美國有啥好吃的……嗎？聽聽吃貨老外怎麼說丨CD電台

本文轉自念念英文（echo_eng），已獲授權

吃的問題絕對是我們最願意關心的話題之一，就說《舌尖上的》，拍了那麼多，依然覺得只是冰山一角，看得人意猶未盡。要聊中餐的代表菜，估計那幾大菜系聊一天都不夠。

作為一個吃貨的人生格局，當然就是畫一張詳細的世界美食地圖了，比如墨西哥卷、巴西烤肉、意麵、日本刺身……

不過到美國這裡，似乎就卡住了，除了KFC爺爺一類的純熱量炸彈，念小編也想不出其他能在前面掛上美國二字的東西了。但是把KFC列為美食，貌似有點勉強？

所以本期的節目，我們就請大衛哥來給我們普及一下他眼中的美國特色美食，一日三餐。

- Q1 -

A lot of countries have their own style of food what do you think the US』s style is?

很多國家都有自己獨特的美食，你覺得美國的特色美食是啥？

The US is interesting because we don』t have a very long history and we are a country founded by immigrants. We have the food from all of the different places that all of those people come from and we kind of mix it all together.

美國（的情況）很特殊，因為我們的歷史不長，而且我們是移民建立的國家。所以我們吃的是移民們從世界各個地方帶來、並且融合在一起的食物。

First of all sandwiches are a huge thing here. We love sandwiches so Subway is a hugely popular restaurant. And peanut butter and honey or jam sandwiches are a common breakfast food. In short if there is bread with stuff in between it we love it.

首先，三明治是美國人鍾愛的一大美食。我們超愛吃三明治，所以賽百味在這兒很火。花生醬或者果醬三明治是一種很常見的早餐。總的來說，只要在麵包之間夾東西的組合，我們都愛吃。

In order to enjoy sandwiches you need to make your mouth open wide and take a huge bite which is probably against Chinese table manners? So I』ve seen a lot of my Chinese friends take everything apart and eat all of the parts individually when they are new to the US. And I think it』s always funny to watch them eating sandwiches. It』s probably similar to when you guys watch us trying to use chopsticks.

吃三明治得張大嘴狠狠咬一口才爽，貌似這和的餐桌禮儀有點衝突？所以我的很多朋友剛到美國的時候會把三明治拆開，一點一點吃。我覺得看他們吃三明治很好玩，估計跟你們看我們（笨拙地）用筷子一樣。

Other food we are huge on is MEAT. Americans love meat such as hamburgers steaks brats and hotdogs. But we don』t do it in a very special way like Chinese dishes where you spend a lot of time cutting and preparing the meat. We usually just get a big chunk of meat and we throw it on a fire and cook it with seasonings and it』s delicious.

我們還很愛吃肉。美國人是肉食動物，比如漢堡包、牛排、香腸還有熱狗。但是我們並不會像中餐那樣花時間精心做肉來吃。通常我們只會弄一大快肉，扔在火上，放點調味料在上面烤會兒，就覺得很好吃了。

Here is one funny example of our differences in cooking meat. So when the weather is nice we like to cook out with a group of our close friends where we bring the raw food and we grill it over an open fire. Usually one of my American friends and my wife are primarily in charge of cooking because they both enjoy it so they take turns.

中餐和美餐烹制肉的方法不同，我正好親歷過，有圖有真相。每當天氣很好的時候，我們會和一群朋友出去野餐，各自帶上食材，到公園裡燒烤、野餐。一般都是我老婆和一個美國的朋友來負責做，因為他們都喜歡干這事，所以他們輪流負責。

When my friend is in charge he just throws chunks of meat with a bunch of seasonings on the grill. The whole time we just leave the meat cooking there. My friend only goes over to flip them to the other side once. It takes about half hour to cook thoroughly and afterward we get to have fun cutting and chewing big delicious chunks of seasoned meat.

當我朋友負責的時候，畫風是這樣的：他就把幾大塊肉加了點調料，直接扔爐子上。然後我們就讓肉自己在那烤，也不用人看著，烤到一半的時候我朋友去翻一次面。大概花半小時就能完全烤熟，然後就是歡樂地切肉、吃肉啦，大口吃肉的感覺真好哇。

When my wife is in charge she'll chop all the stuff in to small pieces and marinates the meat overnight. In total she probably spends half a day preparing the food before we even get to cooking it. She puts all sorts of sauce on it during the cooking and flips them every now and then. They taste so good.

