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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 “And so what is the strangest thing that you have beenforced to eat over there?” With “Are you allowed to date your students?” as anear runner-up, this has proved to be the one question which friends andrelatives have asked me most persistently over the years. The cadence in thatclause – “have been forced” – speaks volumes for their lack of faith in myculinary bravery. Presumably, they imagine a great banquet rather like in anon-politically correct adventure movie in which the natives enthusiasticallyslurp up monkey brains straight from the skull, crunch down praying mantises orother unspeakable delicacies, whilst the foreigner watches on fidgety and aghast. 这些年，我的朋友和亲戚一直问我的一个问题是：“你在那里不得不吃、最怪的食物是啥？”紧接着的一个问题就是“允许你和学生约会吗？”这个问题里的“不得不”说明他们对我在吃上的勇敢缺乏信心。也许人们想象的是政治立场有问题的电影里的饕餮大餐，中国人在滋滋有味的吸着猴脑，咂着螳螂或其它难以启齿的佳肴，而旁边的外国人则是惊愕的看客。 The truth is that I have only had a couple of irksomemeals over the years, and my burgeoning waistline surely bears testimony to thefact that I can consume Shaanxi food with every bit as much savour as localpeople. The two most awkward moments came early on in the sojourn here. Firstof all, under the duress of my head of division who hoped to secure me a freegratis Mandarin tutor and potential wife in one fowl swoop, I initially spent agood deal of time in the company of a well-known television presenter fromXianyang. As she intermittently worked as the in-house food critic for aprovincial TV station this should have boded well. 事实在于这几年来，让我讨厌的食品没几样。我越来越粗的腰围证明我完全和当地人一样在享受着陕西美食。我在这里的时候曾发生过两件最尴尬的事，先是我的部门领导想一下子给我找个不要钱的汉语老师，然后还有可能成为我的老婆。起初我和一位来自咸阳的有名电视节目主持人相处过一段时间，她为一家省级电视台不定期的主持家庭美食节目，这本来是件好事。 “ZZ,” as I shall call her, regularly drove me fromcity park to city lake in her glossy black Buick to the strains of the latestJay Chou CD. All the while she would be chanting mnemonics and giving tipsabout how to master each of the tones in the Chinese language. This much wastolerable, but I eventually came to dread what each meal-time in her companywould bring. The fact that she claimed that eating chicken’s feet was not muchdifferent from eating its wings took a little adjustment for me to accept.Although I would never share her love of the poetically-monickered “phoenixpaws,” we could develop an attitude of mutual forbearance. She admitted thatfor all the time she had spent on location in France, she still could notstomach claret and for that matter was not especially fond of bonbons,patisserie, éclairs or anything overly sweet. 胡宗锋与罗宾在其陕西凤翔县老家的农家乐 我在此称她为“张Z”，她经常开着自己闪亮的黑别克，放着周杰伦最新的CD，带我逛城里的公园和湖区。她一直在给我讲记忆的方法，告诉我掌握汉语四声的窍门。这还可以忍受，但我最后还是害怕起了每一次和她吃饭时上的菜。她说其实吃鸡爪和吃鸡翅差不多，这让我很难接受。虽然我永远不会分享她对颇有诗意名称的“凤爪”的爱，但我们还能相互容忍。她承认在法国拍外景时，她适应不了红葡萄酒，也不是特别喜欢法式糕点、糖果、泡芙和其它过甜的东西。 One time, we caught up in the Hi-Tech District withthree of her senior school classmates who had made the short hop over the WeiRiver for the evening. After a series of palatable cold dishes, the waitresshobbled in with what could only be described as a noisome terracotta cauldronemitting sharp chilli fumes. When the lid was removed from the vessel ZZproclaimed that this was the shared favourite of the trio – turtle, snake andpigeon broth. The glass lazy Susan was rotated slowly and each took turns toremove a chunk of reptile or amphibian. Their choice was all too conspicuousfor me as the so-called “turtle” turned out to be a red-eared terrapin withtraces of shell and the distinctively marked nape region still attached. Theribs of the snake, meanwhile, curved around in great arcs and the diners usedonly their teeth to de-flaginate these natural skewers. 有一次，我们在晚上和她三位高中同学在高新开发区聚，那三个同学是从渭河对面赶来的。在上了一系列可口的凉菜后，服务员端上来了一个吱吱响着、冒着呛人的辣椒气味的陶瓷汽锅。锅盖打开后，张Z说这就是大家最爱吃的“三宝”——炖乌龟、蛇和鸽子。桌子上的玻璃转盘在慢慢地转动着，每个人依次夹一块爬行动物或是两栖动物。她们的选择对我来说过分了，因为那只乌龟是一只长着红耳朵、带着龟壳的淡水龟，有显著标记的脖颈还连在一起。蛇的骨肉被做成了一块块的弧形，吃的人用牙就可以剔掉那些天然的蛇刺。 