背景介绍：
腌黄瓜，这一传统食品，在过去往往被视为餐桌上的配角，用途有限。然而，近年来，随着新一代美食家的发掘与推广，腌黄瓜逐渐从边缘走向主流，成为备受追捧的美食新星。从社交媒体上的热门话题到商业销售的显著增长，腌黄瓜的复兴不仅反映了食品趋势的变化，也体现了人们对健康、创新及传统美食新认识的追求。本文将深入探讨这一趋势的背景与现状。
Food lovers
the world over are tickled by pickles
世界各地美食爱好者都喜欢的腌菜
On social
media, preserved cucumbers are freshly trendy
在社交媒体上，腌黄瓜成为了一种新时尚
In days gone by, the pickled cucumber—or gherkin, in
British
parlance
—had a humble role in food. It showed up
ornamentally
or in
tiny, grease-cutting portions on burgers and
charcuterie
boards. So limited
were its uses that jars would languish at the back of refrigerators for years.
过去，腌制黄瓜（也就是英国人所说的小黄瓜）在食物界中的地位一直是颇为卑微的。它往往仅作为装饰性点缀，或是作为汉堡与熟食上的一抹少量减脂元素出现。其用途之局限，常导致腌黄瓜罐子在冰箱深处默默闲置，无人问津，年复一年。
Today, however, pickles are having a moment, as a new
generation of foodies has discovered their crunchy, tangy charms. On TikTok
there are some 315,000 posts with the tag #pickles—more than with #cucumber and
even #potatoes.
然而，今日之腌黄瓜正迎来一个焕然新生的时代，皆因新一代美食家们发掘了它们那脆爽可口、风味浓郁的独特魅力。在 TikTok 平台上，带有#pickles 标签的视频数量高达约315,000条，甚至超越了#cucumber 乃至#potato 的话题热度。
Users film themselves trying dill, garlic, hot and sour varieties. (The flavour changes depending on what herbs and spices are used and whether the cucumber is soaked in vinegar or fermented in brine.) A video showing the assembly of an assorted “pickle platter” has more than 50m views.
用户们纷纷晒出自己品尝茴香味、大蒜味、酸辣味腌制小黄瓜的照片。（这些味道因所用香草、香料的不同，以及黄瓜是浸泡在醋液中还是在盐水中发酵而各具特色。）一段展示如何制作缤纷“腌黄瓜拼盘”的视频播放量更是突破了5000万次。
Some pair pickles with confectionery for a
sweet-savoury morsel. The chamoy pickle—a bright red,
piquant
iteration
—has
gone viral. Eaters unconcerned about heartburn or tooth decay eat it with sour
candy, fruit strips, Cheetos and hot sauce. And recently Dua Lipa, a pop star, caused a stir by
stirring pickle and jalapeño juice into her Diet Coke.
有人别出心裁，将腌黄瓜与糖果搭配，创造出甜中带咸的美味组合。一种色泽鲜红、辣味十足的咸菜在网络上迅速走红，成为食客们的新宠。无需顾虑胃灼热或蛀牙的食客，更是大胆地将其与酸糖、水果条、奇多薯片及辣酱等一同享用，风味独特，令人难忘。最近，流行歌星杜阿·利帕更是在她的健怡可乐中加入腌黄瓜与墨西哥辣椒汁，此举引发了广泛热议与效仿。
Van Holten’s, an American firm, is Gen Z’s preferred
pickle purveyor. Its individually wrapped cucumbers are fun to tear open on
camera. Last year the company sold some 85m units, up from 70m in 2022. “Laid
end-to-end that would stretch from Miami to Seattle” four times over, says Eric
Girard, the head of sales and marketing.
