经济学人 | 天水麻辣烫爆火的背后

每日双语经济学人 · 公众号 · · 2024-08-08 09:00

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背景介绍：

天水市，深藏于中国西北群山怀抱，近期因一道独特的甘谷辣椒麻辣烫而声名鹊起，网络热度飙升。这道源自街头的地道小吃，不仅吸引了百万食客慕名而来，更映射出中国饮食文化中“辣”的流行变迁。从昔日仅作观赏与药用的舶来品，到如今风靡全国餐桌的必备调料，辣椒的传奇旅程反映了中国饮食口味的多元化发展与社会变迁的深刻影响。

World in a dish

一盘菜里的世界

How the chilli pepper has set fire to the internet in China

辣椒为何在中国互联网上掀起热潮

Tianshui, a city tucked away in China’s north-western hills, does not normally make headline news. But a fiery soup that owes its unique flavour to locally grown Gangu chillies has lit up the internet.

天水市，一座深藏于中国西北群山怀抱的城市，通常不会上新闻头条。但一种以当地种植的甘谷辣椒为特色的辣味汤却在互联网上掀起热潮。

Since March, the hashtag #TianshuiMalatang, referring to a popular type of street food, has racked up more than 140m views on Weibo, a social-media platform.

自3月份以来，#天水麻辣烫（一种流行的街头小吃）这一词条在社交媒体平台微博上的浏览量已超过1.4亿。

Millions have flocked to the city to try it themselves. A local chef was caught on tape looking so miserable at work that local authorities had to give him a talking-to so that he remembered to smile.

成千上万人涌入这座城市，争相品尝这一美食。当地一位厨师因工作时的表情太过痛苦而被拍下视频，随后当地工作人员找上门来，提醒他记得保持微笑。

Increasingly the Chinese palate is craving spice. Last year Meituan, China’s biggest food-delivery app, reported that nearly 80% of restaurants now offer spicy fare, a taste known as la in Chinese. Look back a few hundred years, though, and chillies were nowhere to be found.

中国人的味蕾越来越渴望辣味。去年，中国最大的外卖应用美团报告称，近80%的餐馆现在都提供辣味（在中国被称为“la”）菜肴。然而，回溯数百年，辣椒却无处可寻。

Unlike ginger and Sichuan peppers, which are native to the region and widely used, chilli peppers were brought to China from the Americas by Portuguese and Dutch explorers only in the 16th century. At first, nobody ate them.

生姜和花椒原产于中国并被广泛使用，而辣椒则是16世纪由葡萄牙和荷兰探险家从美洲带到中国的。起初，没有人吃辣椒。

For at least 50 years, they were grown as decorative plants, prized for their cheerfully bright colour and tiny white flowers, and occasionally used as medicinal herbs.

在至少50年的时间里，辣椒一直被当作观赏植物种植，因其鲜艳的颜色和白色的小花而备受珍视，偶尔也被用作药材。

During China’s last imperial period, a stringent system that taxed salt forced peasants in Guizhou province to look for an alternative to the condiment . They chose chillies, which produce several crops a year and take up little land. From there, a new flavour was unlocked.

在中国最后一个封建王朝时期，严苛的盐税制度迫使贵州省的农民寻找替代调味品。他们选择了辣椒，因为辣椒一年可以收获几茬，且种植起来不占地方。由此，一种新风味被发掘。

The pepper steadily spread to other rural regions of China, but its pungent , overpowering flavour barred it from getting near the tables of imperial or upper-class families. For a long time, la was used to describe vicious-natured people, and the few urbanites who enjoyed chillies did not trumpet their taste.

辣椒逐渐传播到中国其他农村地区，但其刺鼻、浓烈的味道使其无法走上皇室或上层家庭的餐桌。在很长一段时间里，“辣”都被用来形容性情凶恶的人，而少数喜欢辣椒的城里人也没有大肆宣扬他们的口味。

But the Communist revolution revolutionised the kitchen. The chefs of nobles were out of favour, and their traditions discontinued. Mao made Russian envoys eat sweat-inducing dishes and laughed when they could not handle the heat. “You can’t be a revolutionary if you don’t eat chillies,” he said. What was once a poor man’s food became a symbol of China’s working class.

但共产主义革命彻底改变了厨房。贵族厨师失宠，传统中断。当俄罗斯使节吃到辣的满头大汗的菜肴时，他便开怀大笑。他说：“不吃辣椒，就不能算革命者。”这种曾经专属于穷人的食物，如今成为了中国工人阶级的象征。

Industrialisation after Mao created the largest migration in human history. Hundreds of millions of migrants poured into big cities, bringing with them the spicy flavours of home. Chillies are now incorporated into street food, fine dining and snacks in regions with little tradition of heat.

后来的工业化创造了人类历史上最大规模的人口迁徙。数亿移民涌入大城市，带来了家乡的辛辣味道。如今，在一些没有辣味传统的地区，辣椒也被融入到街头美食、精致菜肴和小吃中。

Cao Yu, a food writer and author of “The History of Eating La”, argues that part of the chilli’s charm also comes from its social function. “If we’ve had spicy food together, we’ve endured pain together,” he says. “It’s just like drinking, it brings us closer to one another.”

美食作家、《吃辣的历史》一书的作者曹雨认为，辣椒的魅力在一定程度也来自其社交功能。他说：“如果我们一起吃辣，那我们就一起经历过痛苦，就像喝酒一样，它拉近了我们彼此的距离。”

(红色标注词为重难点词汇)

重难点词汇 ：

condiment [ ˈ kɑnd ə m ə nt] n. 调味品；佐料

pungent [ ˈ p ʌ nd ʒə nt] adj. 辛辣的；刺激性的；讽刺的

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经济学人 | 天水麻辣烫爆火的背后

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