. Then come a couple of tender chickens preserved in wine and vinegar,along with green peas. A puree made of pigeons’ legs, and flavoured with sourjelly, is another favourite item in the menu, the whole concluding withsponge-cakes and tea. It is stated that, notwithstanding his age, the venerableChinaman has a marvellous appetite, but he takes very little wine, merelytasting those drinks which are considered good for him.
(‘Li Hung Chang’s Visitto London: A Drive through Hyde Park,’ TheGlasgow Herald, 4th August 1896).
这位前总督自带了四位厨师，因为他从不在外面和欧洲人一起用餐。他接受宴请并出席，但就是不用餐。据说李鸿章每天只吃两顿饭……晚餐通常是在六点半，有十二或十四道菜，由一位心腹随处侍候，主菜一直是烤鸭。其次是新鲜的猪肉，与果酱同食，这让西方的美食家看来有些怪异。然后还有黄瓜、虾是和韭菜、腌黄瓜和蘑菇一起吃。另外喜欢的菜单上有用酒和醋腌制的嫩鸡加青豆，乳鸽汤加酸肉冻，所有饭菜里还包括海绵蛋糕和茶。据说，这位让人尊敬的中国人虽然上了年纪，但胃口很好，很少饮酒，只尝一点认为对他身体有益的饮品。
——引自《格拉斯哥先驱论坛报》1896年8月4日的
“走过海德公园：李鸿章访问伦敦”一文
A true banquet in every sense ofthe word. No expense was spared and Li routinely partook in the kind of feastforeigners might now only enjoy in Four or Five Star hotels in the Orient.
这是货真价实的大宴，花费不小。李鸿章的日常用膳，外国人现在只能在四星或五星级饭店里享受到。
Can, and will, the simpler staplesof Shaanxi food ever find a place in the British dining room or on the Britishrestaurant table? Could these form part of the corrective to our collectivemyopia where Chinese food is concerned? Well, the answer seems to have migratedwestward from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Following on the heels ofSichuan and Hunan cookery, New York culinary society came to embrace thedelicacies of the 800 li Qin Plainthanks to a business by the name of “Xi’an Famous Foods.” Begun as a 200 squarefoot basement stall in the Golden Shopping Mall, Flushing in late 2005, theco-owners are the Xi’an-born David Shi and his son Jason Wang, who relocatedwith his family to the US at the age of eight. It now operates from sixbranches in Manhattan, two in Brooklyn, and two in Queens. Accolades haveflooded in from both the media and the public, with Anthony Bourdain, whoprofiled it twice on his television shows commenting that “it’s all phenomenal,but these noodles are like a drug, I can’t get enough” (quoted innewyork.seriouseats.com/2009/11). Having been initially sceptical about howwell the authentic bite of Shaanxi cuisine could be captured abroad and notbeing in a position to travel to America myself, five years ago I enlisted somewell-qualified proxies. The American-born-Chinese grandchildren of theKuomintang general He Wending (何文鼎) had lunchon my behalf at the midtown venue of Xi’an Famous Foods. Their verdicts were onthe whole positive, though they noted that there were lashings and lashing ofchopped coriander on almost every dish from the paomo to the soup and that the spice of the saozi had obviously been toned down for foreign talents.Nevertheless, thanks to the Internet, the overall success of the enterprise hasbeen noted around the globe and been no small source of inspiration to otherexpatriate Xi’anese restaurateurs.
