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Go to Taipei to eat snacks
Like many great food stalls and restaurants in Taipei, the Cong Zhua Bing onion pancake stand on Yongkang Street is easily missed by tourists.
It sits, incongruously, beneath a sign for a closed-down Vietnamese restaurant and offers no clues, in English, as to what it sells. But its pancakes are fluffy and airy with a good mix of tangy fried scallions and creamy butter. It is famous throughout Taipei, and the lines outside can run to more than 30 people on Sunday afternoons.
店面上挂的是一家已关闭的越南餐馆的招牌，看上去十分别扭，也没有任何英文提示告诉你店里卖的到底是什么。不过它的锅饼柔软透气，加了浓香的炒大葱和奶油酱。这家店在台北十分有名，星期六下午店外排队的可能有30多人。
“这是我吃过的全亚洲最好的葱抓饼”，美国华裔糕点师德博拉·陈(Deborah Chien)说。她为马来西亚美食攻略网站“Go Makan”提供美食介绍，永康葱抓饼店是她回台北探亲时发现的。
“They sell the best pancakes I have found in Asia,” says Deborah Chien, an American Chinese pastry chef who presents online food shows for Go Makan, an online Malaysian restaurant directory, and visits Yongkang when she is in Taipei seeing family members.
“我有天路过这个小摊，加入了队伍想看看人们到底排队在买什么，这才发现了这个地方。”
“But I only found the stall by passing by one day and joining the queue to see what people were lining up for.”
葱抓饼堪称台湾美食的一种象征。北京总会宣称台湾是中国的一部分，而这个民主的小岛在旅游方面没有得到那么多关注。它的美食、美丽的沙滩以及绝妙的远足路线也没有得到应有的好评。
Cong Zhua Bing is a fitting metaphor for Taiwanese cuisine. This small democratic island, which the Beijing government claims as part of China, gets little attention as a tourism destination. And its food, along with its stunning beaches and fantastic hiking trails, tends to be under-rated.
不过这个岛上有亚洲最美味的食物，这是因为它混合了中国、日本和原住民的传统。台湾人普遍热爱美食，品味也很高，大小餐厅对细节更是格外关注。
Yet the island has some of the best food in Asia, thanks to its mixed Chinese, Japanese and aboriginal heritage, the high standards demanded by a food-obsessed public and its restaurateurs’ exacting attention to detail.
对于只能在台北短暂停留的游客来说，这家葱抓饼店所在的永康街是个值得一去的地方。
For travelers who have only a short time in Taipei, Yongkang Street, home of Cong Zhua Bing, is the place to go.
永康街位于台北市中心的大安区，靠近台湾师范大学。“永康街是台北最活跃，品种最丰富的小吃街区。”约翰·克里奇(John Krich)说，他写了一本关于中国菜的书《云吞的诱惑》(Won Ton Lust)。
Yongkang, close to National Taiwan Normal University in Central Taipei’s Da An district, is “one of Taipei’s liveliest and most varied streets for food,” said John Krich, the author of Won Ton Lust, a book on Chinese food.
“食材朴素新鲜，慢火熬炖的浓郁猪肉、虾酱，原住民风味的根类蔬菜和炸鱼，以及中国各地美食都应有尽有。北方的饺子，南方的面条，尤其是福建的汤，各种菜肴无不精工细作，色香味俱全，”克里奇先生说：“在美食方面，台湾几乎浓缩了中国的精华，影响力远达南太平洋。”
“There’s a natural melange of the island’s rough, rustic fare, heavy on long-stewed pork and shrimp paste, the aboriginal use of roots and dried fish, with various regional cuisine of China, the dumplings of the North, noodles of the South, and especially the soups of the Fujianese, all taken to a level of loving meticulousness and care of presentation,” Mr. Krich said. “In terms of food choices, Taiwan is a China in miniature sent floating off into the South Seas.”
在永康街北头就是“鼎泰丰”小笼包连锁的母店。这个国际知名的店铺由杨秉彝创立，他来自北京附近的山西省。鼎泰丰原本只有这一家店面。不过当《纽约时报》将它评为1993年世界十大餐厅之后，它便逐步扩展到亚洲、美国和澳大利亚。
At the Northern end is Yongkang’s internationally famous resident, the original branch of the Din Tai Fung dumpling chain. The business, which was founded by Bingyi Yang, an immigrant from Shanxi Province near Beijing, operated from this single location until The New York Times named it one of the world’s top 10 gourmet restaurants in 1993 and it then expanded around Asia, the United States and Australia.
