美国国家公共电台 NPR This Food Critic Will Take The Taco. Again. And Again. And Again.

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: 

How many tacos is too many tacos? That is a question that our next guest can answer. He is the food critic for The San Antonio Express-News, and he says he will eat a taco every day in 2017 and write about the experience. And this is not the first time he has done something so insane. He is with us now from member station KSTX in San Antonio. Welcome to you, Mike Sutter.

MIKE SUTTER: Well, thank you so much. I have to go back and correct a little bit of a misperception because it won't just be eating one taco a day. When I go to a taqueria, I'm going to work the menu a little bit harder than that. When I did this series in Austin in 2015, I ate 1,600 tacos, and we just call that, in this business, research.

MCEVERS: I guess my main question is not whether or not you can do this - right? - 'cause you've done it before, but why?

SUTTER: Why eat tacos? I don't know if I should be offended by that question.

MCEVERS: I think it's important to explore the question. Like, you know...

SUTTER: Yeah, we'll go - I mean, if we want to take it from a health perspective, then we'll look at the year that I did this before. I lost 10 pounds.

MCEVERS: What?

SUTTER: And I know that sounds completely counterintuitive, but a good reason to eat tacos every day is it's pure protein. It's wrapped in a light layer of carbohydrates¹. It's farm fresh. I mean, we talk about the farm-to-table movement, but taquerias have been doing that since time immemorial.

MCEVERS: I'm sold. Like, that's enough. You didn't even have to sell all that stuff to make me think this is a good idea.

SUTTER: (Laughter).

MCEVERS: Ok. So, like, what tacos are you planning to eat today?

SUTTER: I'm going to be eating barbecue in a little bit, and then I'm going to eat at two taquerias on the same road after that.

MCEVERS: What kinds of tacos are we talking about?

SUTTER: Well, breakfast tacos are generally available all day, but I'm not just going to stick with that, although one of my favorites is just a basic potato and egg taco and a good flour tortilla. Had that yesterday at a taqueria that you that you might have called fast food. And if fast food were like that, it wouldn't have such a bad name. This is a taco that for a $1.47 was stuffed as full as a trucker's billfold.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

SUTTER: And it was these wonderful, dirty potatoes and freshly scrambled² eggs. And you've really just had to wrap it with both hands to get it up into your mouth.

MCEVERS: Are there enough taquerias in San Antonio to give you enough material for an entire year?

SUTTER: Well, and there's a broader discussion to be had about that because tacos were part of the fabric³ of life here long before popular food culture and media discovered tacos.

MCEVERS: Sure.

SUTTER: Taquerias aren't measured by months or by years. They're measured by decades.

MCEVERS: Yeah.

SUTTER: And they've been in those buildings. There's history in the bricks. And the hard part in San Antonio is going to be narrowing the list to 365.

MCEVERS: Really?

SUTTER: In this great wagon⁴ wheel that is the interstate system around San Antonio, you could pick a spoke⁵ and do an entire month without leaving that spoke.

MCEVERS: What, for you, makes a good taco? Like, what puts it up there in the category of, you know, top 10?

SUTTER: Well, I think first the tortilla's the make-or-break point. You know, if you're not starting with handmade flour, or corn you're already doing it wrong. But having said that, I'm not a dilettante⁶. We're talking about a commodity that costs around $2. I mean, are we given a hard time to the guy that's charging you $15 for a hamburger and not baking his own buns?

MCEVERS: (Laughter) Right.

SUTTER: The second thing that I look for in a taco is what I call faithfulness to the form. If you're going to do a breakfast taco, cook the eggs to order. Let's not just dip them out from a steam pan. If you're going to do a bean and cheese, let's have it in the right ratio so it melts together. I mean, it's all fine and good if you like fried chicken and queso and lettuce⁷ and ranch⁸ dressing⁹ and bacon jam.

MCEVERS: (Laughter).

SUTTER: But folding all that stuff into a tortilla doesn't make it a taco. It makes it an excellent snack wrap. Let's not call it a taco, and I think everybody's going to get along a little bit better.

MCEVERS: You're a white dude, right?

SUTTER: Yeah, I've been told.

MCEVERS: You know, you're in a pretty Latino city writing about tacos.

SUTTER: Right.

MCEVERS: Is that an issue? Is that a thing?

SUTTER: I think that's a completely legitimate¹⁰ thing to say, and I've heard that said to me. And it was rough in the beginning. I wasn't getting treated poorly by the people selling tacos. They're in business to be in business.

MCEVERS: Yeah.

SUTTER: I was getting a little bit of pushback from the customers. And I started figuring out how to order in Spanish. The most important thing I learned to say in Spanish was (speaking Spanish). And just right up front...

MCEVERS: Sorry, my Spanish is not good (laughter).

SUTTER: My Spanish is terrible. And then they meet me halfway¹¹, and we do the order half in English, half in Spanish. And I don't think I have to be born in the blood to appreciate the form. I think if you approach it with respect, it doesn't matter what your background is.

MCEVERS: Mike Sutter is food critic for The San Antonio Express-News, talking about his 365 Days of Taco project. Thank you very much.

SUTTER: You're welcome, and follow along with us at expressnews.com/tacos.

MCEVERS: Cool.

1 carbohydrates   

n.碳水化合物，糖类( carbohydrate的名词复数 )；淀粉质或糖类食物

参考例句：

• The plant uses the carbohydrates to make cellulose. 植物用碳水化合物制造纤维素。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All carbohydrates originate from plants. 所有的碳水化合物均来自植物。 来自辞典例句

2 scrambled   

v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

4 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

5 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。

6 dilettante   

n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者

参考例句：

• He is a master of that area even if he is a dilettante.虽然他只是个业余爱好者，但却是一流的高手。
• I'm too serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional.作为一个业余艺术爱好者我过于严肃认真了，而为一个专业人员我又太业余了。

7 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

8 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

9 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

10 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

11 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。