外刊逐句精读｜《经济学人》：老干妈为何风靡全球？｜CATTI一级译员外刊精读｜M

外刊精读 |《老干妈》全文逐句翻译：

The rise of chilli crisp is a study in how foods become fads

辣椒酱的兴起可以让我们研究食物如何风靡一时

In lockdown, people in the West discovered an age-old Chinese condiment

译文：封城期间，西方人发现了存在已久的中国调味料

重点词汇：

chilli crisp：辣椒酱

Pepper:n.甜椒

Jalapeno:n.墨西哥甜椒

Fad：n.一时狂热

Be all the rage:风靡一时

Computer games are all the rage.

Lockdown:封城

Age-old:adj.古老的，存在已久的

Condiment:n.调味料

第1段：

For some, cooking during lockdowns was a chance to try out the kind of time-consuming, intricate food preparation that the rush of ordinary life makes impossible. Endless loaves of sourdough were produced, along with bubbling kombucha. For others, it was an experience of drudgery.Making three meals a day, especially if your diners included small children, was tedium defined—an endless loop of eggs and beans and eggs and toast and beans and toast and eggs.

译文：对于一些人来说，封城期间做饭是一个机会，即尝试费时、复杂的食物准备的机会，平常匆忙的生活中不可能拥有这种机会。无尽的酸面包和冒泡的康普茶被做出来。（即前文说的费时复杂的食物）。 对另一些人来说，这是一种乏味的经历。一天做三顿饭,尤其你的就餐者包括小孩时，那真是定义了什么叫做无聊——无尽的鸡蛋、豆子、鸡蛋、吐司、豆子、吐司、鸡蛋循环。

段落大意：就做饭而言，疫情封城期间，不同的人又不同体验。

重点词汇：

Try out sth.使用某物

Tryout：n.（体育项目）选拔

Intricate:adj.错综复杂的 very complicated and detailed

Rush:n.忙碌

Book now and avoid the last-minute rush

loaf：一条（面包），复数loaves French loaf:n.法式长棍面包 = baguette

Dough:n.生面团

 sourdough :n.酸面团 ,用酸面团做的面包

uncooked dough that is left to ferment before being used to make bread.

Kombucha:n.康普茶，红茶菌

Drudgery:n.乏味的工作， drudge：n.做乏味工作的人

Diner:n.就餐者

tedium：n.枯燥乏味

tedious：adj.枯燥乏味的

Define:v.给...下定义

I’ll now try to define the term ‘popular culture’.

Loop:n.循环

例句分析：

For some ,cooking during lockdowns was a chance to try out the kind of time-consuming, intricate food preparation that the rush of ordinary life makes impossible.

第2段：

Enter condiments. They satisfied both tribes. For the enthusiasts, it was a chance to make the dips and drizzles usually provided by the local deli. For the weary, a jar of something spicy or sour was an easy way to enliven the umpteenth cheese toastie. Chilli crisp—a glowing red oil, heady with chilli and heavy with crisp fragments of garlic and shallots as well as fermented black beans and sesame—became the sauce of the moment. The place it has secured in many fridge doors since then hints at how foods become fashionable.

译文：

调味料登场。它们可以满足前面提到的两种人。对做饭爱好者来说，这是一个自己制作蘸酱和液态调味料的机会，（这些蘸酱和调味料）通常由当地熟食店提供。对于厌倦做饭的人，一罐辣辣的或酸酸的调味料，很容易给做了无数次的烤芝士三明治增加风味。

辣椒酱成为了正在风靡的调味料——一种亮红的油，辣椒味浓郁，这种酱的原料里有大量的大蒜、红葱头、发酵的黑豆（豆豉）和芝麻。从封城以来，它（老干妈）在冰箱门上占据的一席之地，暗示着食物是怎么变流行的。

段落大意：引出本文主角：老干妈 引出本文主题：老干妈的兴起 揭示了食物如何流行起来

重点词汇：

Enter:v.（舞台）某人上场

Tribe：n.（行为相同的）一群人

The particularly unpleasant tribe who argue over the splitting of restaurant bills

Dip:n.蘸酱

Drizzle:n.毛毛雨，细雨 n.琳的调味料

Deli:n.熟食店，熟食柜台 = delicatessen

delicacy :n.珍馐，佳肴 = delicious adj.美味的

Weary:adj.厌倦的，疲惫的

Enliven:v.使...更有生气 enlarge:v.使...更大，扩大

umpteenth：第无数次的

Umpteen：很多，大量

Toastie:三明治 cheese toastie:烤芝士三明治

Heady:adj.醇厚的，令人陶醉的

A heady smell is pleasantly strong and seems to affect you strongly

Garlic:n.大蒜

Shallot:n.红葱头

Ferment black beans:豆豉

Hint :v.暗示，透露 hint at sth.

The Minister hinted at a possible chance of heart.

例句解析：

Chilli crisp—a glowing red oil, heady with chilli and heavy with crisp fragments of garlic and shallots as well as fermented black beans and sesame—became the sauce of the moment.

第3段：

People in China may have been bemused by the revelatory joy with which those in countries such as America seized on chilli crisp. They have been eating varieties of the stuff for centuries. Lao Gan Ma, made in the south-western province of Guizhou, is the most famous brand. Its founder, Tao Huabi, started selling noodles coated with the sauce in 1989, setting up a factory a few years later. Her face peers out sternly from every label on the 1.3m bottles（that） the company says it now produces （1.3m bottles）a day. (Heinz’s plant in the Netherlands makes about 10m bottles of ketchup a week.)

译文：

美国这些国家的人突然关注辣椒酱，带着一种发现新事物的喜悦，中国人可能对这种喜悦感到不理解。几个世纪以来，他们（中国人）吃各种各样的辣椒酱。老干妈，产自西南省份贵州，是最著名的品牌。它的创始人陶华碧，在1989年开始卖添加了自制辣椒酱的面条，几年后建立了工厂。据老干妈公司所说，他们现在一天生产130万瓶，陶华碧的脸在130万个瓶子的每个标签上严肃地凝视着。（亨氏在荷兰的工厂每周生产大约1000万瓶番茄酱。）

段落大意：老干妈简介：总部，创始人及发展史，产量。

重点词汇：

Bemused:adj.茫然地，困惑的 bemused by sth

revelatory：adj.启示性的revelation:n.被揭示的真相,意想不到的新发现

Making people aware of something that they did not know before

Example：To many members of her audience , these performances must have come as a revelation.

seized on sth.：突然关注某事物

Variety:n.种类，品种

coat vt.给……涂上一层 coat sth. With sth.给某物裹上一层某物

Suger-coated :adj.裹上糖衣，粉饰过的

peer：凝视 peer through/out

Stern:adj.严厉的

“Everyone who picks a jar up must face the stern look of a short-haired woman”

Heinz:n.亨氏

Ketchup:n.番茄酱

第4段：

It took a pandemic to bring the delicacy to the rest of the world’s attention. Chilli crisp had many of the necessary characteristics to be a hit. It is spicy, but not overly so. It is delicious slathered on noodles, as originally intended, but it can also be added to fried eggs and other dishes familiar to Americans.It satisfies humans’ love of crispy foods, rooted in an evolutionary preference since crunchiness is often an indicator of freshness.

译文：

一场疫情，把这种美味（老干妈）带到了世界其他国家的目光之下。辣椒酱具有许多受欢迎的必要特征。它满足了人类对酥脆食物的喜爱，这种喜爱源于进化偏好，因为爽脆通常是新鲜的标志它辛辣，但是不过头。给面条涂上厚厚的一层老干妈很美味，就像它最初的打算那样（指陶华碧最初卖的是加了自制酱的面条），但老干妈同样可以加到煎蛋和其他美国人熟知的食物里。