The movement of the bowl in my direction triggered ashudder, which was deferred into an abdominal clench. When all eyes were on me,I riddled my chopsticks through the soup anxious to find a gobbet that wasunmistakably squab. This task having been accomplished, the portion of leg layatop my rice-bowl for several minutes. All of a sudden, ZZ clapped her handsand the waitress returned to remove the main dish which was barelyhalf-touched. As she later explained: “the sauce was over-seasoned with chillipods. How could we possibly have enjoyed that meat?” 当汽锅朝我转来的时候，我开始发抖，随之引起了我的胃痉挛。当大家都看着我的时候，我的筷子在汤里翻着，特想找一块乳鸽。这个任务终于完成了，鸽子腿在我碗里的米饭上面放了好几分钟。突然，张Z拍了拍手，服务员返回来端走了几乎还没有碰的主菜。张后来解释说：“汤里放的辣椒太多，让人怎么吃？” Days afterwards, I relayed the experience to my boss,who appeared just as surprised by the choice of fare: “For goodness sake,they’re from Guanzhong, not Guangdong. What is she thinking?” There is an oldsaying that residents of Guangdong (formerly Canton) will “eat anything withlegs except for tables and anything which flies except for aeroplanes.” This didnot deter her from securing an invitation for me to spend the subsequentChinese New Year with ZZ and her family. Their selection of venue should haveraised suspicions. Instead of opting for the four-star hotels downtown, theyinstead preferred the more sedate surroundings of an Eco-restaurant, a greatglasshouse enclosing a simulated rainforest encircled by a number of privatedining rooms. The mélange of plastic palm trees and decidedly un-exotichouseplants was almost comical, not to mention the pools which teemed withgoldfish and shubunkins where flesh-eatingAmazonian piranhas ought to have been. 几天后，我给我的领导讲了这件事，她也对这感到惊讶，说：“天哪，她们可都是关中人，不是广东人，她在想啥呢？”关中人有一句老话，说广东人“有腿的，除了桌子什么都吃；会飞的，除了飞机什么都吃。”但这并没有影响她在后来的中国新年时邀请我和张Z及其家人聚会。这次她们选的地方肯定引起了我的怀疑，她们没有选择城里的四星级饭店，而是选了一家周围环境更为静怡的生态饭店。那是一个巨大的温室，里面有仿拟的热带雨林，四周围绕着用餐的包间。塑料棕榈树和没有异国情调的室内植物显得很滑稽，更不用提那些满是金鱼的小池子和朱文金以及应该呆在亚马逊河里吃肉的水虎鱼了。 While I waited to receive the text message telling methe number of our room, the maitre d beckoned me across a hemp-strungbridge towards the rear of the building. “If there is anything you fancy,please tell the head of your party,” he said, “it can be arranged; no problem.”I am not sure whether I expected to be shown cocktail lists or an ambientcabinet of desserts or whatever else. This annex turned out to be a veritabledelicatessen of tropical species. I had by now grown accustomed to seeingcatfish, turtles, and giant frogs (known colloquially as tianji or“field chicken”) on display in aquaria within the fish and meats section of thelocal supermarket. This was something else. In one direction, there were giantsnails clinging fast to the inside of their tanks. To the other were sea-slugsbobbing around lackadaisically. The centrepiece of the display was a coldcounter made up of what must have been a rink-ful of crushed ice. One could noteven begin to recognize most of the species which were strewn about in fillets.Then, I saw it and gasped … half an alligator. The creature had been chopped intwo just above the waist and its lower haunches lay pathetically along the ice,the tail drooping in the direction of the floor. 在我等手机短信通知我具体包间的时候，大堂总管招呼我走过一座草搭桥，到大厦的后面。“要是有你喜欢的，就告诉你们的头，”他说：“都可以按派，没问题。”我不知道自己想要一份鸡尾酒的菜单还是想要几份甜点，亦或是其它什么。这一次的见识后来证明是货真价实的热带物种的现成品。我现在在当地超市的鱼肉橱窗里见到鲶鱼、乌龟和牛蛙（当地也叫田鸡）已经是见怪不怪了。但这次不同，一是有龟缩在壳里的大蜗牛，二是有懒洋洋乱爬的海蛞蝓。餐桌中间的摆设是个用一堆碎冰拼成的冷盘，人还没来得及认全上面被切成片的东西，我就又被吓得屏住了呼吸……我看到了半条短鼻鳄鱼，那鳄鱼被从腰部切成了两半，下半身被可怜的放在冰上，尾巴朝地上垂着。 As I stood there, wondering what had happened to thehead, front legs and torso and whether or not the rest would not be served upto us later, my mobile beeped. It was an agitated text from ZZ, delayed by overtwenty minutes owing to the heavy volume of New Year’s greetings winging theirway across the networks. This was my cue to leave and to remind myself toremind my hosts that this year’s resolution was a vow of vegetarianism. 我站在那里，不知道它的头、前腿、身子都到哪里去了，是不是剩下的就不给我们上了。我的手机响了，是张Z发来的短信，由于新年问候挤满了网络，她的问候迟到了快二十多分钟。这刚好为我离开提供了理由，也提醒我对主人说我今年的新年决心是发誓吃素。 