陕西美食中更加简单的主食能否进入英国的餐厅，或是被端上英国人的餐桌呢？这会不会部分的纠正英国人集体对中国饮食的偏见呢？问题的答案似乎已经从大西洋的彼岸传了过来。紧随着川菜和湘菜，感谢“西安名吃”（ Xi’an Famous Foods），纽约的餐饮界已经开始迎接“八百里秦川”的佳肴了。该店于2005年在纽约皇后区法拉盛黄金商场的地下小吃城开业，占地大约两百英尺。两位业主是西安出生的石戴维和他的儿子王杰森，王杰森八岁时随父母移民美国。现在这家店在曼哈顿有六家分店，在布鲁克林和皇后区各有两家分店。媒体和大众对这家店的好评如潮，被安东尼·波登的电视美食节目介绍过两次，其评论是“太让人惊讶了，那面条像毒品，我都上瘾了。” （安东尼·波登Anthony Bourdain是美国著名的美食节目主持人和制片人——译者注）起初，我们怀疑正宗的陕西美食能否在国外开花，由于我自己不能到美国，五年前，我便招募了几个老资格代理人。美国出生的国民党将军的孙子何文鼎替我到市中心的“西安名吃”去品尝午餐。他们的评价都是正面的，只是说从泡馍到汤，每道菜中都有大量的芫荽，而臊子显然是为了适合外国人的口味做的有些淡。不管如何，感谢互联网，这家店的成功传遍了全球，对想在国外发展的西安餐饮老板也是一个不小的鼓舞。
Guanzhong dishes are, even as Iwrite, trickling into select corners of the UK. “Chang’s Noodle,” apredominantly Henan-style establishment located near the British Library inBloomsbury, has for some time served a smattering of Shaanxi favourites, as has“Murger Han,” a Halal chain with an outlet in Euston. The newest contender,with the most comprehensive menu to date, is “Xi’an Impression” on BenwellStreet, Holloway in London. The Xi’an-born head chef Wei Guirong has anexcellent pedigree, having trained for years at the noted Sichuaneserestaurant, Barshu (巴蜀), alsolocated in the capital. Her specialities, which include sweet potato noodlesfor £5.80, Xi’an pork burger for £3.50, black fungus for £4.80, and pork ribsfor £6.80 (prices correct as of October 2015), have met with on the wholegracious reviews. Writing for The Mail onSunday newspaper, the critic Tom Parker-Bowles (who happens toalso be the stepson of Prince Charles) introduced his article with the headline‘Oodles of lip-tingling, chilli-blasting, bowl-slurping, brow-wiping noodles’ (The Mail on Sunday, 17thOctober 2015). He reported how Ms. Wei had well and truly won him over as a newdevotee to the rou jia mo, which hedescribed as having been “flecked with fat, soft andvoluptuous and scented with cumin.” Regarding the tree-ear mushroom, a foodstuffwith a texture that appears extremely odd to the English mouth, Parker-Bowleswaxed poetical, praising this “Wonderful wobbling,black fungus, cold as a grave yet clean and pure as morning dew, with aslithering, cartilaginous texture somewhere between jellyfish and milddisgust.”
当我撰写此文的时候，关中美食也如溪流一样正在向英国有选择的地方流去。伦敦的“老常家面馆”是一家有名的河南人餐厅，坐落在布鲁斯伯利英国图书馆附近，里面不时也供应一些陕西小吃。还有“”，是一家穆斯林连锁店，在尤斯顿有批发店。最新的竞争者是位于伦敦霍洛韦区本维尔大街的“西安印象”，迄今为止该店菜单最全。西安出生的大厨魏桂荣（音译）烹饪技术很好，她曾在伦敦的川菜馆“水月巴蜀”学艺多年。她经营的特色食品有：红薯面：5.80 镑，西安肉夹馍：3.5 镑，黑木耳：4.80 镑，排骨：6.80镑，都深受好评。批评家汤姆·帕克·鲍尔斯在为2015年十月十七日的《星期日邮报》撰文时的标题是“让人嘴唇抖、感觉辣、吃声响，满头汗的面条”（汤姆·帕克·鲍尔斯TomParker-Bowles是《星期日邮报》及时尚杂志Tatler的饮食专栏作家，兼任电视台饮食节目主持，也是是英国王储查尔斯妻子卡米拉与前夫所生的长子——译者注）他在报道中说，魏女士让他成了“肉夹馍”的真实粉丝。他对“肉夹馍”的描述是“肥油点点，酥软撩人，茴香味浓”。提到木耳时，他说这对英国人来说绝对是一种新鲜的食品。帕克·鲍尔斯颇有诗意的赞颂到：“黑木耳，神奇抖，冷如冰窖，纯净如朝露。滑溜溜、软绵绵，有点像海蜇”。
Netizenshave in the main posted positive feedback on “Xi’an Impression,” while notingthat like its New York predecessor the potential customer base dwarfs itspresent seating capacity. Located virtually withinthe shadow of the Emirates Stadium, it, in common with most local eateries,bursts at the seams whenever Arsenal Football Club is playing a home match.Diners also comment on the sparseness of the décor in that oftentimes crampedroom. In lieu of coromandel screens, brocaded Oriental drapes and pumpkin-sizedlanterns, Wei Guirong has opted for a clean, modern look, made festive only bythe edition of a tableau depicting the “Ten Peculiarities of Shaanxi Province.”Speaking personally, I feel that the environment there actually draws dinerscloser to the real experience of eating Xi’an dishes in their native setting.Purists would say that “Fan’s Braised Meat Restaurant” on Zhubashi, just to thesouth of the Drum Tower, retails what is perhaps the most authentic version of thebeloved rou jia mo. Like“Xi’an Impression” in London it bustles all the day long, with functionalitytaking precedence over aesthetic impact. The molded plastic seating and burgerchain efficiency of the restaurant, which does a healthy trade in pre-packagedmeat products as well, scarcely evokes the romantic antecedents of the snack.