段落大意：

辣椒酱风靡的原因：适度辣，很百搭，酥脆感

重点词汇：

It takes sth. To do sth.做某事需要花费（时间，努力等）

It took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust to the dark

slather：v.给…涂抹厚厚的一层

hit：n.大受欢迎的事物 a hit show/musical

It is the public who decide whether a film is a hit or a flop

Overly:adj.过分的

flop：失败，不成功

Fried egg:n.煎蛋

Poached egg:水煮荷包蛋

Boiled egg:n.水煮蛋

Scrambled egg:炒蛋

Root: be rooted in sth.起源于某事物

Evolutionary:adj.进化的

crunchiness：n.爽脆crunchy :n.爽脆的

例句分析：

It is delicious slathered on noodles, as originally intended, but it can also be added to fried eggs and other dishes familiar to Americans.

第5段：

Usually tastemakers visit restaurants and interview chefs to immerse themselves in what people are cooking and eating, says Kevan Vetter of McCormick’s Flavour Forecast, which predicts and influences which tastes become popular. In lockdown that was no longer possible. Instead they had to watch what cooks, both home and professional, were making via social media. The answer, along with banana bread, was chilli crisp.

译文：

味好美口味预测栏目的Kevan Vetter说，通常，口味引领者会去餐厅、采访厨师，让自己沉浸在人们正在烹饪和吃的食物中。味好美公司预测并影响哪些口味会流行。封城期间这不再可能发生。（指线下去餐厅）

而他们不得不通过社交媒体观看家庭和职业厨师在做什么。

答案就是辣椒酱还有香蕉面包很火。

段落大意：封城期间探店受阻，引领饮食时尚的人转而在社交媒体上探索趋势，而辣椒酱就成为了最新趋势。

重点词汇：

tastemaker：引领时尚者 trendsetter

Immerse:v.使...沉浸于 immerse oneself in sth.专注于某事

McCormick：n.味好美

Flavour Forecast：味好美公司的一个栏目，用于预测什么口味会变得流行

第6段：

Today’s question is not whether people will keep eating it. The liberation of post-pandemic dining has not dulled the delight of the condiment.The East Asian population in America and Britain is growing. Many new brands have joined Lao Gan Ma.Like salsa, which once seemed exotic, chilli crisp is set to become a pantry staple.

译文：

当下的问题不是人们会不会继续吃辣椒酱。疫情后用餐的解放没有使调味料（辣椒酱）带来的快乐减轻。美国和英国的东亚人口都在增加。 许多新品牌加入了老干妈。就像一度被视为异国风情的莎莎酱，辣椒酱有可能成为食品橱柜里的常客。

段落大意：

后疫情时代，辣椒酱依然可能是西方餐桌上的常客

重点词汇：

Liberation:n.解放 liberate v.解放 = emancipate / emancipation

Dine:v.用餐，进餐

Dull：v.减轻，使...迟钝

set：有可能的   be set to do sth

I was just set to go when the phone rang

Salsa:n.莎莎酱

Exotic：adj.异域风味的

pantry：食品橱柜，茶水间

staple：主要产品，主要食物

第7段：

The question is whether amateurs will keep making it. Nobody bothers making ketchup: as a condiment is assimilated, people develop a taste for the mass-produced version. And in the case of chilli crisp, Ms Tao might argue that the commercial option is as authentic as it gets.

译文：

问题是业余厨师会不会继续制作辣椒酱。没有人会费心去做番茄酱:随着一种调味料被同化吸收，人们发展出一种批量生产版本的口味。至于辣椒酱，陶华碧女士可能会说批量生产的版本也达到了尽可能正宗的水平。（即批量化生产的和纯手工制作的区别不大）。

段落大意：问题在于非专业厨师是否会继续做辣椒酱，毕竟大家普遍都偏好现成的酱料。

重点词汇：

Assimilate:v.同化

Mass-produce:v.批量生产

In the case of sth.就某事而言

Sth. Is as adj. As it gets = sth. Is as adj.as anything can be

As good as it gets 达到了能达到的最好水平

It’s not a great restaurant , but in this part of the city,it’s as good as it gets.