我老婆負責的時候，畫風驟變，她把所有東西都切成很小的一塊，用調料腌了一晚上。我掐指一算，甚至在我們開始烤之前，她就已經花了半天的時間來準備。而且烤的過程中她還放了各種各樣的調味料，每隔一會兒就會去翻一下刷個油。不過講真，我老婆的手藝真的好棒！

We also like pastas and pizza that we get from our Italian ancestors. Pizza is a common fast-food and if you are fancy, you can learn how to make it yourself. I have a friend who is very good at making pizza. There are a couple of major steps in making the perfect pizza.

美國人也很愛義大利祖先傳給我們的意麵和披薩。披薩是一種很常見的快餐，如果你動手能力強，還可以學學怎麼DIY，我就有一個朋友很會披薩。做一個完美的披薩大概需要以下幾個步驟：

First, you have to make the dough using bread flour.

首先，用麵包粉（和酵母）揉一個麵糰。

After it rises, you need to roll it out flat, like a big plate.

麵糰發好后，擀成一個像盤子那樣的圓形麵餅。

Then you bake the dough lightly before putting on any toppings.

在放餡料之前，先稍微烤一下麵餅。

Finally, you put pizza sauce, cheese, vegetables & meat on top, and throw it back in the oven until the cheese melts.

最後把披薩醬、芝士、蔬菜和肉放到麵餅上，扔回烤箱烤到芝士融化。

My friend spent a really long time refining his pizza-making skills. Now he is really good at it.

我朋友花了很長時間磨練他的披薩技能，現在他的手藝已經堪比大廚了。

Speaking of pizza, I have heard that Pizza Hut is a fancy restaurant in China. One of my Chinese friend』s husband proposed to her there! So I googled Chinese Pizza Hut, and it does look really fancy; way fancier than what we have. Pizza Hut is just a fast food chain here. There was one time my wife wanted to find a Pizza Hut to see what the US version was like, and we could not even find one with seating; they were all take-out only. We live in the 5th largest city in the US!

說到披薩，我聽說必勝客在是一家高檔餐廳？我有個朋友的老公據說就是在那裡跟她求婚的。所以我google了一下的必勝客，看起來確實挺高級的，至少比我們這的高級多了。必勝客在這裡只是個快餐連鎖。有一次我老婆想去必勝客看看美國版的是啥樣，居然連一家有座位的都沒找到，全是只能打包帶走的。虧我們住的地方還號稱是全美第五大城市……

She says the food at US Pizza Hut is not as good as the Chinese ones. She says KFC and McDonald's are also better in China. That could be true, it seems like there are a lot of differences in these chains between our countries. I』ll need to try in person though before I form a final opinion.

而且我老婆說美國必勝客的東西沒有的好吃，她還說肯德基和麥當勞也是的更好吃。這很有可能，貌似這些連鎖店在我們兩個國家之間確實有很大差別。我得哪天親自去試試，再發表個人意見。

Salads are also very common here, especially for people who care about their body shape. We put raw vegetables in them, with salad dressing like ranch, Italian, or vinaigrette. The idea behind using raw veggies is that you can keep all of the nutrients in them if you don』t cook them, because cooking will break down proteins and just ruin the cellular stuff. It tastes crisp and delicious. But if I am completely honest with you, sometimes you may feel like a rabbit when you eat salad.

在美國，沙拉也很流行，尤其是對於那些在乎自己身材的人。沙拉里都是生的蔬菜，混合著沙拉醬，常見的比如 ranch, Italian, vinaigrette 這三種。蒸煮時的高溫會破壞細胞結構、使蛋白質變性，因此生吃蔬菜能夠最大限度地保留食材的營養。雖然沙拉很清爽可口，但老實說，有時候吃著吃著就覺得自己像只兔子……

The funny thing is that after talking so much about what Americans usually eat, I mostly eat Chinese food now because of marriage. So, my personal style of food is like:

搞笑的是作為一個美國人，我在這說了一堆美國人都吃啥，但其實我吃得最多的是吃中餐，哈哈哈~ 因為老婆是人，所以我平常吃的食物是這樣的：

Bagels with cream cheese or peanut butter and coffee for breakfast.