The most complicatedcharacter of them all 笔划最复杂的汉字 The previous chapter-let was meant as a touch ofbravado. By and large Shaanxi people are conservative in their eating habits,and conform to the stereotype of the northern Chinese as being lovers of spicy,salty and oily food. Although the range of ingredients available and thevariety of dishes have diversified enormously in the past thirty five yearscertain local traits remain. Fiery chilli can be consumed as a course on itsown, such as in the appetizer guo kui – an unleavened bread-cake thesize and shape of which are customarily likened to a pan lid. Once sliced,still-warm guo kui will naturally part into horizontal seams which cryout to be filled with hot paste. This is not the only gustatory challengelikely to fell outsiders. Small cafes are expected to supply their clientelewith bowls of garlic cloves, as chewing on the raw condiment is meant tocleanse the palate and keep one’s teeth clean in preparation for a meal.Sweetmeats are taken sparingly. Pork remains the most widely consumed meat. 前面的这一小段话纯属虚张声势，总体说来，陕西人的饮食习惯还是很保守的，符合西北人的口味，爱吃辣的、咸的和油腻的食品。虽然在过去的三十五年来，饮食成分和菜肴的花样变化巨大，但有些当地特色依旧被保留了下来。如很开胃的锅盔——是一种面饼，形状和大小通常像锅盖。锅盔一切开，就会冒着热气，裂开一条缝等着往里面夹辣子。这对于外地人来说还不算什么，有的小店会为顾客准备一碗碗的蒜瓣，吃生蒜可以净化口腔，为准备吃饭洁齿。人们吃水果不多，猪肉仍旧是人们消费最多的肉食品。 The persistence of pork-eating is nothing exceptional,since in the countryside all but the poorest of families and those who followedthe Buddhist practice of vegetarianism would raise a pig, feed it up for twelvemonths and then have it slaughtered and quartered in preparation for ChineseNew Year. Each part of the beast should be utilized from the ears to thetrotters and tail. In fact, to this day a dutiful village wife is expected topossess the ability to make a miniscule portion of meat go a long way. QishanCounty in the west of the Guanzhong Plain is lauded for being the birthplace ofsaozi, a ubiquitous seasoning typically mixed into noodles. Thiscombines fine lardons (the fat being as much prized as the flesh) withingredients which are not a so great a premium, such as vinegar and chillis. Thrifty saozinoodles are a tried and tested aid to matrimonial harmony. The hardworkinghusband can return to the stove for seconds and even thirds, while the wifebeams on safe in the knowledge that she has barely scratched into the flitchstored in the meat-safe. 爱吃猪肉没什么奇怪的。因为在乡下，除了家里穷或者是信佛吃素，家家都会养猪。养十二个月，猪长大了，就把猪一杀，准备过年。猪身上的每一个部分，从耳朵、蹄子到尾巴都有用。实际上直到今天，一个本分的乡下女人还得有肉少但却吃得时间长的本事。关中平原西部的岐山县被誉为是臊子肉的发祥地，臊子肉是当地人吃面的普通佐料。臊子肉里有精肥肉（肥肉和瘦肉一样受人青睐）和其它的材料如醋和辣椒。会不会做臊子面可以看出夫妻的婚姻是否和谐。辛劳的丈夫回到家里不一会儿，满脸笑容的妻子就会知趣的伸手到橱柜里去拿肉。 Visitors from beyond Xi’an may be puzzled the firsttime they scan a menu in the city. It is common throughout China to use thestandard character for “meat” (rou) as shorthand for pork, and then adda suffix to denote the flesh of other animals. For instance, niurou isbeef and jirou chicken. The Xi’anese push this one stage further andeuphemistically call pork “big meat” or darou. The sight of the Mandarincharacter for “pig” (zhu) is thought to be deeply unsettling to membersof the minority Muslim population. Thus it is expurgated from signage in thedowntown area. By this rule, the inhabitants of Bianjiacun must considerthemselves suburban if not borderline rustic, since the plot on itsnorthwesterly corner of the district is occupied by the “White Deer Plain PigFeet” restaurant. The signature dish speaks for itself - basins of steamingpork knuckles. The joints are braised for so long that the coppery-complexionedskin starts to slip away from the bone and cartilage as soon as the towel whichkeeps them moist is removed. 西安以外的人第一次看到这个城市的菜单有可能感到迷惑不解。在中国，通常人们说“肉”就是指“猪肉”，前面加一个字来指其它动物的肉，如，“牛肉”和“鸡肉”。西安人更进一步，把猪肉委婉的叫“大肉”，汉字的“猪”出现会被认为是对少数民族穆斯林的极大不敬，所以在市区里没有这样的标识。按照这个原则，边家村的人一定认为自己不是在农村边上就是在郊外，所以其西北角有一个餐厅叫“白鹿原猪蹄坊”。餐厅的招牌菜如其店名所示——是一盆热气腾腾的猪蹄。猪蹄炖的时间很长，只要将盖着的保湿毛巾揭掉，那古铜色的猪皮就会从骨头和软骨上往下滑。 