Van Holten's，一家美国公司，已然成为Z世代首选的腌黄瓜供应商。其独立包装的黄瓜设计，在镜头前撕开时别有一番趣味。去年，该公司销量激增，售出了约8500万袋，相较于2022年的7000万袋，增长显著。销售和营销主管埃里克·吉拉德自豪地表示，若将出售的黄瓜首尾相连，其长度是“迈阿密至西雅图距离”的四倍。
Enthusiasts are producing pickles at home, too. During
the pandemic more people found time to experiment with pickling and fermenting. They found cucumber pickles an easy
thing to make and a
versatile
ingredient to cook with. So strong is the
interest that Grillo’s, another American brand, recently released a recipe book
dedicated to the pickle, spanning condiments, cocktails and cakes.
腌黄瓜爱好者们也不满足于市面上的成品，纷纷在家自制腌黄瓜。疫情期间，更多人有了闲暇时间，尝试腌制与发酵技艺。他们发现，黄瓜泡菜不仅制作简便，还是一种用途广泛的烹饪原料。这股热潮之盛，促使美国品牌 Grillo's 最近推出了一本专注于腌黄瓜的食谱书，书中涵盖了调味品、鸡尾酒乃至蛋糕的多种创新用法。
The obsession is new, but the pickle’s history is long. Around 4,000 years ago ancient
Mesopotamians pickled vegetables; over the centuries pickle fans have
reportedly included Cleopatra, Christopher Columbus and Napoleon Bonaparte.
尽管这股腌黄瓜痴迷之风兴起不久，但腌黄瓜的历史却源远流长。大约4000年前，古美索不达米亚人便已掌握了蔬菜腌制技术；据记载，历史上不乏腌黄瓜的忠实拥趸，如克利奥帕特拉、克里斯托弗·哥伦布及拿破仑·波拿巴等。
Health concerns may be partly behind the current boom.
George Rice of Serious Pig, a British snack-maker, says people buy pickles
because they are low in calories. There is also “a lot of chat about gut
health”, and evidence suggests that fermented foods can strengthen the gastrointestinal microbiome. Pickles made with a salt brine fit
the wellness bill; those made with vinegar do not, as vinegar is too acidic for
the necessary bacteria.
健康问题或许是当前腌黄瓜兴盛的部分原因。英国零食制造商 Serious Pig 的乔治·赖斯指出，人们购买腌黄瓜，很大程度上是因为其低热量特性。此外，“肠道健康的讨论日益增多”，有研究表明，发酵食品有助于增强胃肠道微生物组。以盐水制成的腌黄瓜符合健康饮食趋势；相比之下，醋制腌黄瓜则因醋液酸性过强，不利于益生菌存活，而稍显逊色。
Alan Kaufman says his shop in New York, The Pickle
Guys, uses more than 1,000kg of cucumbers a week. Yet runners come for the
flavoured, salty liquid, as it replaces the electrolytes lost during exercise.
Tempted to dust off that jar in your fridge, chomp the contents—and pour
yourself a cold glass of pickle juice?
艾伦·考夫曼透露，他在纽约经营的 The Pickle Guys 商店，每周需消耗超过1,000公斤黄瓜用于腌制。而令人意想不到的是，跑步者竟也青睐这种咸味调味液体，视其为补充运动中流失电解质的佳品。此刻，你是否已心生冲动，想要拂去冰箱中腌黄瓜罐子上的尘埃，尽情品尝这份美味——甚至为自己调制一杯清凉的腌黄瓜汁呢？
重难点词汇
：
parlance
[
ˈ
pɑ
ː
rl
ə
ns] n. 说法；用语；语言习惯
ornamentally
[
ˌɔ
ː
rn
əˈ
ment
ə
li] adv.装饰地；作为装饰
charcuterie
[
ʃ
ɑ
ː
rkju
ːˈ
ti
ː
ri] n. 熟食店；肉类制品（尤指香肠、火腿等）
piquant
[
ˈ
pi
ː
k
ə
nt] adj. 辛辣的；开胃的；有刺激性的；有风趣的
iteration
[
ˌɪ
t
əˈ
re
ɪʃ
n] n. 重复；反复；迭代
versatile
[
ˈ