早餐：貝果夾奶油芝士或者花生醬 + 咖啡。

A Chinese lunch box prepared by my wife for lunch. Today I』m having tomato and egg noodles.

午飯是我老婆準備的一盒菜，比如今天我吃的番茄煎蛋面。

Then, more Chinese food for dinner. Depending on my wife』s mood, she makes all sorts of different food. You can check out the photos of food we』ve taken in the past.

晚飯也是各種中餐，看我老婆心情，她會做各種不同的菜，上面奏是我們之前做過的菜的照片。

- Q2 -

Do Americans like to eat out or to cook for themselves? How often do they eat out?

美國人喜歡自己在家做飯還是出去吃？一般多久下一次館子？

Both it kind of depends on the person. The downside of eating out here is that it』s more expensive than cooking for yourself. And it』s usually not quite as healthy. You will probably end up paying about 2-3 times as much to eat out as you would if you cook at home. But it really comes down to the person though whether they enjoy cooking or even know how to cook.

都有，這取決於個人。出去吃的一大缺點就是要比自己在家做貴很多，而且也不太健康，下館子花的錢大概是自己做的2-3倍。但說到底還是要看個人，比如你喜不喜歡做飯，會不會做飯等等。

The frequency that they eat out also varies wildly. Me with a PhD student salary I probably eat out about twice a week. Before I got married I ate out more frequently until I realized I spent a ton of money eating out then I decided to cook more for myself. But I don』t know much about cooking. Bean and chili soup is the one food I cooked about 80% of the time.

所以下館子的頻率不同的人差別很大。我作為一個拿著博士僧工資的人，大概每周出去吃兩次。婚前我出去的更多一些，直到有一天我意識到自己把錢都吃沒了，然後就決定自己做飯吃了。但是我不太會做菜，80%的時候我都做這個辣椒黃豆湯。

When we eat out we have all sorts of food choices here: all the meat and sandwiches like we talked about earlier; Chinese food you guys probably know more about that than me;

出去吃的話，就有很多不同的選擇了：比如我們之前提到的各種肉和三明治；還有中餐，估計你們比我更加了解。

Mexican food like burritos guacamole beans and rice chips and salsa;

墨西哥菜，比如墨西哥卷，牛油果醬，豆類和米飯，玉米片和辣味番茄醬；

△

Burritos, Beans and Rice/Chip and Salsa/Guacamole

墨西哥卷，豆類和米飯/玉米片，辣味番茄醬/牛油果醬

Italian food with pasta and pizza;

義大利菜，比如意麵和披薩；

△ Pasta 意麵 / Pizza 披薩

Welsh-English food like pot pies;

威爾士和英國菜，比如餡餅；

△ Pot Pies 餡餅

African food which is a lot of beans and bread with tasty sauces;

非洲菜，像是很多豆類和麵包加上很美味的醬料；

△ African food 非洲菜

Indian food like curries;

印度菜，比如咖喱；

△ Curries 咖喱

and Middle Eastern food like falafel and lamb.

中東菜，像是炸鷹嘴豆泥丸子和羊肉。

△ Falafel 炸鷹嘴豆泥丸子/ Lamb 羊肉

Guys you should come here and eat all of the food!

小夥伴們，你們真應該過來親自嘗個遍呀~

On top of that you』ll also get what we call Fusion Food where somebody who likes a lot of different styles of food will start a restaurant to put them all together in interesting ways. So you might get like Italian/Chinese Fusion and it』s kind of Italian food it』s kind of Chinese food and it』s probably really good.

除了這些以外，還有一些餐廳是把幾種不同地方的美食巧妙融合在一起的，我們叫它 Fusion - 大雜燴。所以你有可能吃到比如意/中雜燴，有點像中餐，有點像義大利菜。

That』s one thing that's real nice about us not having our own type of food is that we are free to experiment with everyone else』s.

雖說美國這個地方沒什麼屬於自己的特色美食，但這也帶來了一個好處，就是我們可以盡情嘗試其他各國的美食~

We love Chinese food. It』s delicious. Though we are not so big on the weirder parts of Chinese foodlike chicken feet. We actually ship all of our chicken feet to China because Americans don』t really eat them. And all the gizzards and the stomachs and that sort of stuff. We mostly just like the pure meatso we don』t pick bones as closely as you. I had a friend. We went to a Hong Kong restaurant and he ordered something cooked with small bones in it. He totally freaked out and didn』t even know what to do with it.

