盘中知世界 | 经济学人文化

Culture | World in a dish

文化｜盘中知世界

Culture | World in a dish

文化｜盘中知世界

Thai restaurateurs and British pubs have proved a perfect pairing

事实证明，泰式餐馆和英国酒馆是最佳搭档

Cooks get a stream of hungry customers; pub goers get delicious food that pairs well with beer

厨师迎来了络绎不绝的饥饿食客；酒吧客人也享受到了佐酒佳肴

From the outside, the Lemon Tree is an unassuming pub. Sitting on a quiet road in central London, it looks like many of the city’s Georgian boozers. On the ground floor there are dark wooden furnishings, framed etchings and a bar offering local ales, imported lagers and pork scratchings. The traditional setting suggests a menu of pub grub such as burgers. A visitor to Britain’s capital may be surprised by the culinary delights served upstairs.

从外面看，Lemon Tree这家酒馆毫不起眼。它坐落在伦敦中心静谧的道路上，与城里众多乔治王朝时期风格的酒馆别无二致。酒馆一楼摆着深色的木制家具，墙上挂着镶框的蚀刻版画，吧台供应本地产的艾尔啤酒（ale）、进口的拉格啤酒（lager）和脆香炸猪皮。传统的装饰说明这里供应酒吧快餐（如汉堡之类）。然而，二楼的美食却能给来伦敦观光的游客惊喜。

注释：

1.蚀刻版画（etching）来自于高地德语“azzen”或荷兰语“etsen”，即“腐蚀”，是一种版画的作画方法，先在金属板上雕刻，然后用强酸腐蚀，制成凹版，再用油墨印刷成版画。

2.拉格啤酒（德语与英语：Lager， 名字来源于德语：Lagern，意为窖藏），又称窖藏啤酒，是一种利用低温熟成技术制作的啤酒。采用桶底发酵的酵母菌发酵而成，发酵后需要低温保存数月方可以饮用。最早的拉格生产于今天捷克境内的啤森市（Pilsen），所以被称为比尔森啤酒(pilsener）。

Squeeze past the gaggles of office workers and listen out for the sound of clanging woks and sizzling oil. Follow the enticing scent of frying aromatics and fish sauce, and you’ll find a small Thai restaurant providing warming bowls of massaman curry and tall mounds of fried noodles. This is a cultural collaboration not unique to the Lemon Tree. Anglo-Thai grub was first dished out at the Churchill Arms in Kensington in 1991 and is now served in at least 30 taverns across London.

从一群喧闹的白领中间挤过，仔细去听锅碗瓢盆的哐当声和热油的滋滋声。循着油炸的芳香和鱼酱的迷人香味，一家小型的泰式餐馆映入眼帘，这里供应一碗碗暖暖的马沙文咖喱（massaman curry）和高高叠起的炒面。盎泰混搭的风格并非Lemon Tree特有。1991年，位于肯辛顿（Kensington）的Churchill Arms首次推出盎泰结合的美食。如今，这样的融合菜至少能在伦敦30家酒馆吃到。

Often Thai cooks will rent a kitchen from a pub landlord in return for a stream of hungry customers. Ask a patron to explain why this arrangement seems to work, and you might notice his eyebrow flick upward, citing a hunch that the reason lies in some landlords’ penchant for marrying Thai women. It is true that a study of Thai eateries in Britain found that more than 68% are run by women and that, according to the Home Office, wives received almost two-thirds of all settlement visas granted to Thais in the early 2000s. But the phenomenon of Thai kitchens in pubs is probably the result of commercial opportunities rather than romance.

通常，泰国厨师会向酒吧房东租一个厨房，从而招来源源不断的食客。问一位食客，这种模式为何可行，你就会看到他眉毛向上一挑，暗示某些酒吧房东对泰国妻子情有独钟。的确，一项针对英国泰式餐馆的研究发现，68%以上的泰式餐馆由女性经营。内政部数据也显示，2000年代初，在所有获得定居签证的泰国人中，已婚女性几乎占了三分之二。不过，酒吧之所以有泰式厨房，不是因为爱情，而是因为商业机遇。

At the beginning of the 21st century the Thai government launched a gastro-diplomacy campaign which aimed to increase the number of Thai restaurants around the world. (As well as celebrating the country’s delicacies, officials wanted to tempt tourists to visit.) For budding restaurateurs in Britain, setting up shop in a pub was seen as less risky than starting from scratch. Landlords usually had dining space that was not being used effectively, which made it easy for entrepreneurial cooks to make a compelling business case.

21世纪初，泰国政府发起了一项美食外交运动，旨在增加全世界泰式餐馆的数量。（除了庆祝该国的美味佳肴外，官员们还希望能吸引游客前去参观。）在英国，对于尚处起步期的餐馆老板而言，在酒吧里开店中店比完全自立门户风险要小。通常，酒吧存在未得到有效利用的餐饮空间，这让创业的厨师更容易获得商业成功。

Pubs may have poky kitchens, but that does not matter with this style of cooking. Many Thai dishes are based on street food and rely on a few versatile ingredients, including chillies, coconut milk, herbs, lime and tamarind. A flexible menu does not require a vast stockroom or counter space. It helps, too, that the flavoursome cuisine pairs superbly with beer and is quick to prepare. Dishes such as pad Thai, a particular British favourite, or seafood steeped in a glossy savoury sauce can be whipped up in a single wok in minutes.

虽然酒吧的后厨可能比较狭小，但这并不影响泰式烹饪。许多泰国菜原本就是街头小吃，只需要辣椒、椰奶、香草、酸橙和酸角等几种百搭配料。而且泰餐菜品灵活，无需巨大的储藏室或柜台空间。另外泰餐口味好，上菜快，与啤酒搭配堪称完美，这也助力了这种经营模式的成功。英国人最爱的泰式炒米粉或是浸在美味顺滑酱汁中的海鲜，只需一口锅几分钟就齐活了。

注释：

1.poky：（房间，房屋）狭小的，拥挤的

2.whip up：匆匆做好〔饭菜〕。

Mother was in the kitchen whipping up a batch of cakes.母亲在厨房里赶做几个蛋糕。

Regardless of how it came to be, the popularity of Thai pub food reflects Londoners’ open-mindedness as well as their desire for continuity. If you mess around with the formula of a quintessential pub too much, you risk unsettling regulars who take comfort in tradition. But that’s not to say you cannot please them with the mouth-watering street food of Bangkok—so long as it is served with a pint of room-temperature bitter.

不管这种混搭模式是如何发展起来的，泰国酒吧食物的走红反映出伦敦人包容的思想和延续传统的热情。如果把典型的酒吧改造过度，那么可能会让那些安于传统的熟客感到不适。令人垂涎的曼谷街头小吃也能取悦这类食客，前提是要配上一品脱的室温苦啤酒。

注释：

quintessential：典范的;典型的

翻译组：   

Devin，荣枯有数，得失难量

WH，Stay hungry, stay foolish.

琚儿，女，QE在职，梦想能仗翻译/音乐/健康走天涯

校核组：

Francis，男，但诗句的终极意义，在于你

Very，男，电气民工，经济学人资浅爱好者

Rachel，学理工科，爱跳芭蕾，热爱文艺的非典型翻译

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