用做中式烤鸭的方法做一只感恩节火鸡

在布鲁克林戴克高地的新裕利餐厅，烤火鸡挂在叉烧旁边。新裕利是美国几家感恩节提供中式烤火鸡的商店和餐馆之一。AN RONG XU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The three days leading up to Thanksgiving are manic at Kau Kau BBQ Market & Restaurant, a mainstay in Seattle’s Chinatown that specializes in Chinese barbecue. At least two extra cooks are brought on to help clean, brine, dry, baste and roast holiday turkeys 24 hours a day in the kitchen’s already packed ovens: crisp-skinned, five-spice-seasoned birds that Kau Kau makes according to the same process it uses for its roast duck.

感恩节前的三天，巧巧海鲜烧腊饭店(Kau Kau BBQ Market & Restaurant)一片忙乱，这是西雅图华埠主打中式烧烤的一家招牌餐厅。餐厅至少多雇了两名厨师，帮忙一天24小时清洗、腌渍、风干火鸡，然后刷汁塞进已经满满当当的烤箱里烤：巧巧用制作烤鸭的同样流程制作的脆皮五香火鸡。

西雅图华埠巧巧海鲜烧腊饭店的烤火鸡。店主是夏威夷华人后代，Kau Kau的大意是“好食物”。RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

贴在巧巧烧腊橱窗上的火鸡订单。RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

For that reason, said Richard Chang, who owns Kau Kau with his wife, Lynn Eng-Chang, the restaurant caps orders at about 80 turkeys per year.

与妻子张林英（Lynn Eng-Chang，音）共同拥有巧巧的理查德·张（Richard Chang，音）说，出于这个原因，餐厅每年最多只能卖大约80只火鸡。

“We have to stop there, because we just cannot do any more,” he said.

“我们必须就此打住，因为再多我们做不了，”他说。

The restaurant, which Mr. Chang said was opened by his father-in-law, has been making the turkeys for the holiday since the 1970s, initially in response to a few customer requests. Now, all of the first-come-first-served turkey orders typically come in by early November, some from customers who are new to the tradition, others from longtime regulars who helped get it started.

理查德·张说，这家餐厅是岳父开的，从上世纪70年代起一直在为这个节日做火鸡，起初是为响应一些顾客的要求。如今，他们一般在十一月初会收到先到先得的火鸡订单，有些是初尝这种做法的新顾客点的，有些是老主顾——这项传统就是他们促成的。

“If they don’t, we usually kind of worry,” Mr. Chang said. “We hope nothing happened to them.”

“如果他们没点，我们通常会有点担心，”理查德·张说。“我们希望他们平安无事。”

In Cantonese barbecue shops, Asian supermarkets and Chinese restaurants across the United States, there is one day of the year when roast duck, soy-sauce chicken, char siu and crispy roast pork may be cast aside for plump turkeys. Available from chains like 99 Ranch Market and mom-and-pop shops alike, and often with sticky rice, steamed buns and hoisin-based sauces on the side, these Chinese barbecue-style turkeys provide an inroad to Thanksgiving for many Chinese-Americans. And customers of all backgrounds are embracing the American-born innovation.

在美国各地的粤式烧烤店、亚洲超市和中餐馆，一年中总有一天，烤鸭、酱油鸡、叉烧和脆皮烧肉可能会被人们抛到一边，转而享用圆滚滚的火鸡。这种中式烧烤火鸡可以从大华超级市场(99 Ranch Market)和夫妻档店铺买到，一般会配上糯米、馒头和海鲜酱，对很多华裔美国人而言，它们是往感恩节中注入自己的影响的一个好办法。各种背景的顾客都在接受这道诞生于美国的创新菜。

索菲亚·哈伦（左）来巧巧取为朋友感恩节聚餐准备的烤火鸡。从上世纪70年代开始出售火鸡的巧巧是一家家族企业：如今为张林英（中）和丈夫理查德·张（右）所有。 RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Each place makes its own a little differently. But the main draw of a turkey roasted according to the lengthy procedures of professional Chinese barbecue is juicy, flavorful meat.