The belief that local food preserves andcrystallizes the spirit of an area is strenuously upheld by the Xi’an writerChen Zhongshi. He has frequently incorporatedculinary references into his prose as well as composing articles which detailthe proper method for, and significance of, Shaanxi cooking. His essay ‘How toMake Jiaotuan' reveals how unapologetically proud he still is of hiscountry roots. For him the epitome of Guanzhong home fare is a bowl of stodgy jiaotuan(no direct English translation springs to mind), an emulsion of flour and waterwhich in terms of texture lies somewhere between thick porridge and poorly-settofu. The simple appearance of the dish belies the arduous process of additionand mixing by which the proper consistency is achieved. Chen ratherromantically sees preparing jiaotuan as an opportunity for marriedcouples to roll-up up their sleeves together. Lacking special ingredients thecharm, in the first instance, resides in the domestic scene it establishes:- 作家陈忠实坚信，一个地方的食品能保持和彰显这个地方精气神。他经常在自己的散文里提到当地的吃食，并详细讲解做法和所蕴含的意义。他的“打搅团”一文就显示出为自己的乡土出身而骄傲。 Thenewly-milled cornflour is sprinkled into an iron pot of boiling water. All thewhile it is stirred with a wooden ladle - clockwise for a short time and thencounter-clockwise for a moment. The cornflour should be sprinkled evenly;otherwise, it might thicken into lumps of dough. The fire beneath the potshould be kept roaring. As the fire roars beneath and the people sprinkle andstir above an atmosphere of warmth and enthusiasm is engendered. Usually, ittakes the harmonious cooperation between a married couple to create amarvellous pot of jiaotuan. The process of making jiaotuanmanifests the warmth and love between a couple in the countryside. When acouple row, if the husband or wife wishes to end the cold war he or she maypropose that they make jiaotuan. The husband and wife will cooperateclosely within the narrow space between the fire below and the pot above. Whenthe jiaotuan is made their intimacy will also be restored. 把新磨下的苞谷面，在滚开的铁锅里面抛洒，一边撒着，一边用木勺搅动。顺时针搅一阵子，再逆时针搅一阵子。苞谷面再顺时针一把一把均匀的撒下去，不匀则容易结成搅不开的干面疙瘩。灶锅底下的火不能灭断，灶下大火烧着，锅里撒着搅着，紧张而又热烈，一般均需夫妻二人同时搭手默契配合，才能打出一锅好搅团。搅团这种饭食的操作过程，常常可以看到农村夫妻的温情和爱意。夫妻间闹了气儿，男方或女方企图想结束冷战状态，便会提议打搅团。在灶下和锅台上夫妻的紧密配合中，搅团打成了，夫妻也就重修旧好了。 ——引自陈忠实 “打搅团” The mystique surrounding the dish is flimsy, though.Ye Guangqin, originally a native of Beijing and a descendent of the ManchuRoyal Family, badgered Mr. Chen to introduce her to authentic Shaanxi jiaotuan.He records her reaction thus: “While each of us fed ourselves till our bellieswere fit to burst, Ms. Ye wore a vacant and sighed: ‘This is justsome pap you’d feed to a pet cat!”’ The taste is nothing epicurean. It is besteaten at home, where it nourishes the kind of atmosphere Chen describes, andhas no place on an a la carte menu. 围绕搅团的奥秘也不尽然一致。叶广芩是北京人，是满清皇室的后裔，她曾让陈忠实为她介绍正宗的陕西搅团。陈忠实记录她对搅团的反应是： 不料，我等吃得满头大汗口香腹胀仍不想丢碗筷，叶氏却一脸茫然，感叹：“我就一种感觉-------猫吃糨子嘛! ——引自陈忠实 “打搅团” 搅团的谈不上是美味，最合适在家里吃，吃的是陈忠实描写的那种气氛，在菜单上是没有地位的。 Here and elsewhere, Chen Zhongshi does manage to hiton a truism - no common person is really in their heart a gastronome – we justfeel an attachment to what is close to home. Near the end of the essay hewrites of how, having moved away from the banks of the River Ba he temporarilyquit eating this basic fare. Nevertheless:- 不论是在这篇还是在其它散文里，陈忠实的确是说了一个大实话——老百姓的心思其实不在美食上——只不过是感到一种家庭氛围。在这篇散文的结尾，他写到在离开灞水河岸后，他一时吃不上搅团了，然而： ...after a few years I unexpectedly started to miss Jiaotuan. As you grow in ageand time passes away, I developed a kind of nostalgic feeling and memory forthis food once I had grown fed up of it. 过了几年，却想吃搅团了，真是不曾料到。随着年岁递增，对这种曾经厌腻透了的饭食更多了一层回味与依恋。 ——引自陈忠实 “打搅团” Elsewhere, Mr. Chen has observed the close connectionbetween Shaanxi folk and another genus of foodstuff made from wheat flour - thenoodle. Wheat, at least if compared with rice, has the reputation for beingsomething of a "lazy" crop. One has to go fairly far south in thisprovince, to areas such as Yang County in Hanzhong, to witness water buffalotrudging through padi fields tugging a plough after them. Thriving on the localloess soil and calling for intensive labour only at harvest time, Chen haselsewhere written of how the durability of the wheat noodle is in close concertwith the tenacity of the Guanzhong people. The French have a word for this: terroir.Terroir refers to the phenomenon whereby the landscape and terrain of aparticular locale yields ingredients and dishes which can be seen to epitomizethe character and lifestyle of its inhabitants. All country people, whatevertheir nationality, have some experience of this. Growing up in the rain-sodden YorkshireWolds I was constantly reminded of how the recipes for our typicaldishes were spawned from the poverty of past generations. My parents couldafford meat on most days, though our own wheat-flour staple, the Yorkshirepudding, had its origins as a starter designed to fill the children up in theevent that only a measly joint might be laid before them as an entree. Slow-cookedin lard, the batter of flour, eggs and milk combined those articles which couldbe cheaply bartered or cadged. Importantly it possessed what the Japanese havetermed the umami flavour. A longing for meat is in effect extirpated becausethe palate has been tantalized with something savoury first. 在另外一篇散文里，陈先生阐述了陕西人与面条（另一种用面粉制作的食物）的紧密关系。小麦至少和稻谷比起来，名声是一种比较“懒”的作物。在陕西，只有到南边如汉中的洋县，人们才能看到水牛拉着犁在稻田里耕耘。生长在当地黄土地上的人只有收获的季节才忙活。陈忠实也描述过小麦面条的韧性与关中人的韧劲是何等的相似。法语里有一个形容这种情形的词曰“风土”，“风土”指的从是一个地方的景色和地形带来的作物和饮食，可以看出这个地方的人的性格和生活方式。所有的乡下人，不论是那个国家的都有这种体会。我是在英国约克郡的沃尔茨长大的，我常常会想起那里因为以前的贫穷而衍生出来的普通食谱。我的父母亲可以做到几乎每天有肉吃，我们的面粉主食是约克郡布丁，发源于桌上的主菜太少时可以让孩子吃饱。做法是把面粉、鸡蛋和牛奶调成糊状，用猪油慢慢的炸。这些东西都很便宜，重要的是味道有点像日本的“鲜味”，会让人不去想肉，因为味觉早已被先前的开胃品调动起来了。 People from other parts of the UK trivialize theYorkshire pudding as a side to roast meat and vegetables, unaware of how itonce fuelled hard agricultural slog. I am glad that the Chinese have learnt topresent their food culture in imaginative formats. So entrenched is the noodlein the popular psyche that it has made the giddy leap into the realms ofsyndicated entertainment. When a variety show replicating the format of Britain’sGot Talent was piloted by CCTV in 2011, each province aired the regionalaudition heats. The edited highlights were to become the regular fodder for thesmall TVs hung in city buses and for the outsized outdoor big screens onuniversity campuses. Instead of training puppies to somersault or perfectingbodily contortions, a great many of the runners-up opted to showcasetraditional skills. The Shaanxi noodle-puller became a legendary also-ran.Scarcely breaking into a sweat he pummelled a huge blob of wheat flour dough,turning and knotting it to make it supple. Finally, he entered the stretchingphase – folding and pulling the ball into an ever-more complicated cat’scradle of strands. Once, he had achieved the magic figure of 164cables in the bunch, his assistants joined him on the stage and helped to dragthe noodles to a staggering length of around eight metres without anybreakages. Despite being showered with applause, the chef’s moment in thespotlight was fleeting. His follow-up routine involved preparing daxiaomianor the hand-sliced noodle. The chef clutched a pillow-sized hunk of dough andwith a rapid wrist action, used a peeling knife to flay shards of the materialinto a bowl several metres away. Clearly, seeing the limited appeal of hisexploits beyond the kitchen, the judges buzzed him off. 英国其它地方的人把约克郡布丁当做是烤肉和蔬菜的配料，并不知道这曾经一度刺激过艰苦的农业劳作。我高兴的是中国人展现自己饮食文化的方式很富有想象力，面条在人们心里的位置如此之重，以至于这种花哨的面食发展成了一种组合享受。2011年，当“英国达人秀”在中国的中央电视台播出后，出现了各种各样的模仿节目。每个省都在选拔当地的达人，经过剪辑的集锦节目成了挂在城市公交车小电视里的热门，也成了大学校园里户外大屏幕的定期焦点。很多达人不再训练让小狗翻跟头，或者表演完美的人体柔术，而是展现传统的技巧。表演陕西拉面的人虽败犹荣，他先是毫不费力的捶打一大块面团，又搓又揉，使面团柔软。最后进入了拉面阶段，把面团叠起，拉成比翻绳游戏更复杂的线条。在他把手中的面团魔术般的拉成一团有164根的面条时，他的助手上台，帮他把面条托起，面条长度惊人，足有八米长，而且没有一根是断的。虽然台下掌声一片，但这位厨师的风头还是一晃就过去了。接着他上台表演的是“刀削面”，只见那厨师抓着一块枕头大小的面团，随着手腕的快速转动，用一把削刀把面片削飞进几米外的一个碗里。显然，看到他在厨房外的功夫，评委按铃让他下台了。 