1、纽约时报报旅游版上的一篇小文章，专门介绍武汉户部巷的小吃，我觉得比较有趣。作者 Seth Kugel 花了大约 8 美元，总共尝到了 8 种风味小吃。他是个自由撰稿人，能够利用很短时间内的经历写出这篇文章，应该说相当不错。在我看来，他的叙事轻松活泼，信息基本上准确，没有错过热干面、豆皮、水饺之类最地道的武汉小吃。有一点我们都非常清楚，作为跨文化的故事讲述者，我们有责任为读者搭桥。讲述美国故事的时候，我习惯用中国的例子作些对照和类比，希望因此帮助受众获得准确的理解。Seth Kugel 为了告诉美国读者热干面在武汉人早餐中的重要性，他用美国人早餐必备的培根和煎鸡蛋作为例子。从文章后面的更正看，他
2、也犯了一个小错误，误将靠热干面出名的老字号“蔡林记”当成了热干面本身，那就成了武汉人早餐爱吃“蔡林记”，而不是“热干面”。另外，有一样小吃他没能搞清楚中文名字，所以用英文“甜面圈”（doughnut)代替。我想他吃的应该是武汉人说的“油登子（面窝） ”。March 26, 2013, 3:22 pm 59 CommentsIn a Chinese Alley, an $8 Tasting MenuBy SETH KUGELEven the strictest of budget should allow for occasional splurges: a modest hotel room
3、after a string of hostel bunks; a just-this-once late-night cab; a beer upgrade from P.B.R. to I.P.A. But some luxuries never enter the frugal equation. Take, for example, the restaurant tasting menu those drawn-out dinners of 8 or 10 or 25 courses, exquisitely designed (and sometimes served) by the
4、 chef. Or so Ive heard.On my trip to South China this past winter, I finally found a tasting menu I could afford. It took some D.I.Y. initiative, but at a spot called Hubu Alley in Wuhan, I indulged in an eight-course meal that was a culinary tour of Hubei province. And all for just over $8 (52.5 re
5、nminbi, or $8.39 at 6.14 renminbi to the dollar, to be exact). A dollar a course? No tax, no tip? Beat that, Le Bernardin.Hubu Alley 户部巷 isnt a restaurant its a T-shaped pedestrian area on the east side of the Yangtze, famed for the breakfast dishes sold by dozens of vendors from street carts and st
6、alls. And designing my tasting menu could not have been more straightforward: I simply watched what other people were eating and followed suit.So here it is: The 8-Course Hubu Alley Breakfast Tasting Menu.Seth Kugel“Hot dry noodles,” a Wuhan breakfast specialty.Course 1: Re gan mian (4 renminbi) The
7、se “hot dry noodles” are the local breakfast standard, the bacon and eggs (or bagel and cream cheese) of Wuhan, and the original reason I came to the alley. My preboiled noodles were flash-dunked in hot water, then mixed with sesame paste, scallions, soy sauce and a few other dashes of vegetables an
8、d liquids I couldnt identify. They were hearty, fresh and not too spicy. I could see why millions of Wuhan residents start their day with them.Course 2: Dou pi (5 renminbi) The No. 2 must-try breakfast in Wuhan is sticky rice mixed with other ingredients: vegetables and beans, in this case, wrapped
9、in sheets of bean curd, then pan-fried until golden. The bean curd was tasty, but I discarded most of the rest; Im just not Chinese enough to have both noodles and rice for breakfast.Seth KugelTibetan barley pancakes.Course 3: Xizang qingke bing (3.5 renminbi) It was here, watching a man pull hot ro
10、und flatbread covered in sesame seeds from what looked like a tandoor oven, that the idea for a tasting menu was born. I was already full enough to make it to lunch, but who can resist bread (Tibetan barley pancakes, actually) less than five seconds out of an oven? It was crispy around the edges, so
11、ft inside, and of course hot enough to burn the tongue and delicious enough to be worth it.Course 4: Won ton soup (5 renminbi) Important travel rule: if you see a line, get in it first, ask questions later. But in Wuhan, questions (like “Do you speak English?”) are met with blank stares, so here, th
12、e story unfolded as I waited. Customers at Jiangming Hundun Guan handed over money to a man in a cart as two women at a nearby table carefully filled thin dough with minced pork and twisted them into tortellini-size dumplings. The man, wearing an apron that read “Wuhan Flavor Street,” prepared bowls
13、 of minced greens, black pepper and a dash of MSG for each prepaid customer, then waited for the dumplings to boil. In came the broth, and finally a sieve full of soft, juicy dumplings, perfect for a cold Wuhan winter morning.Seth KugelFresh-made juices.Course 5: Papaya juice (8 renminbi) Several ve
14、ndors sold colorful juices, made on site and served bubble tea style, with cups sealed with foil on site and then punctured by a straw wide enough to allow passage of tapioca pearls, though there were none in mine. Call it a palate cleanser.Course 6: Fried frog (12 renminbi) It was time for a break,
15、 so I wandered the “alley” and its even more alleylike spur of even more tightly packed vendors, passing by others walking and munching who knows what. A teenage girl passed by, and in her case, I knew what she was carrying: a frog, decapitated and fried but still very recognizable, splayed open on
16、two skewers. Just a few stalls down was the frog vendor, a young woman with three metal trays stacked with skewered frogs, complete with webbed toes and meaty thighs. I pointed, she fried, and, with sign language, asked if I wanted it snipped in two demi-frog popsicles. I did. There was a surprising
17、 amount of meat (poultrylike, as you have probably heard) and a wicked amount of spice (the equivalent of extra-fiery Buffalo wings). I found myself gnawing at the vertebra and wondered why the French stop at the legs.Seth KugelSpice-rubbed frogs before theyre fried.Course 7: Doughnut holes (5 renmi
18、nbi) Thinking I was done eating, I figured it was time for dessert. Ill call these doughnut holes because I dont know the name in Chinese (feel free to comment below) but they were neither Dunkin Donuts cakey nor Krispy Kreme yeasty; instead, the outside felt a bit like an ultrathin layer of fibergl
19、ass (in a good way) and the inside was gooey and glutinous (in a very good way).Course 8: Oysters (3 for 10 renminbi) The doughnut-to-oyster shift should be done only under extreme circumstances, but these were those. Bloated, I attempted an exit, but noticed a crowd gathered around a man who was te
20、nding a narrow grill. I poked my head in, and saw he was spooning garlic onto oysters and scallops on the half-shell. (The scallops also got a bit of vermicelli.) The garlic mixed with the natural oyster juice and began to bubble. I had to make room for one last course.Since there was no waiter to r
21、elay my message at the time, allow me to send one remotely: Gongxi chushi shouyigao! (Thats Chinese for: My compliments to the chefs!)This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:Correction: March 28, 2013A previous version of this post mistranslated one of the dishes discussed, “hot dry noodles.“ It is re gan mian, not cai lin ji.户部巷
