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0Culture World in a dish 文化的盘中世界
A moveable feast A new book celebrates Chinese food's spread and savour.
流动的盛宴 一本赞美中国菜传播和美味的新书。
About a decade ago, this correspondent attended a banquet in Guangzhou. The bird's nest soup was gentle and slithery, the sea cucumber rich and gelatinous and the fish sparklingly fresh and perfectly steamed. The most memorable dish, however, was the plain white cup of broth served at the end. Made from chicken, probably with ham and dried scallop as well, it was simple, austere and perfect.
大约十年前，记者在广州参加了一个宴会。燕窝汤温和而滑腻，海参丰富而胶状，鱼闪闪发光、新鲜而且蒸得恰到好处。然而，最令人难忘的一道菜是最后端上来的一杯白色的肉汤。由鸡肉制成，可能还有火腿和干扇贝，简单、朴素、完美。
Ending a banquet with soup may seem odd to Westerners, accustomed as they are to sweets at a meal's close. But, as Fuchsia Dunlop, an English food writer, explains in an authoritative new book, stock is a unique, intrinsic expression of a chef's art, much as a voice is for a singer. And the "transparent, almost invisible soup…in its quiet golden, ineffable loveliness" is an ideal conclusion to a banquet, with its opulence and strong flavours.
对于西方人来说，以汤来结束宴会似乎有些奇怪，因为他们习惯于在用餐结束时吃甜食。但是，正如英国美食作家福夏·邓洛普在一本权威新书中解释的那样，高汤是厨艺的一种独特的内在表达，就像声音对于歌手一样。“透明的，几乎看不见的汤…在它安静的金色中，不可言喻的可爱”是一个宴会的理想结尾，有着丰富和浓郁的味道。
"Invitation to a Banquet" is Ms Dunlop's seventh book. Unlike those for which she is best known, including "The Food of Sichuan" and "Revolutionary Kitchen" (about Hunanese cuisine), this is not a cookbook. Instead, she has chosen 30 dishes and used each to illuminate different aspects of Chinese cuisine-and, in turn, Chinese life and history. This is less of a departure for Ms Dunlop than it seems. Like other outsiders who spend their lives focused on a foreign cuisine-as Diana Kennedy, an English food writer, did in Mexico, or Paula Wolfert, an American, did in the Middle East-she is more a gatherer than an inventor of recipes. Ms Dunlop's well-researched cookbooks read as mini-ethnographies.
《宴会的邀请》是邓洛普女士的第七本书。不像她最著名的书，包括《川菜》和《革命厨房》（关于湘菜），这不是一本烹饪书。相反，她选择了30道菜，用每一道菜来展示中国烹饪的不同方面，进而展示中国的生活和历史。对邓洛普来说，这并不像看上去那样是离经叛道的行为。像其他致力于外国美食的外来者一样——如英国美食作家戴安娜·肯尼迪在墨西哥所做的，或美国人保拉·沃尔弗特在中东所做的——与其说她是食谱的发明者，不如说她是收集者。邓洛普女士精心研究的烹饪书读起来像是迷你民族志。
Readers will not learn how to make braised pomelo pith with shrimp eggs but how and why Chinese chefs have long prized unusual (and to Western palates, sometimes off-putting) ingredients, such as the bitter pith of a giant citrus fruit. An apparently humble, but in fact exceptionally laborious, dish of braised carp's tail is a jumping-off point for a discussion of the importance of kougan, or mouth-feel, in Chinese cuisine.
读者将学到的不是如何用虾卵烹制红烧柚子瓤，而是中国厨师如何以及为何长期以来一直珍视不寻常的（对于西方人的味觉来说有时是令人反感的）食材，如巨大柑橘类水果的苦瓤。红烧鲤鱼尾这道菜看似不起眼，实际上却异常费工，它是讨论口感在中国菜中的重要性的切入点。
Westerners, Ms Dunlop argues, "have traditionally assumed that the Chinese eat marginal animal parts out of poverty and desperation", when in fact turning up one's nose at gizzards, cartilage and jellyfish shuts the door on a range of foods that is wonderfully cui ("slippery and crunchy, often in a wet way").
邓洛普女士认为，西方人“传统上认为中国人吃动物的边缘部分是出于贫穷和绝望”，而事实上，对胗、软骨和海蜇的嗤之以鼻，让人们对一系列奇妙的“脆”食物（"又滑又脆，通常是湿的"）望而却步。
In aggregate, Ms Dunlop makes a compelling case for the superiority of Chinese cuisine, and in a delighted and expansive rather than chauvinistic way. She shows how it has assimilated foreign influences (as other cuisines have, too), how it has changed with China's increasing wealth and how central it is to the country's intellectual and cultural history.
总之，邓洛普女士为中国菜的优越性提出了令人信服的理由，而且是以一种令人愉悦的、广阔的而非盲目爱国的方式提出的。她展示了中国菜是如何吸收外来影响的（其他菜系也是如此），中国菜是如何随着中国的日益富裕而变化的，以及中国菜在中国的思想和文化历史中是多么重要。
She makes an equally compelling case that what Westerners think of as "Chinese food", meaning what most can find at their local takeaway, is neither inauthentic nor wrong. Instead, it is a diasporic offshoot that reflects local tastes but is about as representative of the cuisine's diversity as a frozen pizza is of Italy's. Immigration and adventurousness have made the real thing more accessible than ever outside China. Eaters should savour that.
她提出了一个同样令人信服的案例，即西方人认为的“中国菜”，即大多数人在他们当地点到的外卖，并没有不正宗和不够意思。相反，它是一个散居的分支，反映了当地的口味，但与意大利的冷冻比萨饼一样代表了美食的多样性。移民和冒险精神使真正的东西比以往任何时候都更容易在中国境外找到。食客们应该好好品尝一下。
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