每个地方的做法都稍有不同。但按照中国专业烧烤的漫长程序烤制的火鸡，主要吸引力是多汁、美味的肉。

“The American way can be dry,” Mr. Chang said. “The Chinese way is moist.”

“美国的做法可能会有点干，”理查德·张说。“中式做法要润一些。”

Rather than filling the turkey’s cavity with a bready stuffing to roast, Chinese barbecue cooks typically fill it many hours ahead with a wet, mushy marinade that may include toasted dry spices, onions, garlic, ginger and plenty of salt, then skewer the cavity shut.

中国的烧烤厨师通常会提前几小时用湿糊状的腌料填满火鸡腔，其中可能包括烘烤过的干香料、洋葱、大蒜、姜和大量的盐，然后用串肉扦把内腔合上，而不是用面包填料填满腔体，进行烤制。

The technique, known as “inside brining,” allows the meat to marinate while the turkey is hung up to dry out, typically by its neck — a necessary step so the skin will crisp well. The marinade also helps keep the meat moist while it roasts. (Unlike American-style dry-brined turkeys, in which a much drier salt-and-spice rub is applied to the exterior skin, this Chinese-style brine goes solely inside the cavity.)

这种技术被称为“内腌”，这样火鸡在挂起来——通常是挂着脖子——晾干的同时也在腌制，而晾干是让火鸡皮变脆的必要步骤。腌泡汁也有助于肉在烘烤时保持湿润。(与美式的干腌火鸡不同，即在火鸡外皮上涂抹一层更干的盐和香料，而这种中式的盐卤汁只会进入火鸡的腔内。)

旧金山兴隆店主张氏兄弟说，感恩节是他们一年中最忙的时候。CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

兴隆的烤火鸡。他们从上世纪80年代开始制作感恩节火鸡。CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

It’s a process that has been refined over the years at Hing Lung, a Cantonese barbecue shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown that is owned by the brothers Eric and Simon Cheung. Their father began working at the shop in the 1980s, learning to become a si fu, or master, of barbecue. He passed that knowledge on to his sons, although the brothers have made slight tweaks to the classic recipes. That includes the shop’s Thanksgiving turkey, which dates back to the time before their father joined the business.

这是兴隆(Hing Lung)多年来一直在改进的一种做法，这家旧金山华埠的粤式烧烤店店主是埃里克·郑(Eric Cheung)和西蒙·郑(Simon Cheung)兄弟俩。他们的父亲于20世纪80年代开始在这家店工作，学习成为一名烧烤师傅。他把这些知识传给了两个儿子，尽管兄弟俩对这些经典食谱做了些小的修改。其中包括这家店的感恩节火鸡，这道菜在他们的父亲进入这家店工作之前就已经有了。

兴隆的厨师赵建宇（音）将调过味的火鸡焯水。 CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

For their in-demand turkey, the Cheungs apply a dry rub of Chinese spices like star anise and licorice to the cavity, then fill it with a mixture of onions, garlic and celery. The turkeys, like ducks, are then skewered up to close the cavity, scalded with hot water to tighten the skin and clean off any seasoning mixture, coated in vinegar, and hung to dry for 12 hours. There has been much trial and error over the years; turkeys have fallen off their hooks because they were too heavy, and had to be tossed. But the brothers have gotten a handle on the larger bird.

