從寡淡甜膩到五味調(diào)合：在美國(guó)尋找正宗泰國(guó)味

SAN FRANCISCO — Crunchy hearts of palm and giant shrimp stir-fried with holy basil and the perfect ration of red chilies. A green papaya salad, freshly shredded and mashed with an extra portion of tiny Thai limes.

舊金山——香脆的棕櫚心和大蝦炒圣羅勒，搭配比例完美的紅辣椒。新鮮切碎的青木瓜沙拉上放著小片泰國(guó)酸橙。

There was a downside to living in Bangkok for a decade as a New York Times correspondent and being surrounded by great Thai dishes like those: It really raised the bar for when I moved back to America.

身為紐約時(shí)報(bào)駐曼谷記者，我在這個(gè)城市生活了十年，缺點(diǎn)就是身邊總有這樣的泰國(guó)美味。結(jié)果回到美國(guó)之后，這大大提高了我對(duì)泰餐的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

Last year, a few weeks after my family and I arrived in the United States for a new posting and a new life, we went to a Thai restaurant in New York City where my son, then 9, casually rattled off an order of one of his favorites, pad see ew gai — stir-fried rice noodles with chicken, garlic, leafy greens and a mixture of dark and light soy sauce.

去年，我接受了一個(gè)新崗位，打算開始新的生活，于是和家人返回美國(guó)?；貒?guó)幾周后，我們?nèi)チ思~約的一家泰餐廳，我9歲的兒子隨口報(bào)出了他的最愛(ài)之一：豉油炒雞河——就是把米粉制成的面條與雞肉、大蒜、綠葉蔬菜與生抽、老抽混合的醬油放在一起炒。

The Thai waiter, having not encountered many U.S. children who speak Thai, was charmed. He doted on my son, and after he had delivered the food made a standard Thai inquiry: Is it delicious?

面前的泰國(guó)服務(wù)員沒(méi)怎么見過(guò)會(huì)說(shuō)泰語(yǔ)的美國(guó)小孩，簡(jiǎn)直被迷住了。他寵溺地對(duì)待我兒子，上菜之后，他像標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的泰國(guó)人那樣問(wèn)道：味道還好嗎?

We had just encountered the bland and sugary food found at so many Thai restaurants in the United States, and other places outside Thailand. