老外热捧肉味素食，然后发现中国人几百年前就会做了丨外媒说
近年来，越来越多的素食、轻食餐厅受到国人追捧。
双语君（微信ID：Chinadaily_Mobile）身边就多了不少“吃草”减肥的伙伴。你以为现在朋友圈美食鄙视链顶端的还是大鱼大肉的饕餮之宴吗？
不，这个位置已经被“森女风手作轻食”抢走了。
近年来，西方国家也刮起素食风，人们积极健身、做素食主义者（vegetarian），对素食的追捧也在带动行业新商机。
在美国科技产业的摇篮硅谷，甚至出现了一家主打肉类代替品的科技公司，致力于把素菜做出肉味：
In the last few years there has been a rush in demand for vegan and vegetarian foods in Western countries. Much of it is coming from flexitarians – people who have not renounced meat completely but want to cut their consumption.
近年来，西方国家的素食需求暴涨，其中大多数源自非严格素食主义者。非严格素食主义的人不完全摒弃食肉，但也想减少肉类摄入。
To satisfy them, companies are developing products that look, taste and feel as close as possible to meat and dairy dishes – most famously a plant-based burger made by Impossible Foods that appears to bleed like a rare beef patty.
为了满足此类需求，从外观、口感上尽可能接近肉类和乳制品的素菜层出不穷，最广为人知的就是不可思议食品公司（Impossible Foods）开发的纯素制汉堡，其中的“牛肉饼”甚至看起来像半熟牛肉一样肉汁四溢。
而就在西方如火如荼地追捧肉味素食的时候，有外媒指出，中国几百年前就有仿荤素食了。
近日，描写西南美食的小说《鱼翅与花椒》的作者、英国饮食作家扶霞·邓洛普（Fuchsia Dunlop）就在《经济学人》上发表的文章里谈起这件事。
《经济学人》：随着西方越来越多的公司开始制作外表和味道都像肉制品的素食，值得一提的是，中国制作仿荤食品已经有数百年的历史了。
扶霞·邓洛普在伦敦亚非学院以优异的成绩获得中国研究硕士学位后，前往中国四川大学就读一年；其后又在四川烹饪高等专科学校接受了三个月的专业厨师训练，成为该校第一名外国学生。
这次，热爱川味美食的扶霞挑战了一把川味素食，你能想象麻辣鲜香的川菜和听上去清淡养生的素食之间的美妙碰撞吗？
The grand centrepiece of our lunch is a bowl of paddy eels in a sea of spicy oil thick with scorched chillies and Sichuan pepper. Around it lie a pot of red-braised beef and bamboo shoots, a deep-fried fish in chilli-bean sauce, stir-fried bacon with green peppers and several other local specialities.
我们午饭的“硬菜”是一道烧制鳝鱼，鳝丝浸泡在汩汩冒泡的红油辣椒里，浓汤上飘着炸糊的辣椒和开胃的四川胡椒。桌上还有一锅笋子烧牛肉，一盘豆豉炸鱼，一盘青椒炒培根和其他几道地方特色菜。
是不是非常诱人？
但是在继续读下去之前，双语君（微信ID：Chinadaily_Mobile）真的没想到烹饪这桌四川料理的食材都是素食制品。
It looks like a typical Sichuanese meal, and it is – except that the food is entirely vegan. The “eels” are strips of shiitake mushroom that look and even feel in the mouth like the real thing; the brisketty slow-braised “beef” is fashioned from wheat gluten; the “fish” is a package of mashed potato in a tofu skin.
这看起来是一顿典型的川菜，确实也是如此——只是烹制的食材都是纯素食。“鳝鱼”是片成条的香菇，看起来、尝起来几乎都足以以假乱真；文火慢炖的“牛肉”不过是刻意造型的面筋；所谓“鱼”实则是豆腐皮裹着的土豆泥。
It's a satisfying and ingenious lunch, served in a restaurant at the Buddhist Temple of Divine Light just outside Chengdu, capital of the western province of Sichuan.
成都宝光寺素斋的这顿午餐可谓别出心裁，令人心满意足。
对中国饮食文化颇有研究的扶霞写道，在唐朝、尤其是佛教文化盛行的宋朝，仿荤就已经是很常见的菜肴了。
In the time of the Tang dynasty (AD618-907), an official hosted a banquet at which he served convincing replicas of pork and mutton dishes made from vegetables; in the 13th century, diners in the capital of the southern Song dynasty (Lin'an, now Hangzhou), had a wide choice of meat-free restaurants, including those that specialised in Buddhist vegetarian cuisine.
唐朝曾有位官员设宴，席间不少用蔬菜仿制的神似猪肉和羊肉的菜肴；13世纪，南宋都城临安（现在的杭州）就有非常多的素菜馆，包括一些专做佛斋的菜馆。
在北宋，仿荤菜已经开始不只是僧侣的专属了。《东京梦华录》记载，开封城里的厨师，能烹饪出假河豚、假元鱼、假蛤蜊、假野狐、假炙獐等菜品。
时至南宋临安，仿荤素菜种类更加繁多：假炙江瑶肚尖、假淳菜腰子、假炙鸭……临安的大厨，甚至还能做出“煎假乌龟”，令人拍案叫绝。
只用蔬菜，不可能创制这么多仿荤食品。仿荤素食的兴盛，还得益于豆制品制作技术的成熟。豆腐直到北宋初年，才被端上百姓的餐桌。
以豆制品为原料的素鸭 图片来自网络
而这种素食仿荤传统，也延续到了今日，豆制品制成的素鸭、素鹅；用蔬菜做的“蟹肉”纷纷上了餐桌：
The tradition is still alive in contemporary China. In Shanghai, most delicatessens sell rolled-tofu “chicken” and roast “duck” made from layered tofu skin. Restaurants offer stir-fried “crabmeat”, a strikingly convincing simulacrum of the original made from mashed carrot and potato flavoured with rice vinegar and ginger.