我們很愛吃中餐。但是大部分美國人接受不了中餐里的一些比較奇怪的部位，比如雞爪。美國的大部分雞爪估計都出口了，因為美國人基本都不吃。還有雞胗、各種胃和內臟也不大能接受，我們只愛純肉，所以我們也不怎麼會啃小骨頭。有一次我和一個朋友去一家香港飯店吃飯，他不小心點了一個要啃骨頭的菜，結果他一看到肉里這麼多骨頭，驚得完全不知道該怎麼下嘴。

But I think a lot of Americans here only get Americanized Chinese food the same way we have Americanized every other food. An American might be surprised if they go to China thinking that they are familiar with Chinese food. It will be very different. So if you come here and go to a Chinese restaurant it』s probably also going to be very different than what you get in China unless the owner is a Chinese immigrant.

美國中餐雖多，不過這裡大部分人吃的估計都是「美式中餐」，就像其他地方的食物也多多少少會被美國化一樣。有的美國人以為自己很熟悉中餐，但等去見到真正的中餐時往往會很驚訝，因為味道很不一樣。如果你來這裡吃中餐，估計也跟你在吃的不一樣，除非老闆是個來的移民。

A good example of this is Panda Express which is a fast food chain here and they claim to serve Chinese food. But they just do Chinese food in an American way: deep frying everything and putting tons of calories in the food. So they sort of look like Chinese food but they are thoroughly American.

有一個很好的例子就是熊貓快餐，這是我們這裡的一家連鎖快餐店，他們號稱自己是中餐。但其實他們只是用美國人的方法來做中餐：油炸各種東西，並且往裡面加一堆高熱量的成分。

The Chinese food I like most is dumplings. They are so good. Stir-fry of any sort is good too. And kung pao chicken is very popular here. Pretty much every Chinese restaurant here has a variant of kung pao chicken.

我最喜歡的中餐是餃子，它們真的超好吃。各種小炒也很好吃。還有最出名的宮保雞丁，幾乎每家中餐館都有各自版本的宮保雞丁。

Are there many vegetarians in the US? Why do you think they choose to be vegetarian?

美國素食主義者多嗎？你認為他們為什麼要吃素？

There is a good number of vegetarians here and it seems like there are more and more with each passing year. I was actually vegetarian for about 10 years.

這裡的素食主義者還是挺多的，而且每年都有越來越多的人選擇吃素。我曾經也當了10年的素食主義者。

There are plenty of choices for being vegetarian. But you do have to be creative because a lot of traditional dishes rely on meat just because most cultures』 food relies on meat.

素食主義者在食物方面選擇很多，但如果決定吃素，你還是得有一定創造力，因為大多數文化的美食基本都離不開肉類。

So you either have to substitute something in for the meat or just invent new dishes that also taste great. A lot of people think you cannot get enough protein if you don』t eat meat but that』s simply not true. You』ve got plenty of things like tofu beans and eggs which are super high in protein.

所以你要麼就想辦法找東西來代替肉類，要麼就自己發明好吃的素菜。很多人覺得只吃素會缺乏蛋白質、營養不良，其實並不是。很多食材，比如豆腐、豆類、雞蛋，都含有很高的蛋白質。

There are some different types of vegetarians. In the simplest sense vegetarians eat eggs and milkjust no meat. Vegans are the strictest vegetarian who don』t consume eggs or milk or any other animal product. Pescatarian on the other hand will eat everything vegetarians eat plus fish.

素食主義者也分為幾種。通常說的素食主義者只是不吃肉，但是會吃雞蛋或牛奶這類東西。純素主義者是最嚴格的一種，他們連雞蛋和牛奶這種動物產品都不吃。不禁忌魚的素食主義者，除了吃所有素食主義者的那些食物外，還會吃魚。

I know this sounds gross but you poop like a king if you are vegetarian because meat is what clogs you. Even having evolved to eat meat we』re not very good at digesting it.

我知道這個話題很污，但如果你是素食主義者，你每天都會拉得很舒爽，因為肉是最堵塞人體的。雖然我們進化得愛吃肉，但其實並不能很好的消化它。

There are a bunch of reasons for being a vegetarian which fall into two major groups though everyone will have their own personal reasons. One is that they think it』s healthier which may or may not be true. Everything is healthy and unhealthy to some extent. Americans probably eat way too much meat. So at least cutting back on that could be healthier for some people.

