《纽约时报》:台湾美食为什么那么Q?

佐罗

Why Is Taiwan Food So “Q”?

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NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — As dusk falls at Lehua Night Market, the fluorescent lights flicker on and the hungry customers start trickling in, anxious for a taste of the local delicacies that give this island its reputation as one of Asia’s finest culinary capitals.
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4 t6 M: u# f( E8 G台湾新北市——随着夜幕降临乐华夜市， 灯光亮起， 饥肠辘辘的客人们三三两两来到这里，急于吃到让这个岛屿享有亚洲最佳美食之城的当地美食。
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5 W) c& V( y% y( k( QNeatly arranged pyramids of plump fish balls. Bowls brimming with tapioca balls bathed in lightly sweetened syrup. Sizzling oyster omelets, hot off the griddle.Deep-fried sweet potato puffs, still dripping with oil.

整齐码成小山的饱满鱼丸。 一碗碗淋着略带甜味糖浆的凉圆。 刚从铁板上下来， 咝咝作响的蚵仔煎。 还滴着热油的炸地瓜球。
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' W3 X- H% ?+ }5 [Take a bite of any of these dishes and you’ll discover a unique texture. But how exactly do you describe that perfectly calibrated “mouth feel” so sought after by local cooks and eaters alike? Slippery? Chewy? Globby? Not exactly the most flattering adjectives in the culinary world. Luckily, the Taiwanese have a word for this texture. Well, actually, it’s not a word, it’s a letter — one that even non-Chinese speakers can pronounce. It’s “Q.”

3 B+ I" Q+ h2 T( ]# O8 {3 t' D  ]随便尝一口这些小吃， 你都会发现它们有着一种别具一格的口感。 但你该如何形容那种经过精心调配， 令当地厨师和食客们趋之若鹜的“口感”呢？ 滑溜？有嚼劲？ 黏糊？ 这些可算不上是美食界最好听的形容。 幸运的是， 台湾人有一个词来形容这种口感。 其实， 也不是词语， 而是个字母——就连不讲中文的人也能说出它。 那就是“Q”。
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4 q( N) O; W* qElsewhere in Asia, it is a familiar texture, though the term itself may not be used. Tteok-bokki, a Korean stir-fried rice cake, and mochi, a Japanese rice cake, for example, could also be considered Q. In Western cuisine, the texture is less commonly found, though one could describe foods like gummy bears and certain kinds of pasta as Q.

在亚洲其他地方， 人们对这种口感也毫不陌生， 虽然可能不会用“Q” 来形容。 比如韩国炒年糕和日本麻糬也可以用“Q” 形容。 在西式菜肴中， 这种口感就不那么常见了， 尽管你可以形容小熊软糖和某些意大利面“Q”。

There are many other uses for the term Q in Chinese as well. It could be used, for example, as shorthand for the English word cute, or to refer to the once-popular QQ messaging service from Tencent or the QQ minicar model from the Chinese carmaker Chery.

4 X% Q& d) ]2 {( Z: ]  _7 l+ E中文里对“Q” 也有许多其他用法。 比如， 它可被用于英文“cute”（可爱）的缩写， 或是可用于指一度流行的腾讯消息服务 QQ， 或是中国汽车制造商奇瑞的微型轿车。

Among Taiwanese, the appreciation for Q texture starts at a young age. On a recent sticky evening at Lehua Night Market, crowds ambled through the carnival-like pedestrian street, which was lined on both sides with vendors hawking things like hats, cellphone cases and, of course, delicious snacks. Asked why Q texture was so appealing to Taiwanese, Lu Wei-chen, the owner of the stand, said “When you eat it, you will be in a good mood.”
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) n1 r* X. P2 w. \+ V* q在台湾人中， 对 Q 这个口感的喜爱从很小的时候就开始了。 近日在乐华夜市一个炎热的夏日夜晚， 人群在像是嘉年华一般的人行道上漫步， 道路两边都有着兜售帽子、 手机壳， 当然还有美味小吃。 当被问到为何 Q 的口感如此吸引台湾人时， 小摊老板卢卫晨（音） 说“很简单， 你吃的时候心情好。”

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; h* j& Y6 P( VThe New York Times 《纽约时报》
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单词
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% m0 S' H, x: }( Vtrickle [ˈtrɪkl] in
缓慢而零星地进入
例： Gradually people trickled in the theatre.
- d' @4 M0 M% B, o渐渐地， 人们三三两两地进入剧场。

culinary [ˈkʌlɪneri]
adj. 烹饪的； 厨房的
4 t9 Z: t( Y# ~  T- N例： My culinary skills are limited to boiling water.
我的厨艺不怎么样！

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0 n$ n9 R0 J- B1 {7 [plump [plʌmp]
adj. 蓬松的； 饱满的； 圆润的

plump juicy grapes 饱满多汁的葡萄
# k0 w, d. V" {plump soft pillows 蓬松柔软的枕头
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adj. 发福的； 丰满的
0 y0 ?: y8 _4 q例： He's got rather plump since I last saw him.
9 K# r$ i$ K) b. }- ]自从我上次见到他以来， 他胖了很多。

calibrate [ˈkælɪbreɪt]
9 j  @' S# [0 k# x: u! c4 C- Q3 N! Lvt. 校正； 校准； 调整
例： You should refer to the instructions on how to calibrate a thermometer.
4 [3 L5 T7 V! y# b你应该参考一下校准温度计的说明。

3 B  V7 {% u3 v% N% ^amble [ˈæmbl]
vi. 漫步； 缓行
9 E9 i( ~: U9 H% `# \! U例： She ambled down the street, stopping occasionally to look in the shop windows.
! i! N& R- S$ W6 c0 ?她沿街慢行， 不时停下来打量商店橱窗里的商品。

pedestrian [pəˈdestriən]
n. 行人， 步行者
* p7 O' @' ~9 X& i. W; w# E例 ： There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. (Thomas Dewar-Scottish businessman)
' @) V) S2 r, [  o9 t$ t有两种行人， 一种迅速前进， 另一种如行尸走肉。

hawk [hɔːk]
vt. 沿街兜售， 叫卖
$ ^5 s  `/ @8 i0 B例 ： But some observers are skeptical, “There is a kind of false precision being hawked by people claiming they are doing ancestry testing,” says Trey Duster, a New York University sociologist.
3 @" N# t% M1 D0 R& T但是一些观察家持怀疑态度， 纽约大学的社会学家特雷•达斯特（Trey Duster）说，“那些声称可以进行血统测试的人在散播一种虚假的精确信息。”（2009 年考研英语阅读理解 Part A Text 2）
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On a recent sticky evening at Lehua Night Market, crowds ambled through the carnival-like pedestrian street, which was lined on both sides with vendors hawking things like hats, cellphone cases and, of course, delicious snacks.