网民对“西安印象”的反馈充满了正能量，同时也注意到自己的纽约同伴现在的座位有限。“西安印象”实际上毗邻“酋长球场”（又叫埃米尔球场和阿联酋航空球场——译者注），和当地大多数小吃店一样，每逢阿森纳足球俱乐部的主场在此举行，就会挤满了人。在经常拥挤的空间里，顾客喜欢其简朴的装饰。店里没有乌木屏风，东方情调的绸缎窗帘和南瓜灯。魏女士崇尚的是一种干净的现代装饰，惟一显示的是“陕西十大怪”。我个人觉得，这种环境实际上让顾客在自己的家乡更有品尝西安风味的感觉。行家们会说，西安鼓楼南边竹笆市的“樊家肉夹馍”是最正宗的。和伦敦的“西安印象”一样，这里整天人来人往，主要是因为实在，而不是为了慕名。店里的塑料座椅和夹馍效率很少引起人们注意这一快餐的浪漫传奇，这里也出售提前包装好的炖肉。
One of my greatest hopes forShaanxi food is that the stories behind the cuisine will be exported togetherwith the dishes themselves. The English language has no equivalent term for theMandarin “food culture,” so we cannot readily apprehend how the Chinese cherishthe superstitions and lore which underwrite the history, preparation, andconsumption of even simple fare. The roujia mo, which foreigners have taken to quickest of all, is a case inpoint. I shudder to hear it referred to by that most American-sounding ofepithets “the Chinese hamburger,” which conveys the misleading notion that itmight have come about as some modern, commercially-driven attempt to rip-offMacDonalds. The snack comes in countless varieties, though the basic form is aflatbread bap containing a dollop of braised and chopped pork (not a solid meatpatty as in a hamburger). Flatbread, or mo,as a source of fibre can be traced back as far as the time of the First EmperorQin Shihuang, yet whoever realized that the bread cake could be split andfilled to make a snack food remains something of a mystery. The Fan family,whose name is still traded under today, is the customary answer.
我对陕西美食最大的希望之一是：要把美食背后的故事一起介绍到国外去。英语里没有与汉语“饮食文化”相对应的词，所以人们不理解中国人为什么珍爱传说和学问，即便是最普通的东西都有其制作和消费的历史。就拿外国人最容易接受的“肉夹馍”来说，我听不惯有人像美式英语那样称其为“中国汉堡”，这给人有误解，有点像现代商业化很浓且宰人的“麦当劳”。“肉夹馍”的花样很多，但最主要的形式是扁平的饼子夹剁碎的炖猪肉（而不是像汉堡那样夹肉片）。有关饼的历史可以追溯到秦始皇那个时代，但谁也没有想到，可以把饼切开加上东西变成一种快餐，其来源依旧是个迷，常见的解释是到今天还很红火的“樊记肉夹馍”提供的。
The legend goes that many, manygenerations ago the Fans were a magnanimous clan from humble origins whichgained a foothold in the city. During a time when southern Shaanxi wasafflicted by floods a young man was desperate to fulfill his filial duty andgive his mother a respectable burial. He persuaded Mr. Fan to provide a loan tocover the cost of a coffin. Over the next decade, the borrower thrived as ameat merchant and upon old Fan’s eightieth birthday he presented him not with acash repayment, but with the more heartfelt gift – to the Chinese mentality -of a carved casket for his own burial. The word for “coffin” (guancai) is a homonym for “live a longlife.”
据说在好几代人之前，樊家从一户穷人壮大成一个大家族，并在城里有了一片天地。有一年，陕南发红水，有个年轻人为了尽孝，回家安葬自己的母亲，向樊先生借钱买棺材。十几年过去了，那位借钱的人经营肉铺发了财。在樊先生八十大寿的那一天，他不仅还了樊先生的钱，还给老人家带来了感恩的礼物——一副雕花寿材，中国人认为“寿材”意味着“长寿发财”。
Fan was blessed with considerablelongevity and so the box was put into storage in an outhouse. Unfortunately, hefell out of favour with the authorities and died on the verge of penury afterbeing deprived of his official posts. His widow, now facing the prospect ofhaving to sell off the contents of the home, called for the coffin to bebrought inside. To her astonishment, it contained 250 kilos of cured meat,which the air-tight conditions and prickly ash sides had prevented from turningrank. Word of mouth spread fast. Spurred on by the curious story, peopleflocked to purchase slivers of the moreish snack, so much so that it sold outalmost immediately. With the introduction of juice from fresh joints, therevitalized contents proved even more saleable. The caveat thus explainswhy the rou jia mo consistsof braised meat rather than cured.
