海外文化:中國地方食物正在接管英國

Kai Wang and her friends like to sniff out the latest regional Chinese restaurants: a tiny cafe in east London specialising in food from China's north-east, or one near London Bridge serving numbing and hot crayfish. Kai, 26, is a media professional who came to the UK from Beijing in 2008, first to study and then to work. "When I arrived in London I thought I was really going to miss Beijing food. I love traditional Beijing cuisine, but also the spicy regional cuisines that have become popular in recent years: Sichuan, Hunan and Hubei. When I came to the UK, the Chinese food here all seemed to be so sweet and westernised, with a focus on the Cantonese style, which is too light and delicate for Beijing tastes. But more and more authentic Chinese regional restaurants have opened in the past few years, not just in Chinatown but all over the city."

王凱（音譯）和她的朋友們樂於發覺最新的中國地方菜餐館：一家位於倫敦東部專營中國西北菜的小餐館，或是一家位於倫敦橋旁的餐館提供「麻辣小龍蝦」。凱（音譯）是一位2008年從北京前往英國的專業媒體人，先求學後就業。“當我到達倫敦的時候，我想我開始切實的想念北京的食物。我愛老北京的傳統烹飪，同時麻辣口味地區的菜餚在近年也開始流行起來：四川，湖南和湖北。我來英國時，這裏的中國菜看來都是過甜和過於西化的，集中於粵式，相較於北京（菜餚）的口感太過清淡。但是近幾年越來越多正宗的中國地方菜餐館開業，不僅限於中國城，遍及城市。

It is people like Kai who have been one of the driving forces in a revolution in Chinese cooking in London and Manchester, and increasingly all over the UK. Unlike the older generation of Cantonese immigrants who arrived decades ago, bringing with them Hong Kong flavours adapted to western tastes, Kai and her contemporaries want to eat bolder, spicier food, and the trendy dishes that remind them of home. "So many westerners order dishes such as sweet-and-sour pork, char siu buns and stir-fried rice noodles with beef, which I really don't like," she says.

正是像凱（音譯）這樣的人們驅使着倫敦和曼徹斯特地區的中餐烹飪進行變革，而且逐漸遍及整個英國。不同於數十年前抵達的老一輩廣東移民，所帶來的適應西式口感的港式風味，凱（音譯）和她的同輩想要更猛，更辣的菜式，這些時髦的菜餚能讓他們想起故鄉。“如此多的西方人點例如「糖醋里脊」、「叉燒包」、「炒飯」和「牛肉麪」等菜餚，我都不甚喜歡。”她說。

In the mid-1990s, a restaurant called Baguo Buyi opened in the Sichuanese capital, Chengdu, giving a glamorous new spin to Sichuan folk cooking and setting off a nationwide craze for Sichuanese flavours that is only now beginning to cool. Since then, Hunanese food and the hearty cooking of the north-eastern or Dongbei region have also enjoyed their time in the limelight of Chinese culinary fashion. More recent Chinese arrivals to the UK, who include not only students but also businesspeople and tourists, are just as likely to come from Fujian, Shanghai or Liaoning as the Cantonese south of China, which means that Chinese restaurateurs no longer need to adapt their tastes to an old stereotype of Anglo-Cantonese food.

在上世紀90年代中期，一家名爲『巴國布衣（Baguo Buyi，音譯）』的餐館於四川省省會成都開業，給予了民間川菜烹飪一個富有魅力的疾馳（式發展），並引爆了全國範圍內對川式口味的狂熱，而今已經成爲了一種時尚。自此以後，湖南菜、豐盛的西北或東北菜也開始享受起了其在中國烹飪風尚中引人注目的時代。近來來到英國的中國人，不僅僅包括留學生，也包括商人和遊客，（這些）來自福建、上海或者遼寧的中國人，就像來自中國南方的廣東人一樣。這意味着中餐館不再需要調試其口味以適應那些老古板一般的英-粵式菜餚。

Many establishments, including Liao Wei Feng in Bethnal Green and Local Friends in Golders Green, have menus divided into two sections. They have one list of the usual Anglo-Canto suspects, including lemon chicken and crispy duck, and another offering some of the most authentic Hunanese food available in the capital, with dishes such as "stir-fried fragrant and hot fish" and "steamed belly pork, Chairman Mao-style".

許多餐館，包括【貝思納爾格林（Bethnal Green）】的『遼味風（Liao Wei Feng，音譯）』和【戈爾德斯格林（Golders Green）】的『當地友人（Local Friends）』，有兩份菜單。其中一份列有慣常的英-粵菜式菜餚，包括「檸檬雞」和「香酥鴨」，另一份提供了在首都（倫敦）可以獲得的地道湖南菜，如“「炒香辣魚」”和“「毛氏紅燒肉」”。

North-eastern and Hunanese cuisines are not the only ones making gradual inroads into British restaurant culture. Large numbers of Fujianese immigrants have joined the catering trade, although they are often inconspicuous in the kitchens of Cantonese restaurants. Fujian province lies on the south-eastern Chinese coast, and is known for its delicate soups, appetising street snacks and gentle way with oysters and other seafood. A handful of Fujianese cafes have come and gone in London: only one remains, Fuzhou in Gerrard Street, which is the place to go for gorgeous fishballs stuffed with minced pork and cabbage-and-clam soup with slippery rice pasta.

