《经济学人》双语：老干妈等辣椒酱是怎样成为时尚美食的？

原文标题：
World in a dish
Some like it hot
The rise of chilli crisp is a case study in how foods become fads
盘中世界
有人喜欢吃辣

时尚美食怎样炼成的？辣椒酱的兴起是一个案例研究

In lockdown, people in the West discovered an age-old Chinese condiment
在封锁期间，西方人发现了一种源远流长的中国调味品

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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.

在疫情期间，有些人把握住了烹饪的机会，借此机会尝试那些平时因为繁忙而无法尝试的耗时且精细的食物制作，从而创造出别样的美食。

Endless loaves of sourdough were produced, along with bubbling kombucha.

他们烤出了无数美味的酸面包，还酿制了气泡绵密的康普茶。

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.
对于另一些人而言，这段经历则是单调乏味的。每天准备三餐，特别是如果家中有小孩的话，这无疑是一份枯燥乏味的苦差事——鸡蛋、豆子、吐司换着花样搭配。

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Enter condiments. They satisfied both tribes.
调味品应运而生。它们满足了上面两个群体。

For the enthusiasts, it was a chance to make the dips and drizzles usually provided by the local deli.
对于那些热爱烹饪的人而言，他们可以尝试制作各式各样的酱料和调味料，这些原本只能从当地熟食店购买。

For the weary, a jar of something spicy or sour was an easy way to enliven the umpteenth cheese toastie.
对于疲惫不堪的人而言，也可以通过一罐酸辣开胃的调味酱，轻松无限地提升芝士吐司的口感。

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.
辣椒酱——它散发着红艳的光芒，夹杂着辣椒、蒜片和青葱碎末、发酵黑豆和芝麻等多种食材--已成为当下最受欢迎的酱汁。

The place it has secured in many fridge doors since then hints at how foods become fashionable.
它已经成功地成为许多人冰箱里的常客，从此也成为时尚美食的标志。

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People in China may have been bemused by the revelatory joy with which those in countries such as America seized on chilli crisp.
当看到美国等国家的人们如此狂热地追捧辣椒酱时，中国人可能会感到困惑。

They have been eating varieties of the stuff for centuries.
数百年来，中国人一直在品尝各种口味的调料。

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.
老干妈是中国西南部贵州省的著名品牌。它的创始人陶华碧于1989年开始卖辣酱面条，几年后她建立了自己的工厂。

Her face peers out sternly from every label on the 13m bottles the company says it now produces a day. (Heinz’s plant in the Netherlands makes about 10m bottles of ketchup a week.)
她的严肃面孔成为公司标签，也出现在每一瓶老干妈上，据称该公司现在每天生产1300万瓶辣椒酱。（相比之下，亨氏的荷兰工厂每周生产约1000万瓶番茄酱。）

[Paragraph 4]
It took a pandemic to bring the delicacy to the rest of the world’s attention.
直到疫情爆发后，这种美食才引起世界的关注。

Chilli crisp had many of the necessary characteristics to be a hit. It is spicy, but not overly so.
辣椒酱具备成为热门美食的多项必要特征，它辣但辣度适中。

It is delicious slathered on noodles, as originally intended, but it can also be added to fried eggs and other dishes familiar to Americans.
它原本是为了给面条增味而存在，味道极佳。但它也可以被加入到美国人熟悉的煎蛋和其他菜肴中。

It satisfies humans’ love of crispy foods, rooted in an evolutionary preference since crunchiness is often an indicator of freshness.
辣椒酱满足了人类对于脆爽口感的喜爱，这种偏好源于进化过程中的偏好，因为脆度通常是新鲜食物的指标。

[Paragraph 5]
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.
味可美的“味道预测”团队负责预测和影响口味的流行趋势。该团队的凯文·维特表示，通常品鉴大师会去餐厅访问厨师，以深入了解人们正在烹饪和食用的美食。

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.
封锁期间，他们无法亲自采访。因此，他们只能通过社交媒体观看家庭和专业厨师的烹饪过程。结果发现，除了香蕉面包，大家还热衷于辣椒酱。
[Paragraph 6]
Today’s question is not whether people will keep eating it.
如今的问题不在于人们是否会继续食用辣椒酱。
The liberation of post-pandemic dining has not dulled the delight of the condiment.
疫情后餐饮业的复苏并没有减弱这种调味品带来的乐趣。