The readymade, hand-pulled variety of noodle remains afirm favourite in Xi’an. It is not hard to see why when so many kitchens inmodern urban apartments do not have room to swing a cat let alone grapple withanything that has greater elasticity. An uncooked skein may be purchased onmost lanes for loose change – virtually the same price as a carton of the driedinstant alternative - then boiled and heated through, with a fistful of choppedtomatoes and scrambled eggs, chilli paste being an optional extra. My doctor, abachelor from Yulin, insisted that my health would be bettered should I ditchthe rice and opt for a daily dose of noodles. Wang Jun waxed lyrical about howhis father would always wheel his cycle about the precipitous old city,bringing back readymade noodles to heat up on the stove for lunch. Like Chenand his jiaotuan resentment towards something consumed in monotony gaveway to sentiments of nostalgia. I was the catalyst, yet even though he promisedto prepare his favourite recipe at home the results were unexpected. Scarcelyhad I time to blink before the bowl in front of him was empty. Shaanxi folk caneat noodles at breath-taking pace. There is good reason, one can surmise, whyin the local dialect of Guanzhong the for "eating" - theindelicate die - is a homonym for the verb "to hit." Onceserved, noodles have a propensity to vanish with a Hoover-like rapidity,sometimes soundlessly, sometimes with a slurp that is disconcerting to Britishmanners. 各式各样的现成手工面一直是西安人的最爱。这不难理解，当众多城市里的单元房连栓猫的地方都没有时，何谈有更大的空间来干其它事。用一点零钱就可以在大多数巷子里买到一把生面条，价格和买一袋干方便面差不多。然后就可以把面条煮好，加上西红柿炒鸡蛋，油泼辣子就可随意了。我的医生是个来自陕北榆林的单身汉，他一直对我说，要是我不吃米饭，而是每天吃一顿面条，我的身体会更棒。王军给我讲过，他父亲总是会骑着自行车在老城里转悠，然后带回现成的面条，在炉子上一煮就是午饭了。就像陈忠实和他的搅团一样，那种单一的让人曾经厌腻透了的饭食给人的反而是多了一层回味与依恋。 陕西人吃面的速度让人惊讶，那当然是有原因的。在关中方言中，“吃”叫“咥”，这个词也可以指揍人。面只要一端上来，像胡宗锋那样的吃法，不一会儿就没影了。有时他吃的时候没有声音，但有时也吃得有滋有声，实在是不合英国人的礼节。 The Guanzhong Plain can boast dozens of differentrecipes for noodle with every county, if not every town having its own distinctiveshape and method of preparation. Hu County, to the southwest of Xi’an city,specializes in wide strip-like noodles which are served bathed in an emulsionof vinegar, garlic and chopped greens. Dali, in the far east of the province,promotes braised stove-forknoodles as part of its culinary heritage. In Sanyuan, meanwhile, fine noodlesare wound into a knot with a bamboo sliver sometimes being pushed into themiddle so diners have the option of dipping them into soup, saozi or groundchilli paste. This dish was especially prized by that town’s illustrious son,the calligrapher and Nationalist Party statesman Yu Youren (1879-1964). Hewould order it each time he returned home from undertaking official duties inXi’an. Rather poignantly, after the age of seventy he was denied the chance toconserve his own little bit of terroir. Owing to his past loyalty to theregime of Chiang Kai-shek, Yu was compelled to decamp to Taiwan where he livedout his dotages as an exile. 吹个牛，关中平原的各个县，即便不是每个城镇都有自己独特风味的面食，但做面的花样依旧不下几十种。 西安西南边的户县，就以其户县软面而闻名，端上来的时候汤里有醋、蒜和切碎的蔬菜，而最东边的大荔县则有传统风味的炉齿面。在三原县，有煮熟的面条簇拥成团的疙瘩面，有时面中间插个竹片，吃的时候可以浇臊子汤，或是沾着调料吃。三原名人，国民党元老和书法家于右任（1879-1964）就特别喜欢这疙瘩面，每次从任职的西安回故乡，都以吃碗疙瘩面为快事。然而不幸的是，在年过古稀之后，他却再也没有机会保持这种对“风土”的爱好了。由于以前对蒋介石政府的效忠，于右任被胁迫去了台湾，在那里流亡般的度过了自己的晚年。 To misquote Robert Burns, the “great chieftain of thenoodle race” is without doubt the biang biang noodle. Thereis nothing extraordinary about the recipe or taste, though its celebrityextends throughout China. The main ingredient being “belt”-thick bands of doughthis is basically a close cousin to the Hu County noodle. The renown of thedish rests solely upon the complexity of the written form of the characterbiang. The fifty-seven-stroke figure is the subject of several misconceptionswhich have by now become widespread. Some assume that the name captures thesound created as the dough is pounded against the kitchen worktop to facilitatestretching. There is no firm evidence to back this up. In fact, onomatopoeicChinese s – at least in their modern forms – tend to be simple towrite. Another commonly-believed myth