至於為什麼要吃素，因人而異，原因很多，但差不多可以分為兩大類。一類是為了健康，覺得吃素是一種更為健康的生活方式。這個觀點很難說對錯，因為任何方式都有可能健康或者不健康，關鍵是要把握一個度。不過美國人可能確實吃肉吃得太多了，所以對於一些人來說，減少肉類攝入是件好事。

The other one is the ethical one. They believe that animals have feeling to some extent like they can feel pain and fear and they have some sort of thoughts which is definitely true based on what we know. So they think the animals have a right to live and we shouldn』t be killing them if we don』t need to. We are advanced enough so that we can survive without eating meat so maybe we should survive without eating meat. Then we can be nice to those cute little animals.

另一類是出於人道主義的考慮。他們相信動物也有一定的感情，比如它們也能感受到痛苦和害怕，也有一定的思想，這是已經被科學證實的。所以他們認為動物也有生存的權利，在不必要的時候，我們不應該殺害它們。而現在我們已經發展到了不吃肉也能生存的階段了，所以我們應該這樣做。然後我們就能和可愛的小動物們和諧相處了~

Usually if you have a big get-together of some sort and you are the host you should be conscious of whether or not there are going to be vegetarians around like culturally a lot of Indians are vegetarian.

通常來說，如果你主辦一個聚會，最好能注意一下參與人員里是否有素食主義者，比如說很多印度人因為文化的原因，是素食主義者。

△ 印度斯里蘭卡素食平面廣告

So when you go to have an event here there is a high chance that somebody is not going to eat meat. Usually as a host you』ll try to plan for that and have a least one real dish that doesn』t have meat in it. Most vegetarians are very understanding that other people do eat meat and that they are the weird ones. So they will try not to cause too much trouble. But part of being a good host is to accommodate people』s food preferences.

在美國參加聚會遇到不吃肉的人的概率很高。所以作為主人家，你需要為此而計劃，至少準備一道不含肉的主菜。大部分的素食主義者都很理解別人是要吃肉的，他們屬於特殊人群，所以他們也會注意盡量不添麻煩。但是作為一個好主人，能夠根據客人偏好提供不同的選擇是很貼心的表現。

And it』s not just vegetarians. For religious or cultural reasons some people don』t eat pork. Some people have food allergies like there is a certain allergy to wheat so they have to be careful around various bread products. It』s just good to be aware of those things. If you have friends or colleagues that have special food requirements it』s good to know how to accommodate them.

除了吃素的朋友，還有其他一些需要考慮的。例如有些人因為宗教或者文化的原因不吃豬肉，有些人食物過敏（比如有人對小麥過敏，他們就得對麵包類產品特別小心）。平時稍微留心一下，如果你的朋友或者同事有一些特殊的食物要求，知道該怎樣招待他們會讓人覺得你很棒啊~

總的說來，一個地方的美食和歷史文化是分不開的。在國內我們想查查要吃什麼，輸入的關鍵詞一定是「川菜」、「粵菜」這類和地緣息息相關的辭彙，因為我們的美食就源於不同的地貌人文。

而美國的美食則來自各國移民，經過了幾代人的改造融合，成為了如今美國化后的版本。

所以在美國要查吃什麼，技巧就是搜索關鍵詞「墨西哥」、「義大利」、「亞洲」之類的國名或者大區域名。

➊

on top of

原文：

And on top of that, you』ll also get what we call Fusion Food.

釋義：

on top of，此外，除… 之外，用法和 in addition to 類似。

例句：

On top of being dull, he's unfriendly.

他除了很遲鈍外，還很不友好。

➋

freak out

原文：

He totally freaked out and didn』t know what to do with it..

釋義：

freak out，大驚失色，受到驚嚇

例句：

He freaked out when he knew his girlfriend wanted to get married soon.

當他知道他女朋友想儘快結婚的時候，他被嚇到了。

➌

cut back on

原文：

So at least cutting back on that could be healthier for some people.

釋義：

cut back on，減少。

例句：

You should cut back on sweets if you don』t want to get fat.

如果你不想發胖就要少吃甜食。