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.
在美国和英国，东亚人口正在增加。许多新品牌已经加入了老干妈等品牌的行列。就像曾经看起来很奇特的“莎莎酱”一样，辣椒酱即将成为厨房的主打调味品。

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The question is whether amateurs will keep making it.
问题在于业余爱好者是否会继续自制辣椒酱。

Nobody bothers making ketchup: as a condiment is assimilated, people develop a taste for the mass-produced version.
没有人再费心制作番茄酱：当一种调味品被融入大众文化中后，人们开始对大规模生产的辣椒酱产生兴趣。

And in the case of chilli crisp, Ms Tao might argue that the commercial option is as authentic as it gets.
陶女士可能会认为商业才会让辣椒酱变得更正宗。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量562左右）
原文出自：2023年2月25日《The Economist》Culture版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
康普茶（Kombucha），也称为茶菌或蘑菇茶，是一种甜味碳酸饮料。通常由茶叶、糖和一种称为酵母菌和乳酸菌的微生物菌群混合而成。这种饮料的起源可以追溯到中国数百年前，但现在已经在全球范围内变得越来越受欢迎。Kombucha被认为具有一些潜在的健康益处，例如改善肠道健康、增强免疫系统和提供抗氧化剂。同时，这种饮料也因其微醺效果和口感受到了欣赏。

老干妈是中国贵州省的一种辣酱，由陶华碧创立于1984年。陶华碧曾是一位普通的家庭主妇，为了照顾晚晚患病的丈夫，她开始自制辣酱给他调味。她的辣酱逐渐在当地小有名气，1989年开始正式生产销售，并在不断改进口味和包装，逐渐成为了中国辣酱的代表品牌之一。现在，老干妈不仅在中国拥有大量的忠实消费者，还走向了全球市场。老干妈于1997年在中国引起了轰动，其特有的口感和独特的包装设计深受消费者喜爱。现在，老干妈已成为中国最受欢迎的调味品之一，深受全球各地食客的喜爱和追捧。每天能生产超过1300万瓶。

Heinz亨氏公司是在1869年由亨利·约翰·亨氏H.J.Heinz在美国宾夕法尼亚州夏普斯堡创立的，经过一百多年卓有成效的发展，由当时的小农场成为世界最大的营养食品生产商之一。2012年2月，股神巴菲特及巴西资本投资公司3G看中亨氏集团的优异业绩表现，以总价280亿美元收购亨氏集团，创下同类企业的收购最高纪录。它在荷兰拥有一家工厂，是Heinz公司在欧洲最大的工厂之一，拥有现代化的生产线和先进的设备。据报道，这家工厂每周生产大约1000万瓶番茄酱，主要供应欧洲和中东市场。

味可美（McCormick）创建于1889年，总部位于美国马里兰州，距今有一百多年的历史，是纽约证券交易所的上市公司，在中国的上海和广州分别设有工厂。公司主要是生产和销售各种干式、湿式的餐饮、工业、零售用的调味料与佐料。例如麦当劳餐厅使用的番茄酱、汉堡酱、促销饮品、朱古力酱、草莓酱、腌制料、包裹料等。

莎莎酱（Salsa）是一种墨西哥菜的调味品，通常由番茄、辣椒、洋葱、蒜和香菜等成分制成。这种酱料通常呈现出红色或绿色，口感辛辣，可用于蘸食物或作为配料用于墨西哥菜肴中。除了传统的莎莎酱，现在还有许多不同的变体，如水果莎莎、豆莎莎、酪梨莎莎等。

【重点句子】（3 个）
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.
辣椒酱——它散发着红艳的光芒，夹杂着辣椒、蒜片和青葱碎、发酵黑豆和芝麻等多种食材--已成为当下最受欢迎的酱汁。

Chilli crisp had many of the necessary characteristics to be a hit. It is spicy, but not overly so.
辣椒酱具备成为热门美食的多项必要特征，它辣但辣度适中。

The liberation of post-pandemic dining has not dulled the delight of the condiment.
疫情后餐饮业的复苏并没有减弱这种调味品带来的乐趣。