对于他们的热销火鸡，郑氏兄弟将八角和甘草等中国香料干擦在火鸡腔内壁，再用洋葱、大蒜和芹菜的混合物填满火鸡腔。然后，把火鸡像鸭子一样串起，合上腔体，用热水烫一下，收紧鸡皮，清理掉任何调料混合物，涂上醋，挂起来晾12个小时。这些年来有很多尝试和失败；火鸡因为太重从钩子上掉下来，不得不扔掉。但是兄弟俩现在已经能对付更大的禽类。

兴隆的赵建宇在给火鸡调味。CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

在开始数小时的晾干步骤前，他还会给火鸡淋醋。据烧烤师傅说，醋有助于鸡皮烘烤均匀，并有一种光泽。CAYCE CLIFFORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

To further set themselves apart from other Chinese barbecue restaurants in the area, Eric Cheung created a Southern-style cream gravy to go with their turkey, using the necks, gizzards and liver — a twist he said was inspired by his fondness for chicken-fried steak at places like IHOP.

为了进一步将自己与该地区其他中国烧烤餐厅区分开来，埃里克·郑用鸡脖、胗和肝制作了一道南方风味的奶油肉汁来搭配他们的火鸡——他说，这一变化的灵感来自于他喜欢吃的IHOP等餐厅的炸鸡排。

For Hing Lung’s customers, who are predominantly Chinese-American, the turkey strikes a balance, allowing them to assimilate to American holiday conventions without sacrificing their tastes. After all, what could be more American than having things your way?

对于以美籍华人为主的兴隆的顾客而言，火鸡实现了一种平衡，让他们在不牺牲口感的同时融入美国的节日习俗。毕竟，还有什么比随心所欲更具美国特色呢?

“They want to celebrate the Thanksgiving tradition, yet they can’t accept the American turkey,” Eric Cheung said.

“他们想要庆祝感恩节的传统，但是他们接受不了美国的火鸡，”埃里克·郑说。

American turkey can also be hard to cook well. Prone to bland, dry breast meat and blackened wing tips, the bulky bird is a challenge for home cooks all over. This is particularly true when turkey is not part of your cultural culinary tradition.

而且美国火鸡也很难做好。大块头的火鸡容易做出淡而干燥的胸脯肉和变黑的翼尖，对所有的家庭厨师来说都是一个挑战。当火鸡不是你的文化烹饪传统的一部分时尤其如此。

Justine Lee, who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in the Bay Area with parents who had immigrated from Taiwan, said her mother tried one year to make turkey using American cookbooks. It was, Ms. Lee said, a complete pain.

成长于上世纪八九十年代的旧金山湾区、父母从台湾移民过来的贾斯汀·李（Justine Lee，音）说，有一年，她母亲尝试用美国烹饪书做火鸡。他说，那完全是一种折磨。

“She was worrying about the turkey so much she didn’t have time to think about too many other things,” Ms. Lee said. “I remember it was fine, but at the end of the day my mom was like, ‘I just don’t think this was worth the effort.’” Since then, the family has bought its Thanksgiving turkey from Marina Food, a small grocery chain in California.

“她太担心火鸡了，以至于没有时间想太多其他事情，”贾斯汀·李说。“我记得最后结果还好，但到最后我妈妈说，‘我只是觉得不值得费这个功夫。’”从那以后，这家人一直从加州的小型食品连锁店永和超市(Marina Food)买感恩节火鸡。

While many Chinese-American households choose not to bother with turkey, in some cases it can’t be avoided. About 30 years ago, Chinese-Americans in Chicago started going to Sun Wah BBQ with raw turkeys they had received from their employers as Thanksgiving gifts. Many were totally unaccustomed to using their ovens, let alone for such a large bird, so they asked the restaurant for help. (Ovens are not a typical feature of home kitchens in China, and most Chinese home cooking occurs on the stovetop.)

虽然许多华裔美国家庭选择不去为火鸡费心，但在某些情况下，这无法避免。大约30年前，芝加哥的华裔美国人开始带着从雇主那里得到的感恩节礼品生火鸡去新华烧腊(Sun Wah BBQ)店。许多人完全不习惯使用他们的烤箱，更不用说这么大的鸡，于是他们向餐厅求助。（烤箱并非中国家庭厨房的典型配置，大多数中国家庭烹饪都在灶台上进行。）

“Asians in general don’t really know how to cook turkey,” said Kelly Cheng, whose family owns Sun Wah. “That’s just not something we generally eat.”