这样的传统依然延续到了今日的中国。上海的很多熟食店都卖层层豆卷制成的“素鸡”和“素鸭”。炒制的“蟹肉”非常逼真，是用碾碎的胡萝卜和土豆制成的，加入米醋和姜来调味。
delicatessen： [,delikə'tesən] 熟食店
素食黄鱼中段 图片来自功德林官网
除了这些比较常见的仿荤，还有一些你可能想不到的，比如素鸡脚还有素鱼翅：
Elsewhere, Chinese food manufacturers produce a range of imitation meat and seafood products, including slithery “chicken's feet” concocted from konnyaku yam and “shark's fin” made from translucent strands of bean-thread noodle.
在其他地方，中国的老饕们也做了一系列肉食和海鲜的仿荤，比如胶质感十足的魔芋做成的“鸡脚”，以及用粉丝做成的“鱼翅”。
扶霞写道，这是中国一种食不厌精的饮食文化（sophisticated food culture）的体现，在“吃”这件事上，中国人非常看重智慧和趣味性。
除了仿荤之外，用一种菜仿制另一种菜也是中国饮食文化传统之一。
比如说用黄花鱼肉和蛋做的赛螃蟹，以及“抖音网红”毛笔酥：
毛笔酥
China has a tradition of dishes that pretend to be something they are not, such as edible calligraphy brushes, or a facsimile of tofu made from finely minced chicken breast and egg whites.
中国的饮食文化中有着将某种菜做成形似其他物品的传统，比如可以吃的毛笔，或用研磨细碎的鸡胸肉和蛋白做的豆腐。
In the Song dynasty, restaurants served not only vegetarian temple food, but imitations of pufferfish, soft-shelled turtle and roasted venison made from other ingredients that were not necessarily meat-free.
在宋朝，餐馆不仅提供素食斋饭，还有仿河豚、仿甲鱼，还有用其他原料做的烤鹿肉，这些菜肴的原料未必是全素的。
赛螃蟹
仿荤素食既解了素食者们的馋，也让他们规避了吃肉的风险。比如河豚鱼肉质鲜美，但内脏与血液有剧毒，稍有不慎，就会中毒身亡。于是在开封素食店里，“假河豚”这道菜就应运而生。
制作方法如下：把葫芦和面筋切成薄片，分别加料后再用油煎，然后加葱、花椒油、酒放在一起炒。这样做出的“假河豚”，味道足以乱真。
除了有素食发源时期唐宋受佛教影响的原因之外，扶霞说，一个重要的因素是文人墨客对蔬菜等素食的追捧。
不少文人墨客觉得，吃大鱼大肉太俗气，蔬菜才是那时候的时尚。
The Chinese have an intellectual tradition that favours vegetable eating as a wise and healthy counterpart to eating meat. Gluttonous consumption of meat has always been regarded as unhealthy. Men of letters have traditionally viewed carnivorous excess as vulgar or even depraved; Confucius is said to have eaten meat only in moderation.
中国的文人墨客们自古以来觉得吃蔬菜比吃肉更明智和健康。大鱼大肉的吃法一直被认为是不健康的。有文化的人向来认为食肉者粗鄙堕落；据说孔子对肉类的摄取就是非常节制的。
这一点，直到现在也并不过时。现在大家聚会已经很少再大鱼大肉了，不少轻食、沙拉、甜品、咖啡成为年轻人的首选。
不论吃什么，都讲个“均衡”和“有机”。
A preference for wild foods, vegetables and modest consumption of meat has long been understood as a sign of cultivation.
对野生食物、蔬菜的偏爱以及对肉食的适度消耗长久以来被视为教养的标志。
正如扶霞记录的成都宝光寺素斋的一位食客所说：
In a private room hung with calligraphic artworks, a group of male friends (none of them vegetarian) were enjoying their meat-free Sunday lunch when I visited.
在我到那家素食餐厅的时候，一群男性友人（他们都不是素食者）正在一间挂满书法的屋子里用餐。
“Before China’s reform and opening-up, people couldn’t even eat their fill, so of course when meat became more widely available we wanted to gorge on it,” says businessman Chen Mingqing. “But after this period of indulging in rich food, China has reached a new level of culture and development. People want to eat more healthily and prolong their lives, so vegetarian eating is becoming more popular.”
一位名叫陈明清（音）的商人说，在中国改革开放之前，很多人吃饱都成问题，所以有肉吃的时候，人们都大快朵颐。但在经过了这段时期之后，中国进入了文化和发展的新阶段。人们希望能吃得健康、延年益寿，所以素食更加流行了。
责任编辑：沈斌
编辑：李雪晴 温竹馨
来源：经济学人 CNN 大众文摘等
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