西北和湖南菜餚不是唯一入侵英國餐飲文化的。大量的福建移民開始加入餐飲行業，儘管他們在粵式餐館的廚房並不常顯眼。福建省位於中國東南海岸線上，少量的福建餐館在英國來來往往：只有一家留存下來，【傑拉德大街（Gerrard Street）】的『福州（Fuzhou）』，那是追尋——填滿豬肉末的極品魚丸和配以捲心菜蛤蜊湯的爽滑米粉——的地方。

Shanghainese food has traditionally been hard to find in Britain, although the city lies in one of China's richest gastronomic regions. The city itself is best known for the xiao long bao "soup dumpling" and for its sweet, soy-dark braises, but the wider region is the source of exquisite river delicacies such as crab, eel and shrimp, and famous dishes including beggar's chicken and dongpo pork. For a glimpse of Shanghainese cuisine, seek out the elegant dishes created by Shanghainese consultant chef Zhang Chichang at the Bright Courtyard Club in Baker Street, or the modest, homestyle stir-fries such as green soya beans with pork and pickled greens at Red Sun in New Quebec Street.

傳統上滬菜在英國很難被發現，儘管這座城市位於中國最富美食烹飪的地區之一。這座城市最富盛名的莫過於小籠包“湯包”和其甜口、醬燜（菜式），更廣泛源於其精緻的河鮮如螃蟹、鰻魚和蝦。知名菜式包括「叫花雞」和「東坡肉」。想一睹上海菜的佳餚。去找【貝克大街（Baker Street）】的『光明庭俱樂部（Bright Courtyard Club，音譯）』的滬菜顧問張馳昌（音譯）大廚親手烹製的優雅菜餚，或者位於【新魁北克大街（New Quebec Street）】的『紅日（Red Sun）』那最現代的、家常炒菜如「綠豆豬肉」和「醃製蔬菜」。

Sichuan and Hunan are China's best-known spice regions, but chillies are also adored in Guizhou province. Maotai Kitchen in Soho, named after the famous local liquor, offers Guizhou food. The jovial chef, Zhu Shixiu, grew up in the beautiful hills near the Guizhou-Hunan border, and, after years working in Cantonese restaurants, has been given free rein with the menu. His wife makes the "villagers' pickled Chinese cabbage", a delicious salad laced with coriander, fermented black beans and chilli. Many of his rustic dishes share the sour-hot characteristic of Hunan cooking, but the intriguing lemongrass note in some of them comes from litsea oil (mu jiang you), a Chinese medicine used as a condiment in Guizhou and a few other regions. Maotai Kitchen is part of the same group as Leong's Legends, which serves Taiwanese specialities.

四川和湖南是中國最負盛名的香料產區，但貴州省同樣嗜辣。【索霍區（Soho）】的『茅臺竈（Maotai Kitchen）』，以當地名酒爲店名，供應貴州菜餚。快樂的主廚，朱石秀（音譯），成長於湘黔交界的小山中，而且，在粵式餐館工作數年後，被給予了制定菜單的自由。他的妻子製作的“鄉村醃白菜”，是一道點綴香菜、豆豉和辣椒的美味沙拉。他製作的許多鄉村菜餚裏包含了湖南菜式烹飪的酸辣特色，但其中一些菜色的迷人的檸檬草香來自於木姜油（litsea oil ，mu jiang you)，一味在貴州和一些其他地區被當做調味品的中草藥。『茅臺竈（Maotai Kitchen）』是『梁山好漢（Leong's Legends）』集團的一員，這是一家供應臺灣菜餚的集團。

While there has been a flowering of regional cuisines in London, only Sichuanese cuisine has really broken out of the capital and begun its long march all over the country – a sign, perhaps, of its decade-long status as China's trendiest style of cooking. Red N Hot has branches in Manchester and Birmingham, while Red Chilli has expanded from its original Manchester HQ into Leeds and York: the spicy menu charmingly promises to look after "your pocket, stomach and soul". And in Oxford, My Sichuan has taken over the old school house at Gloucester Green, where chef Zhou Jun from Chengdu presides over a kitchen offering all the classic Sichuanese specialities.

作爲在倫敦開花的一種地方菜色，或許，只有四川菜已經衝出省府並開始了全國的長征——引領數十年中國烹飪風尚的地位的一個標誌。『紅和辣（Red N Hot）』已經在曼徹斯特和伯明翰開設了分店，同時『紅辣椒（Red Chilli）』已經從原本的曼徹斯特總部擴張至利茲市和紐約市：辣口菜單誘人地保證着照顧“你的口袋，胃和靈魂”。在牛津，『我的四川（My Sichuan）』已經接管了【格洛斯特格林（Gloucester Green）】的舊校舍，來自成都的大廚周軍（音譯）主持着一間提供全套傳統川菜的廚房。

As China's changing culinary fashions continue to cause ripples in the restaurant scene in London, the range of regional flavours is only likely to increase and spread across the country. In the meantime, Sichuanese cuisine has already radically changed the face of Chinese food in many parts of Britain. No one, it seems, need go for long without dry-fried beans or a bowlful of sliced sea bass in a sea of sizzling chilli oil.

中國變化中的烹飪風尚波及倫敦的餐飲業，地域口味的範圍已經增加並席捲全國。在此期間，川式烹飪已經從根本上改變了英國許多部分中餐的面貌。沒人能夠長期離得開幹炸黃豆或一碗熱滋滋的辣椒油中的海鱸魚片。