“亚裔一般真的不知道怎么做火鸡，”郑文慧(Kelly Cheng)说，新华烧腊是她家的生意。“那不是我们通常吃的东西。”

But at Sun Wah, the professional kitchen and ovens were there. The poultry-roasting wisdom was there. All that had to be swapped in was the type of bird. That, said Ms. Cheng, is what got the restaurant roasting turkeys.

但新华有专业的厨房和烤箱。有烤家禽的智慧。唯一要替换进去的只是禽肉的种类。郑文慧说，这就是这家餐厅烤火鸡的由来。

芝加哥新华烧烤店的总经理、店主之一郑文彩在去掉中式烤火鸡翅膀上的箔纸。 JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Today, the restaurant handles about 120 turkey orders for Thanksgiving. Ms. Cheng, a second-generation member of the business, admitted that it has become a “logistical nightmare,” but said her family loves doing it for their loyal customers.

如今餐厅约处理120份感恩节火鸡订单。郑文彩是这家企业的第二代成员，她承认，这件事在操作上已经变成了“噩梦”，但她说，她的家人喜欢为忠实客户做这件事。

新华的厨师路易斯·蒂拉多(Luis Tirado)将火鸡焯水。JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Their recipe has also gradually changed to adapt to the oversize bird. They started out with a standard five-spice seasoning based on their roast duck, but found it wasn’t enough to flavor whole turkeys, which have a much higher ratio of meat to skin and bone. They added ginger and cilantro to the inside-brine mixture, and boosted the overall seasoning so it was stronger.

他们的食谱也逐渐改变，以便适应这种超大禽类。他们一开始用的是适合烤鸭的标准五香调料，但发现这不足以给整只火鸡调味，因为和鸭子相比，它们肉多，皮和骨头少。他们在卤汁中加入生姜和香菜，提高整体调味效果，使其更加浓郁。

烧烤师迈克尔·郑是新华烧烤店的老板之一，他会把火鸡调味，然后挂起来晾干。JOSHUA LOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

While Ms. Cheng’s brother, Michael Cheng, runs the barbecue operations, she said that the whole family enjoys arguing over how to improve it.

负责操作烤鸡工序的是郑文彩的兄弟迈克尔·郑(Michael Cheng)，她说全家人都喜欢讨论如何改善火鸡质量。

Just as the recipes are changing, so is Sun Wah’s customer base. Ms. Cheng estimates that today, Chinese-Americans are slightly less than half of her customers.

随着食谱的改变，新华的客户群也在改变。郑文彩估计，如今美籍华人在顾客中所占比例略低于一半。

Bryan Cardenas, who is not of Chinese descent, has been serving Sun Wah’s turkey at Thanksgiving for more than a decade. He has also incorporated Chinese flavors into his holiday cooking, tinkering with dishes like his fresh cranberry sauce.

布莱恩·卡德纳斯(Bryan Cardenas)不是华裔，十多年来，他感恩节吃的一直是新华供应的火鸡。他还将中国风味融入到自己的假日烹饪中，用他自己的新鲜蔓越莓酱等菜式进行小小修改。

“I added a tablespoon of Chinese five-spice,” he said. “It was out of this world.”

“我加了一大勺中国五香粉，”他说。“感觉太棒了。”

Despite all this, Ms. Cheng isn’t a big fan of turkey, finding it too lean. For many years, her grandmother roasted a whole turkey for the family on Thanksgiving because a relative received it free at work. But no one particularly cared if it was good or not: “The only reason we wanted her to cook it was to make congee the next day,” Ms. Cheng said with a laugh.

