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Culture
文艺版块
World in a dish
盘中世界
A moveable feast
流动的盛宴
A new book celebrates Chinese food's spread and savour.
一本新书赞颂了中国菜肴的丰富和美味。
About a decade ago, this correspondent attended a banquet in Guangzhou.
大约十年前，笔者在广州参加了一次宴会。
The bird’s nest soup was gentle and slithery, the sea cucumber rich and gelatinous and the fish sparklingly fresh and perfectly steamed.
燕窝汤柔和爽滑，海参浓郁弹牙，鱼肉晶莹鲜嫩，蒸得恰到好处。
The most memorable dish, however, was the plain white cup of broth served at the end.
然而，最令人难忘的是最后端上来的一盅口味清淡、色泽浓白的汤。
Made from chicken, probably with ham and dried scallop as well, it was simple, austere and perfect.
汤是用鸡肉熬制的，可能还有火腿和干贝，整体简单、朴素，且完美。
Ending a banquet with soup may seem odd to Westerners, accustomed as they are to sweets at a meal’s close.
对于西方人来说，宴会结束时喝汤可能看起来很奇怪，因为西方人习惯在用餐结束时吃甜点。
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.
但是，正如英国美食作家扶霞·邓洛普在一本权威新书中所解释的那样，汤是一个厨师独特的、内在的技艺表达，就像歌手的声音一样。
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.
这“透明澄澈，几近无形的汤…有一种安静的、黄金般的无法言喻的可爱”，在一场甘旨肥浓的盛宴中作为收尾，是再合适不过了。
“Invitation to a Banquet” is Ms Dunlop’s seventh book.
《宴会之邀》是邓洛普的第七本书。
Unlike those for which she is best known, including “The Food of Sichuan” and “Revolutionary Kitchen” (about Hunanese cuisine), this is not a cookbook.
不同于她最著名的几本书，包括《川菜》和《革命厨房》(关于湘菜)，这本书不是食谱。
Instead, she has chosen 30 dishes and used each to illuminate different aspects of Chinese cuisine—and, in turn, Chinese life and history.
邓洛普选择了30道菜，并用每一道菜来说明中国烹饪的不同方面，进而也说明了中国的生活和历史。
This is less of a departure for Ms Dunlop than it seems.
这与邓洛普的风格其实没有太大的背离。
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.
就像毕生专注于外国菜肴的外来者一样--如专注墨西哥菜肴的英国美食作家戴安娜·肯尼迪，或者专注中东菜肴的美国人保拉·沃尔费特--她更像是食谱收集者，而不是发明者。
Ms Dunlop’s well-researched cookbooks read as mini-ethnographies.
邓洛普的这本研究详尽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.
读者不会学到如何做虾籽炆柚皮，但会了解中国厨师如何以及为什么一直珍视不同寻常的(对西方人来说，有时是令人反感的)食材，比如这种很大的柑橘类水果的苦味白髓。
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.
有一道菜看似不起眼，但实际上烹饪起来极其费力，就是红烧鲤鱼尾，这道菜是讨论中国菜肴中“口感”的重要性的一个起点。
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”).
邓洛普论述道，西方人“一直认为中国人吃动物杂碎是因为贫穷和饥不择食”，而事实上，如果对鸡胗、软骨和海蜇不屑一顾，就会把许多美味爽脆的(又滑又脆的，一般是湿的)食物拒之门外。
In aggregate, Ms Dunlop makes a compelling case for the superiority of Chinese cuisine, and in a delighted and expansive rather than chauvinistic way.
总而言之，邓洛普以令人信服的方式阐述了中国烹饪的优越性，而且她的论述是令人愉悦且兼容并包的，而不是沙文主义的。
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.
她展示了中国菜肴如何吸收了外国影响(就像其他菜肴一样)，如何随着中国日益增长的财富而发生变化，以及它在中国的文化史上是多么重要。
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.
邓洛普还论述了一个同样令人信服的观点，即西方人所认为的“中国菜”，即大多数人在当地的外卖中能找到的东西，并非不正宗，也并非错误。
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.
相反，这种菜是一个海外分支，反映了当地的口味，但也代表了中国菜的多样性，就像意大利的冷冻披萨一样。
Immigration and adventurousness have made the real thing more accessible than ever outside China.
移民和冒险精神使国外的正宗中餐比以往任何时候都更容易接触到。
Eaters should savour that.
食客应该细细品尝其中滋味。