樊先生接受了祝福自己长寿的礼物，将棺材贮存在了外屋。不幸的是，樊先生在官场失意，被罢了官，去世的时候变得几乎一穷二白。夫人为了安葬他，不得不变卖家产，就把那副棺材抬了出来。让她惊讶的是，棺材了装了五百斤卤肉。由于棺材封闭的好，再加上里肉四周有花椒，肉没有变质。这消息一传十，十传百，出于好奇，人们蜂涌而至前来买这儿的炖肉，不久肉就快卖完了。随着鲜肉的放入，后来的肉就更有味道了。这个故事给我们说清了为什么“肉夹馍”里的肉是炖肉，而不是卤肉。
What we may ask will be the next Shaanxidish to “go global”? It may be easier to discount the least likely candidatefirst. Despite being frequently praised in the literary works of Jia Pingwa andothers, I have never been able to face hulu tou, an offal soup, which is at best an acquired taste. The principleingredient, the large intestine of a pig, has been said to resemble a ripespecimen of that fruit. Much scraping and salting, as well as four hours ofboiling are required to remove the odour. Slow stewing with swinepluck and, if desired, seafood such as sea-cucumber and cuttlefishproduces a heady broth, which is in turn thickened out with breadcrumbs. Evenin the age of fast-food, the sheer greasiness of hu lu tou is off-putting to the uninitiated. Its advocatespoint to the health benefits offered by the seasonings, which include cassiabark and cardamom. In addition, they invoke the unsubstantiated story that itsfirst retailer in Chang’an was taught the method by Sun Simiao (died 682 AD),one of the great pedagogues of traditional Chinese medicine. Dr. Sun has therare honour of being commemorated through a personal shrine at the Temple ofthe Eight Immortals just outside the East Gate of the city wall.
我们也许要问的是：下一个走向世界的陕西小吃会是什么呢？比较容易的是说不好走出去的，虽然在贾平凹和其他作家的文学作品里备受称赞，我却从来无法面对“葫芦头”。这是一种杂碎汤，对此的口味得慢慢培养。其主要成分是猪大肠，据说形状像长熟了的葫芦。为了除味，要刮洗和用盐泡，然后再煮好几个小时。要用慢火同猪的其它内脏一块炖，如果需要还可以加上海参和鱿鱼，使汤更有味，吃的时候可以泡饼。甚至在这个快餐时代，对于外行来说，单就“葫芦头”的油腻就让人退避三舍。爱好这一口的人图的是有益健康，因为里面放有桂皮和八角。另外还有一个传说， 长安第一家买“葫芦头”的得到了唐代名医药王孙思邈的指点。孙思邈的名气很大，西安城外的“八仙庵”就供有他的神位。
The similarly-named hu lu ji (“gourd-sized chicken”) isa quite different customer and more amenable to foreign diets. If the Xi’anesemay lay claim to having invented the burger, with this poultry dish they couldalso be said to have pre-empted Colonel by several centuries. It is commonlyseen at wedding banquets, not to mention class reunions and works dinners. Fora time the hu lu ji was upheld assomething of a symbol of unity. A master-chef by the name of Mr. Chen preparedit for the “Peace Feast,” staged after the Xi’an Incident of 1936, whereupon itreceived the praise of no less a diner than Zhou Enlai. Inorder to prepare it, a hen weighing approximately onekilo is plucked, boiled, steamed and then fried whole. The white meat is tornaway easily and can be dipped into a fingerbowl of spices to taste. Were one tovisualize its neck and head as being like a stem, the crispy fowl does bearsome superficial similarity to a large gourd. The effect would be lost, were itto be adapted to suit local sensitivities. Westernpeople prefer their fowls to reach the table already-decapitated, and not tohave dead chicken’s eyes squinting back at them as they stretch out theirchopsticks or knives and forks.
与“葫芦头”的名号相似的是“葫芦鸡”，但“葫芦鸡”就不同了，这更适合外国人的口味。如果说西安人宣称是他们首先发明了“汉堡”，那么他们也可以说比美国的上校早几个世纪就发明了鸡块。这是一道婚宴上的家常菜，更不用说在同学和同事聚会的餐桌上出现了。曾经一度这道菜被认为是团结统一的象征，1936年的“西安事变”后，一位姓陈的厨师在“和平宴”上做了这道菜，得到了周恩来的赞赏。这道菜的做法是：选一只约两斤重的鸡，先清煮、再蒸、后炸。鸡肉皮酥肉嫩，香烂味醇，筷到骨脱，可以沾着小碗里的辣椒吃。要是把鸡的头和脖子当作茎，这道美味还的确像一个大葫芦。如果只是鸡的局部，那就没有了这个效果。西方人喜欢在鸡上桌前就去掉头，这样伸出筷子和挥舞刀叉时，死鸡就不会用斜眼盯自己了。
（未完待续）……
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