尽管如此，郑文彩并不喜欢火鸡，她觉得火鸡太瘦了。多年来，她的祖母在感恩节那天都为全家烤整只火鸡，因为一个亲戚可以从公司免费得到火鸡。但是没有人特别在意它是好是坏：“我们想让她做的唯一原因就是第二天可以做粥，”郑文彩笑着说。

For other Chinese-American households, though, the fear of missing out on a national pastime can be a strong motivator. Often, turkey comes at the instigation of the American-raised generation of the family, who grew up learning about Thanksgiving in school, over crafts like hand tracings drawn to resemble turkeys.

不过，对其他华裔美国家庭来说，担心错过一项全国性娱乐活动可能是一种强大动力。在美国长大的这代人在学校里学习感恩节的相关知识，还有用手作模子画火鸡这样的手法，在他们鼓动下，火鸡经常会出现在家中的餐桌上。

“It’s such an ingrained part of American culture that we wanted to bring home, but to my parents, it was still completely foreign to them,” said Andrew Shiue, the Chinese-American writer behind the blog Beyond Chinatown. “We wanted to take part in this American tradition.”

“这是美国文化中根深蒂固的一部分，我们想把它带回家，但这对我的父母来说还是完全陌生的，”博客“城里城外”(Beyond Chinatown)的博主，华裔美国作家薛唯中(Andrew Shiue)说。“我们想加入这个美国传统。”

布鲁克林戴克高地的新裕利肉店里，将烤火鸡从挂钩上取下，和烤五花肉放在一起。 AN RONG XU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Wilson Tang, the owner of Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Manhattan’s Chinatown, said his family dabbled in roasting turkey at home when he was growing up, with results that were “hit or miss.”

曼哈顿华埠南华茶室(Nom Wah Tea Parlor)的老板邓伟(Wilson Tang)说，在他小时候，他的家人曾在家里尝试烤火鸡，最终结果如何要“看运气”。

Yee Li, on nearby Bayard Street, became his family’s go-to source. The meat was moister than American-style turkey, Mr. Tang said, and the shop would also carve the turkey in neat pieces, just like a roast duck or soy-sauce chicken.

附近摆也街上的裕利肉铺(Yee Li)是他家购买火鸡的主要去处。邓伟说，那里的肉比美式火鸡多汁，而且店家还会把火鸡切成整齐的小块，就像烤鸭或豉油鸡一样。

新裕利的前身是在曼哈顿开了几十年的裕利。新裕利希望吸引那些想要品尝唐人街传统风味的新顾客。AN RONG XU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Although Yee Li closed this year after more than 30 years on Bayard Street, John Chan, a scion of the family that had owned the shop, opened New Yee Li in January in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, filling a niche for classic Cantonese roast meats and other specialties in an area with a growing population of Chinese immigrants.

裕利在摆也街上经营了30多年，于今年关门歇业，其所有者的后裔约翰·陈(John Chan)于1月在布鲁克林的戴克高地开了新裕利(New Yee Li)，用传统粤式烤肉和其他特色菜填补这个中国移民人口不断增长地区的小市场。

切好装盘的新裕利烤火鸡。AN RONG XU FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Mr. Chan said that when he was young, he tried to avoid working at his family’s restaurant on Thanksgiving because it was so busy with customers picking up their turkeys. Now he is looking forward to continuing the turkey tradition at his new location — though, he acknowledged, it’s not his favorite dish.

约翰·陈说，年轻时，他尽量避免感恩节期间在自家店内工作，因为那里的顾客都忙着买火鸡。现在，他期待着在新店里延续火鸡的传统——尽管他承认，这不是他最喜欢的菜。

“I don’t actually prefer it over my Italian neighbors’ turkey,” Mr. Chan said. “I like how they do turkey, and they tell me they like my turkey.”

“实际上，我还是更喜欢我们意大利邻居的火鸡，“陈先生说。“我喜欢他们做火鸡的方式，可他们告诉我，他们喜欢我做的火鸡。”

作者：Cathy Erway