经济学人-世界美食：爱荷华州的特色三明治

我们常说“一方水土养育一方人”。

一个地方的风土人情，饮食文化既能反映出一个地方的特色，也能起到凝聚团结当地人心的作用。

 

今天我们来读一读本期《经济学人》Culture板块中关于饮食文化的文章。

 

你肯定吃过三明治吧！

一般我们吃的三明治长这样

 

但爱荷华州的三明治长这样

 

World in a dish Made right for Iowa

Unsung regional foods can contain multitudes of memories

世界美食：爱荷华州的美食精神

默默无闻的当地美食蕴藏着无限的记忆

 

 

1. The sandwich goes by several names, including “canteen”, “tavern” and, mostdescriptively, “loose meat”. First sold in Muscatine, Iowa, nearly a century ago, it is now popular across the state. Like a hamburger, a Maid­Rite—asthe dish is known at Dan’s Sandwich Shop in Newton, Iowa—is made from ground beef. But instead of a patty flipped off agrill, diners get a scoop of loose, pebbly, well­-done meat dug out of a cooking trough and dumped onto a bun, typically topped with mustard, ketchup and pickles.

三明治在很多地方售卖，包括“食堂”“酒馆”，但常被描述为一种“碎肉式”的食物。大约一个世纪前，这种食物最开始在爱荷华州的马斯卡廷销售。而如今已经遍布整个州。

 

和在爱荷华州的牛顿市的Dan’sSandwich Shop 销售的MaidRite汉堡包一样，三明治是由碎牛肉做成的。

 

但是，与烤架上翻来覆去的小肉饼不同，食客们可以从一个烹饪容器中挖出一勺松散的牛肉粒，然后铺在面包上，一般会在上面再放一些芥末，番茄酱和腌黄瓜。

 

2. Mike Brown, the restaurant’s proprietor since last year, proudly notes that he cuts the beef fresh every day, adding nothing, not even salt. (Before him Dan Holt camp ran the place for half a century with his wife, Pam, and bequeathed it his name.)To non­-Iowans, the sandwich can seem a perplexingly austerecreation. It offers neither the compact, car-­friendly convenience of a burger—the meat in a MaidRite, being loose, tends to spill out—nor the saucy comfort of a Sloppy Joe. But it says much about the charm and persistence of regional cuisine.

这家餐馆的主人MikeBrown去年自豪地宣称他切的牛肉都是日鲜牛肉，无任何添加剂，连盐都没有。（在Mike经手前，Dan Holt 和妻子Pam在此经营了半个世纪，Dan的名称流传了下来。）

 

对非爱荷华州本地人来说，这种三明治的设计有点“寒碜”。它既没有MaidRite汉堡中那种紧实，让开车司机容易手拿的肉（因为肉太松散，容易撒下来），也没有炒牛肉酱味道的好酱在上面。但恰恰这种制作说明了爱荷华当地美食的独特魅力和执着精神。

 

3. If a Maid­Rite were merely a disintegrating, suboptimal burger, Iowans would have long stopped eating them. They do not lack for choice; like most small American towns, Newton abounds in familiar burger ­slinging franchises. Yet Mr Brown estimates that on most days, he cuts and cooks up to 150 pounds (68kg) of beef,enough for a few hundred sandwiches: not bad for a town of 15,000 people.

如果说Maid-rite汉堡是一种没办法的选择，那么爱荷华人早就不吃它了。爱荷华人的选择很多；和大部分美国小镇一样，牛顿市有很多被人熟知的汉堡连锁品牌。

 

但是，Brown先生估计一般来说，他每天会做150磅牛肉，这些肉够几百个三明治使用；而这个数字对于一个只有1.5万人口的小镇来说不错了。

 

4. Asked why the Maid­Rite has not found a wider market, Mr Brown says “the right person” hasn’t come along to champion it. That may not be the whole story; the sandwich is probably too bland and beefy for an increasingly multicultural America. But as ageneral comment on regional foods that are handed down through generations of locals, his rationale stands.

被问到MaidRite的市场份额为什么还没有增加，Brown先生说“现在能够带领Maid Rite走向更大市场的'白马王子’还没到出现”。但这不是唯一的原因。

 

对于一个越发多元化的美国来说，这种三明治太“普通”，“分量”太实在了。但是，对于被当地人不断传承下来的本地食物，Brown的评价站得住脚。

 

5. They are as much the product of savvy marketing, an affable restaurateur or chance “theright person” in the right place and time—as of recipes or terroir. Meat, bread and cheese are not unique toPhiladelphia, but the cheesesteak is. Someone experimented, people liked it, and aregional food was born. Other, less serendipitous dishes perish with theircreators, not always because they are inferior.

合适的“三明治”在合适的时间和地点出现，价格合适的餐厅对于一款获得市场青睐的产品来说很重要，而菜谱或风土条件同样不容忽视。费城并不缺少肉，面包和奶酪，但奶酪牛肉三明治却不常见。

 

有人曾做过试验，只要有人喜欢，地方特色美食就会应运而生。而其他那些不幸的菜肴会随着其缔造者“香消玉殒”，并不是因为它们不好吃。

 

6. If they endure, regional foods become artefacts of habit and memory. When out of­ towners sit down at Dan’s lunch counter and eat a Maid­Rite, as Barack Obama once did (pictured),they indulge in something new and exotic. They may find it delicious or unremarkable, but unless they return to rural Iowa, they may not eat another.
如果这些菜肴延续下来，地方特色食品就能成为人们习惯和记忆的见证。当外地人坐在Dan的餐厅的午餐桌前，吃着Maid-rite三明治时，就像前总统奥巴马一样，他们会品尝到新鲜异域的味道。

 

他们会发现这种三明治味道美得让人流连忘返。除非再回到爱荷华州的农村，否则他们不会再品尝到这种三明治。

 

7. But a local who eats a Maid­Rite is not just eating beef on bread. He is ordering what he ate with his father after Little League games, what his mother brought home from work when she was too tired to cook, or what he longed for in the army. She is eating what she ate with her friends after school or on prom night. Regional food does not have to be superior or evencomprehensible to outsiders to help devotees, wherever they are, deepen theirconnections to the past, and to themselves.

当地人吃Maid-Rite时不是只把牛肉放在面包上吃，他会在美国少年棒球联合会与自己的父亲一起吃自己点的食物，他会吃妈妈因上班太累不想做饭，而从外面回来的食物或者当他渴望参军时会点的东西。她会伴着和朋友在放学后或者晚会时吃的东西吃三明治。

 

当地美食不需要通过假扮高级或者清清白白来吸引外来食客，它靠的是无论食客身在何处都能增强其与过去，自己的联系的魅力。

外刊精读应该这样进行