美国国家公共电台 NPR Think 'Chinese Food' Means Lo Mein? Home Cooking Brings More To The Table

Think 'Chinese Food' Means Lo Mein? Home Cooking Brings More To The Table

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Chinese cuisine² is diverse, complex flavors from spicy³ to sweet depending on the region. A new exhibition at a museum in New York wants to remind people that the country's food isn't all Americanized eggrolls. The exhibition features professional chefs and home cooks. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang recently paid a visit to one of those home cooks in Manhattan.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁴: Here in Biying Ni's kitchen, a small dinner for friends and family means whipping up almost a dozen different dishes.

BIYING NI: (Speaking Mandarin⁵).

WANG: Ni's stirring together sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, ground pepper and chopped scallions in a small bowl. It's a sauce for one of two fish recipes this evening. This one is for a batch⁶ of fresh yellow croakers. Ni says these are smaller than the ones her father used to cook in Fujian Province along China's southeastern coast, but they're just as good for butterflying and flowering before a deep fry in the wok⁷.

NI: (Speaking Mandarin).

WANG: "I used to eat fish every day back in my hometown," Ni says in Mandarin. On our dining table, there's already another plate of fried fish smothered⁸ in a burgundy colored sauce. It's made with wine dregs from red yeast⁹ rice wine and gives the fish a rich, savory¹⁰ taste that can be hard to find at your local Chinese takeout.

KIAN LAM KHO: I think it's unfair to just classify one Chinese cooking per se.

WANG: Kian Lam Kho is a curator of the new exhibition at the Museum of Chinese in America.

KHO: When you say Chinese cooking, it's like saying European cooking because Chinese food is just too diverse.

WANG: The museum has gathered the stories of Biying Ni and other Chinese cooks around the U.S. Their signature dishes span from Peking duck to cumin lamb skewers¹¹ from Xinjiang Province in northwest China.

KHO: Even with the same dish or same cuisine, every family has a different variation.

WANG: That's why the curators say if you want to taste the full range of Chinese cuisine in the U.S., you'll need to venture beyond restaurants and into home kitchens, which co-creator Audra Ang says can play a central role in many immigrants' lives.

AUDRA ANG: The kitchen itself is kind of a sphere of comfort when you come to a new country. You don't understand what's going on. You can't find your ingredients. That's the one place where you set up as your home base, and you cook things that you remember from your past.

WANG: Biying Ni, who recently turned 80, says she loves cooking for her friends.

NI: (Speaking Mandarin).

NI: Growing up, though, she says, making meals was her father's job. She left China in the 1980s and worked as a live-in nanny in the U.S. where she learned to make Cantonese dishes for a family she was working for. For years she cooked in other people's kitchens before she could afford to rent her own home.

Now she shuffles¹² around her one-bedroom apartment in beaded, red slippers¹³. A sweet aroma¹⁴ of vinegar and rice wine floats from her kitchen. After a quick rinsing¹⁵ of chopsticks, spoons and bowls, dinner is finally ready. Ni's granddaughter Qing Zhuang and Zhuang's boyfriend, David Wu, are gathered around the table.

QING ZHUANG: He's from a different province. He's from Shanghai.

DAVID WU: I'm from Shanghai, so...

ZHUANG: So he has a different...

WU: I have a different palate.

ZHUANG: Yeah.

WANG: Still, Ni's drunken chicken made with Fujianese cooking wine hits the right spot.

WU: It's very light. It retains some of that flavor in the cooking wine that really feels refreshing¹⁶ and cooling.

WANG: For Qing Zhuang, one of her favorites is her grandmother's winter melon soup.

ZHUANG: I went to college out of state, and whenever I come back - and especially the soup, you know - there's herbs in there and these winter melons. When I eat them, it's just extremely comforting.

WANG: It's a kind of comfort food that defines Chinese food for Biying Ni, who has particular tastes.

NI: (Speaking Mandarin).

WANG: "Cantonese food is too sweet," she says, "and Sichuanese food is too spicy." But food from her hometown of Fuzhou...

NI: (Speaking Mandarin).

WANG: (Speaking Mandarin).

NI: (Speaking Mandarin, laughter).

WANG: "It's not too salty, bland¹⁷ or sweet," she says. "It's just right." Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, New York.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。

3 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

6 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

7 wok   

n.锅，炒菜锅

参考例句：

• I'm not teaching my students how to use a wok.我不是教我的学生们如何用炒菜的。
• He threw the meat into his biggest wok to cook.他把肉扔到最大的一口锅里煮。

8 smothered   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
• The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。

9 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

10 savory   

adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的

参考例句：

• She placed a huge dish before him of savory steaming meat.她将一大盘热气腾腾、美味可口的肉放在他面前。
• He doesn't have a very savory reputation.他的名誉不太好。

11 skewers   

n.串肉扦( skewer的名词复数 )；烤肉扦；棒v.（用串肉扦或类似物）串起，刺穿( skewer的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Damaged skewers and clogged bobbin holder. 木锭子破损，纱管支架底座阻塞。 来自互联网
• I heard you really like mutton skewers and that you can eat 50 at one time. 听说你特别爱吃羊肉串儿，一次能吃五十串儿。 来自互联网

12 shuffles   

n.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的名词复数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的第三人称单数 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼

参考例句：

• She shuffles cards expertly, all the guys stare in amazement. 她熟练地洗着牌，爷们都看呆了。 来自互联网
• Fortune shuffles cards, but we discard them. 命运负责洗牌，而出牌的是我们自己。 来自互联网

13 slippers   

n. 拖鞋

参考例句：

• a pair of slippers 一双拖鞋
• He kicked his slippers off and dropped on to the bed. 他踢掉了拖鞋，倒在床上。

14 aroma   

n.香气，芬芳，芳香

参考例句：

• The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee.满屋子都是咖啡的香味。
• The air was heavy with the aroma of the paddy fields.稻花飘香。

15 rinsing   

n.清水，残渣v.漂洗( rinse的现在分词 )；冲洗；用清水漂洗掉（肥皂泡等）；（用清水）冲掉

参考例句：

• Pablo made a swishing noise rinsing wine in his mouth. 巴勃罗用酒漱着口，发出咕噜噜噜的声音。 来自辞典例句
• The absorption of many molecular layers could be reestablished by rinsing the foils with tap water. 多分子层的吸附作用可用自来水淋洗金属箔而重新实现。 来自辞典例句

16 refreshing   

adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的

参考例句：

• I find it'so refreshing to work with young people in this department.我发现和这一部门的青年一起工作令人精神振奋。
• The water was cold and wonderfully refreshing.水很涼，特别解乏提神。

17 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。