给大董烤鸭打0颗星, 美国人真的懂中餐吗？| Americanized Chinese food

去年12月11日，北京大董烤鸭的首家海外分店在纽约曼哈顿开张迎客。

在曼哈顿大董店，一套招牌“酥不腻”烤鸭售价98美元（约合人民币648元）。价格虽高，却没有挡住老饕们的热情。开业之后大董后便订单爆满，网上预约系统更是排到了今年2月。

Beijing-based and Michelin-starred Da Dong is considered by many to serve the best roast duck in China. Last December, the first Da Dong outside of China was opened in New York. Eager diners snagged 2,500 reservations within the first two hours they became available, booking the restaurant through February.

但是最近纽约时报知名食评家Pete Wells在光顾了曼哈顿大董后，却打出来“0颗星”的差评。

However, the high profile debut of Da Dong’s New York outpost recently was bashed by a zero-star review. Pete Wells, the famous critic from New York Times dropped a goose egg on the restaurant. 

Wells其3月7日的专栏里写道：“鸭肉没给我留下深刻印象。实际上，它几乎没给我留下任何印象。”

“我花了98美元，买了一只几乎没有任何味道的鸭子。”

“The meat didn't make as firm an impression. It made very little impression at all” Wells wrote in the review, “It dawned on me that I had paid $98 for a duck with almost no flavor."

除了招牌烤鸭，Wells似乎对大董的其他菜肴也颇有微词：“与北京280页的菜单相比，纽约的菜单已大幅削减，但依然充斥着一来到美国便注定失败的菜肴。”

“Unfortunately, Da Dong's problems don't end with the duck. The menu in New York has been trimmed down considerably from the 280-page book presented to diners in Beijing, but it is still rife with dished that are dead on arrival.”

其实，这也不是知名中餐店第一次在美国市场遭遇“差评”。近年来，包括海底捞在内的许多知名中餐企业进军美国市场，但市场反响并不如预期。

Da Dong is not alone. In recent years, some China-based chain restaurants embarked on their journey to US, but only got the cold shoulder. Haidilao, a popular hot pot chain restaurant in China was rated poorly on Yelp after it opened its outlet in Los Angles in 2013.  

烤鸭、火锅的受到冷遇并不能归因于美国人不爱中餐。相反，美国人心里有自己的 “白月光”中餐。只是，很多中国食客在尝了这些中餐后却直呼“假中餐”：“这到底是什么鬼？”“中餐在美国发生了什么？”“美国人到底懂中餐吗？”

The waterloo of roast duck and hot pot gives no hint that Americans are not interested about Chinese food. On the contrary, quite a large number of Americans may have grown up by calling Chinese take-out food. But when diners from China have a bite of the American-favored Chinese dishes, they will quickly rebuff the claim that these dishes are authentic Chinese food.

中餐漂洋过海记

What happened to Chinese food in America?

18世纪中期，大批来自广东的华人劳工远赴加州追赶“淘金热”，中餐也随之进入美国。

It started in California: Chinese food arrived in the States together with Chinese immigrants. In the mid-1800s, a huge influx of Chinese immigrants, mostly from south China’s Guangdong province, came to California during the Gold Rush, and the newcomers started opening restaurants. And the Chinese cuisines sold in these restaurants were mainly stir-fires with vegetables, meat and rice.

随着华人移民群体的壮大，越来越多的菜系也进入美国。但是为了迎合当地人口味，厨师对许多中餐菜肴都进行了改良和调整。

Americanization: Immigrants from other Chinese provinces later brought more regional flavors into the States, like Sichuan, Hunan and Shanghai cuisines. In the 1920s, Chinese food started to catch on in the American society. At that time, Chinese chefs would often have two menus: authentic one for Chinese immigrants and modified one for Americans. However, as its popularity grew, the American-tailored menu gradually came to dominate.

中餐外卖的象征——白纸红宝塔纸盒其实一开始是用来装牡蛎的纸筒。50年代开始，中餐馆开始用这种轻便防漏的纸盒装中餐外卖，大受好评，后来逐渐成了中餐外卖的标志。

Chinese take-out in oyster pails: The iconic Chinese takeout container, white paper box with red pagoda, was originally used to transport oysters. In 1950s, Chinese restaurant began using these paper pails to contain take-out food. Because of convenience and a wide variety, Chinese take-out became a staple of city life since 1970s and then expanded to the suburbs.

那些你从未听过的“中餐菜肴”

Those dishes aren't present in China at all

炒杂碎

Chop Suey

Chop suey is a stir-fry consisting of chicken, beef, egg, bean sprouts and cabbage. It was invented in 1850s by Chinese immigrants in San Francisco who threw a bunch of ingredients into the stir-fry pan and unintentionally started a craze.

左宗鸡

General Tso’s Chicken

General Tso’s Chicken, the sweet and saucy fried chicken nuggets was named after Zuo Zongtang, a Chinese statesman and military leader in late Qing dynasty. However, the sweet and sticky meal neither has recorded connection with Zuo nor is known in Hunan province, Zuo’s hometown. Peng Chang-kuei, a chef from Hunan was reportedly the inventor of the chicken. The dish as most Americans know it today was actually first cooked by a New York City chef named Tsung Ting Wang in 1970s. Inspired by Peng’s version, Wang added crispier batter to the chicken and made the sauce sweeter. 

签语饼

Fortune Cookie

Fortune cookie is a kind of sweet and crisp appetizer that wraps a piece of paper with proverbs and sayings. Though the appetizer is the iconic feature of the American-Chinese restaurant, it has a murky origin. David Jung, a Chinese immigrant living in Los Angeles and founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company claimed that he invented the cookie in 1918, while some believed that the cookie was created in San Francisco by Makoto Hagiwara, who first served the Japanese-inspired confection at his tea garden in 1914.  

随着美国社会多元餐饮文化的发展，炒杂碎这些曾经火爆一时的美式中餐也渐渐失去了往昔的光彩。但不可否认的是，这些美式中餐曾给人们带来味觉上的慰藉。

Due to a much more worldly food culture in American society, classic Americanized Chinese dishes like chop suey are falling out of vogue nowadays. But it is important to acknowledge the profound impact of these earlier iterations of Chinese cuisine in the States--catering for American diners’ exotic flavors and comforting Chinese immigrants’ homesickness.

美国人吃的是他们想象的遥远东方

而游子们吃的却是一口乡愁