中午时分，顾客们常常为了到永康街这家鼎泰丰餐厅就餐排队等候一到一个半小时。
After midday, customers regularly wait an hour and half to get in to the Yongkang branch.
“我们国家也有鼎泰丰，但还是这里的最正宗。”来自马来西亚的19岁学生何常（Chang Haw，音译）说。周一早上他10点就来到鼎泰丰排队，他前面已经有了20个人。
“We have Din Tai Fung at home, but the dumplings here are the best,” said Chang Haw, a 19-year-old student from Malaysia, who arrived at 10 o’clock on a Monday morning to stake his place in the line. There were 20 people in front of him.
这里的特色菜是小笼包，一种上海风味的包子，馅是多汁的猪肉，还灌了汤。
The specialty is xiao long bao, a Shanghainese dumpling filled with soup and nuggets of juicy pork.
店里的气氛有几分安静肃穆，顾客们先把包子在醋和细细切好的姜里蘸一下，然后把包子放到大勺里，吃之前在包子上戳一个洞，让一些汤汁流出来，每个包子大概有壁球那么大，可以一口吃下去。顾客得非常注意才能不让热汤洒出来，店里不时传来的大声喘气就证明不是每个人都能做到。
The atmosphere inside is one of quiet reverence, as customers first dip their dumplings in vinegar and finely sliced ginger, then place them onto large spoons. They then poke a hole in the skin to let some broth spill out, before eating each dumpling, about the size of a squash ball, in one mouthful. It takes concentration not to spill the hot soup, and the occasional loud gasp is audible proof that not everyone manages it.
鼎泰丰有精致的内部装修，台湾商务人士很喜欢将它作为午餐的去处。不过永康街上其实大都还是餐车或者随意的小餐馆。不过五星级的台湾丽晶酒店厨师长黄来发(Lai-fa Huang)评价整条街都有“很高的烹饪水准”。他谢绝推荐具体哪家餐馆，但推荐游客品尝牛肉汤面、蚵仔面线、卤肉饭和芒果冰沙。
Din Tai Fung has a smart interior and is popular with Taipei’s business lunch crowd. By contrast, most Yongkang outlets are food stands or casual cafes. But they are all “of a high standard,” said Lai-fa Huang, chief chef for Chinese cooking at Taipei’s five-star Regent Hotel. He declined to recommend individual eateries but recommended that visitors sample beef noodle soup, oyster noodles, braised pork on rice and mango shaved ice.
“这些菜是台湾的家常菜”，黄先生说：“都是用爱心和细心做出来的”。
These dishes represent “Taiwanese home food,” Mr. Huang said, and are “cooked with a lot of love and care.”
台湾岛上有最初的原住民，研究者发现他们与马来人，波利尼西亚人和毛利人有亲缘上的联系。17世纪时，福建，广东的移民跨越香港边界，大批来到台湾。1895年-1945年，台湾被日本统治。1945年，与共产党的战争失败后，国民党把台湾作为中央政府所在地。国民党也是台湾目前的执政党。
Taiwan was first inhabited by aborigines who researchers have found share ethnic links with Malays, Polynesians and Maoris. Settlers from Fujian in Eastern China and Guangdong, across the border from Hong Kong, began arriving en masse in the 17th century. Japan controlled Taiwan from 1895 and 1945. The island then became home to the Chinese Nationalist government that had been defeated by Mao’s Communist Party and whose successor political party, the Kuomintang, is currently in power.
“从饮食中可以了解很多台湾的历史。” 台湾厨师麦琪·刘(Maggie Liu)说，她是台湾旅游生活频道的烹饪节目“麦琪的神奇菜单”的主持人。她推荐游客们到永康街一家餐馆去吃永康牛肉面，它是中国北方风味，在台湾非常流行。
“You can learn a lot about our history and culture from eating the food,” said Maggie Liu, a Taiwanese chef and the host of a Chinese language cookery, show Maggie’s Magic Menu, broadcast in Taiwan on the TLC channel. She recommends visitors eat at Yong Kang Beef Noodle, a restaurant just off Yongkang Street selling beef noodle soup, a Northern Chinese dish popular in Taiwan.
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Posted on 2012-10-25 11:09
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