美国国家公共电台 NPR The Traditional Food Debate Rages On: Latkes Or Hamantaschen?

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: 

Coke versus¹ Pepsi, French fries versus tater tots, hotdogs versus hamburgers - there are a lot of famous food rivalries², but at the University of Chicago, the real contention³ is between two traditional Jewish holiday dishes, latkes and hamantaschen. For 70 years, the university has hosted a debate where professors take the stage to argue which is better. Hal Weitzman teaches at Chicago Booth, the business school at the University of Chicago. He moderates the annual latke versus hamantaschen debate. He joins us now. Hal, welcome to our program.

HAL WEITZMAN: Thank you for having me.

WERTHEIMER: For those who are unfamiliar⁴, perhaps you should tell us what are latkes? What are hamantaschen?

WEITZMAN: Sure. Well, latke is a fried potato pancake that's traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. And a hamantasch is a baked cake or cookie filled with poppy seeds or fruit preserves that's traditionally eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

WERTHEIMER: Now, in my opinion, one is sweet, and one is fried, so there's no contest.

WEITZMAN: (Laughter) Which one would you go for, Linda?

WERTHEIMER: I'd go for fried, of course - fried.

WEITZMAN: OK. Well, I should tell you that the latke has actually won in 70 of the past 70 latke-hamantasch debates.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter).

WEITZMAN: So, you know, the vote is somewhat fixed⁵, which is perhaps no great surprise, given we are in Illinois.

WERTHEIMER: What do they argue about? Do they argue about whether they like it or not?

WEITZMAN: Well, you know, I mean, this is the University of Chicago, so it's much more cerebral⁶ than a simple matter of taste or opinion. They bring by rigorous arguments based on their fields of expertise⁷.

WERTHEIMER: We have here Wendy Freedman. She's an astrophysicist at the university. She worked on the Hubble telescope.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEBATE)

WENDY FREEDMAN: Hubble discovered that the universe is filled with billions and billions of galatkes.

(LAUGHTER)

FREEDMAN: These galaxies⁸, as the galatkes are now referred to, are taking part in a global expansion of the entire universe. Even with the powerful Hubble Space Telescope, you don't see gal-hamantaschen (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

WERTHEIMER: Here's David Nirenberg. He's a dean at the university.

DAVID NIRENBERG: And I'd also like to offer my apologies to the organizers of the latke-hamantaschen debate because after this definitive⁹ demolishing¹⁰ of any alternative opinion, I don't really see how we can have future debates in future years.

WERTHEIMER: In fact, no one spoke¹¹ up for hamantaschen at this debate - isn't that right? - in the most recent one.

WEITZMAN: They didn't this year, but, I mean, in previous years, we've had a pretty balanced panel. But this is a debate that deserves to rank up there with the disputes between the likes of Einstein and Niels Bohr, Tesla and Edison or Kanye and Taylor Swift. So, you know, the idea that we resolve it in one evening is fanciful thinking.

WERTHEIMER: I understand that after the debate, somebody lays on a spread of food that includes both latkes and hamantaschen. Now, I'm betting that all of these brainy people at the University of Chicago would try both - equal opportunity noshing.

WEITZMAN: Absolutely. And I think this really gets to the heart of it, Linda. As I said at the debate last year, if you take hamantasch, you remove the butter and the sugar, the jam and the baking powder, the vanilla¹² extract and the orange zest¹³, and then you add potatoes and onions and deep fry it, what you get is latke. And that just goes to show how similar we all are at our core.

WERTHEIMER: (Laughter) Thank you very much. Hal Weitzman teaches at the University of Chicago. He is going moderator of the annual latke versus hamantaschen debate. So, Mr. Weitzman, are you going to have one next year?

WEITZMAN: Well, my expectation is we will and probably for the next 70 years, as well.

WERTHEIMER: OK. Well, thank you very much.

WEITZMAN: Happy holidays.

1 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

2 rivalries   

n.敌对，竞争，对抗( rivalry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new government was torn by rivalries. 新政府由于各派对立而四分五裂。 来自辞典例句
• Rivalries could bring about pain and hatred or give rise to fighting. 竞争会带来痛苦、仇恨，或者引起争斗。 来自互联网

3 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

4 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

5 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

6 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

7 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

8 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

9 definitive   

adj.确切的，权威性的；最后的，决定性的

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。
• No one has come up with a definitive answer as to why this should be so.至于为什么该这样，还没有人给出明确的答复。

10 demolishing   

v.摧毁( demolish的现在分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings. 这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。 来自《用法词典》
• Conventional demolishing work would have caused considerable interruptions in traffic. 如果采用一般的拆除方法就要引起交通的严重中断。 来自辞典例句

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 vanilla   

n.香子兰，香草

参考例句：

• He used to love milk flavoured with vanilla.他过去常爱喝带香草味的牛奶。
• I added a dollop of vanilla ice-cream to the pie.我在馅饼里加了一块香草冰激凌。

13 zest   

n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣

参考例句：

• He dived into his new job with great zest.他充满热情地投入了新的工作。
• He wrote his novel about his trip to Asia with zest.他兴趣浓厚的写了一本关于他亚洲之行的小说。