holds that the character must be a relicof great antiquity, which innumerable generations of restaurant-proprietorshave copied and vouchsafed through until the present day. This is alsospurious. Biang is not even to be found in the Kangxi Dictionary, thevoluminous wordlist of the Chinese language dating from around three hundredyears ago. As to being impossible towrite, given a little practice biang is not so much a labyrinthinelattice of tiny brushstrokes as a clever compound which can be broken down intobasic everyday characters including "eight," "speak,""heart," "moon," "long," and "horse." Aclassroom rhyme enshrines how it is properly composed:- 套用诗人罗伯特·彭斯的诗来说，“面条一族的伟大首领” 毫无疑问当属 biangbiang面。（罗伯特·彭斯，RobertBurns是苏格兰民族诗人，“哈革斯”Haggis是一种布丁，被称为是苏格兰“国菜”，做法是羊肚包羊肝、羊心和羊肺等。“哈革斯”的流行，据说是受到了罗伯特·彭斯1787年创作的《致哈革斯》Addressto a Haggis一诗的影响。彭斯在该诗中称哈革斯为“布丁一族的伟大首领”Great chieftain o' the puddin-race。后人为了纪念彭斯，定每年1月25日为彭斯之夜（Burns supper），在晚餐时背诵彭斯的《致哈革斯》一诗，并享用哈革斯——译者注） 虽然名扬国内，但biangbiang面的做法和味道没啥特殊的，主要原料就是就是像“裤带”一样的宽面条，基本上是“户县软面”的亲兄弟，其名声在于汉语biang的复杂笔划上。这个57笔划的汉字是由几个字组成的，现在已是广为人知了。有人说此面的名字源于面团在厨房案板被摔打着扯开的响声，但却并没有足够的实据。实际上，汉语中的拟声词至少在现代汉语中写起来很简单。还有一种流行的说法是，这个字是从古代传下来，经过数代餐饮业主的沿用，一直传到了今天。这种说法也不靠谱，在三百多年前收汉字最多的《康熙词典》里也没有这个字。由于没法写，biang字与其说是一个迷宫式的结构，倒不如说是一个巧妙的组合字，可以被分割为几个简单的汉字，包“八”、“言”、“心”、“月”、“长”、和“马”字等。一首儿歌可以帮人记住怎样写这个字： A point rises up to heaven, And the Yellow River hastwo bends. The character"eight" opens its mouth, And the character "speak" walks in. You make a twist, I make a twist You grow, I grow, If we add a horse king in between. The character "heart" forms the base, The character "moon" stands at the side, A hook at the right to hang sesame candies, As we ride a carriage to tour the streets of Xianyang. Simple then. 一点上了天， 黄河两头弯， 八字大张口， 言字往进走， 你一扭我一扭， 你一长我一长， 中间坐个马大王， 心字底月子帮， 留个勾搭挂麻糖； 坐上车车逛咸阳 Myown favoured explanation for the origins of the biang biang noodle isthat the dish itself probably long predated the character, and that the figurewas merely an advertising device concocted to catch the eyes of passingvisitors. At the beginning of the twentieth-century when the Royal Court,including the Guangxu Emperor and his aunt the Dowager Empress, fled fromBeijing and came to Xi’an, a renaissance in local food culture was initiated.Disappointingly, Jung Chang's bestselling revisionist biography of Cixi all butskates over her sojourn in the Western Capital. Bland and Backhouse'scontemporaneous China under the Empress Dowager was hurried to the pressand its Beijing-based compilers did not deign to search out first-handanecdotes concerning that year in the west. Francis Nichols in ThroughHidden Shensi, however, captures a prime example of her tyranny whendissatisfied with the conduct of new staff:- 我个人对biang biang面来源的解释是，在没有这个字很早以前就有这种面了，这个字的发明就是为了广而告之和吸引路人的眼球。二十世纪初，当光绪皇帝和慈禧太后从北京逃到西安后，给当地的饮食文化带来了一次复兴。 令人失望的是，张戎在其为慈禧翻案的畅销传记中，将慈禧在西安的这段时间一笔带过了。濮兰德（J.O.P. Bland）和巴恪思（巴恪思Edmund Backhouse,1874－1944史学界通译为白克浩司，英国人——译者注）合著的《慈禧太后统治下的中国》（又被译为《慈禧外纪》——译者注）因为急于出版，而其北京籍的编辑也没有打算收集慈禧在西安有关轶事的第一首资料。倒是纳柯苏（英文名弗朗西斯·尼科尔斯Francis Nichols 美国记者和探险家——译者注）在其《穿越神秘的陕西》（Through Hidden Shens）一书中，扑捉到了暴君慈禧对新膳不满意时的例证： Twoof the finest chefs in Sian were engaged to provide the imperial meals. Fromthe first the Empress Dowager did not take kindly to their Shensi methods ofcooking. She constantly scolded them and frequently had them punished. Onenight the shed which served as a kitchen caught fire and burned to the ground.The wrath of the Empress Dowager was kindled against the cooks. She had theirheads cut off in the palace court-yard. (Nichols,Through Hidden Shensi, p. 218). 西安两位最好的厨师负责皇室的膳食。从一开始，慈禧太后就不喜欢陕西的烹饪，常训斥和吃法厨师。有天夜里，厨房着火，化为灰烬。慈禧龙颜大怒，归罪于厨师，令人将他们在宫中院内斩首。 ——引自尼科尔斯著《穿越神秘的陕西》第218页 Cixi's ill-temper frequently went hand-in-hand withher hypochondria. Another story recounts how when apparently troubled by agastric ailment, compounded by being made to sit through an incomprehensibleperformance of Shaanxi opera, she demanded to be served something entirelynovel. The chef, no doubt fearing for his head too, fashioned a stew containingcountless tiny boiled dumplings and told the servers to pass on a legend,whereby being served a certain number of dumplings conveyed a propitiousmeaning for the diner. The game was akin to that mainstay of Chineserestaurants in Western countries, the "fortune cookie." Ever anaficionado for dainty things the Dowager Empress was captivated and the cooklived to work another day. 慈禧的坏脾气常常和她的忧郁交织在一起。还有一个故事说，慈禧在观看听不懂的秦腔时，明显感到胃不舒服，就命人上一些她没有吃过的东西。害怕被砍头的厨师就炖了一锅汤，里面有下了许多小饺子，并告诉了侍者一个传说。说吃到多少个饺子，就代表不同的吉祥含义。这种做法有点像西方国家中国餐馆里提供的“幸运饼干”，喜欢美味的慈禧太后被打动了，那个厨师逃过一劫，第二天可以继续干活了。 It is wildly improbable that Cixi herself ever tasted bangbiang mian or that the character was created specifically to appease oramuse her. My instincts lead me to that it could have arisen as arestauranteur's gimmick designed to attract customers either belonging to orfollowing on the heels of the Royal entourage. After all, some diningestablishments such as Tong's Cured Mutton on WesternStreet still market their products on the basis that they once curried favourwith the House of Aisin-Gioro. The wooden board which Xing Tingwei inscribedwith the characters Nian Zhipoin commemoration of the slope where Cixi smelt the aroma of their meatand ordered her carriage be stopped to take a sample has been copied and recopied,gilded and re gilded, to serve as the firm's calling card until timeimmemorial. 慈禧自己不可能尝过biangbiang面，或者发明那个字就是为了取悦她。我的本能让我认为这是那个餐馆老板的花招，目的是为了吸引那些步皇家后尘的顾客。说到底，一些店铺如西大街的“老童家腊羊肉”生意依旧红火，原因在于他们曾被爱新觉罗家族青睐。邢维庭题书的“辇止坡”金字牌匾是为了纪念慈禧太后来到这里的坡后，闻到这家的肉香，立即停辇，品尝之后，赞不绝口。这个传说被人一遍遍的复制，添枝加叶，成了这家不朽的招牌。 Early dynasties had been known to appreciate thenoodles of Chang'an. Du Fu's poemIced Pagoda Leaves is a recipe-cum-panegyric celebratingthe brightly-coloured jade noodle. It does not sound particularly appetizing initself and, one can deduce from the closing meters thatfor the Tang nobility it was the mode of serving and not the costliness of theraw ingredients which singled it out as being appropriate for those of exaltedsocial status:- 早在前期的时候人们在赞誉长安的面了，杜甫的诗“槐叶冷淘”就是在美食谱秘方，赞美光滑如玉的面条。虽然听起来不大有胃口，但从诗的结尾人们可以推断出，在唐代的达官贵人看来，显示尊贵社会身份的是被服务的方式，并非是昂贵的膳食原材料。 To pick the green leaves off the branches of pagodatrees And give them to the cooks in the kitchen 青青高槐叶，采掇付中厨 Chopsticks are reflected in the green Rice is accompanied by asparagus 碧鲜俱照箸，香饭兼苞芦。 It’s colder than rice in the mouth I suggest you have a bite 经齿冷于雪，劝人投此珠 In the distant Dewdrop Hall The noodles are preserved with ice cubes 路远思恐泥，兴深终不渝 By the night the emperor and kings are enjoying thecoolness Well, the food is necessary once in a while. 君王纳凉晚，此味亦时须。 In the age of artificial refrigeration the liang pivariety of cold noodles is now as common as hens eggs. Ice in summer was once ajewel-like commodity since only a few depressed zones in the city, presumablycooled by underground water, were capable of preventing the snow-blocksgathered from the mountains from melting. Ice Lane aroundthe corner from Sweet Well Water Lane springs to mind. Walking through thisnow residential quarter, peopled with less-than-regal barbers and ironmongers,the temperature still drops perceptibly by several degrees, causing one tobutton one's jacket or reach for a sweater. So very distant is the marvel of aTang princess's personal chamber with flocks of fans slipped through aperturesin the wall beating in unison as a pre-modern AC, frantically trying topreserve the solidity of the icy garnish to the jade noodles. 在有人工冷冻的时代，凉皮一样的凉面普通的犹如鸡蛋。夏天的冰曾几何时贵如宝石，因为城里只有几处地方有降温的地下水，能让从山里采来的冰块保持不化。我心里想到的是甜水井巷拐角的冰窖巷，这里现在已成了住宅区，理发和从事五金的商店少。从这走过，温度显然会下降好几度，人不得不扣紧扣子或是披上外套。不远处就是一座唐代公主的闺房，墙上的窟窿有很多扇子在整体的舞动着，宛如还没有步入现代化以前的空调，为了让玉一样的面条保持冰凉而努力着。 （未完待续）…… 微风轩书香【相关链接】 重磅头条◎西北大学胡宗锋和（英）罗宾·吉尔班克中、英文版四本新书在第二十四届国际图书博览会上发布 微风轩头条||贾平凹授权长篇小说《土门》英文版在英国出版【独家】 微风轩头条||杨争光中短篇小说选《老旦是一棵树》将在英国出版 阎安诗集《玩具城》授权英译——附：旁观者的承担——《玩具城》自序 …… 赞是一种鼓励 | 分享是最好的支持 |
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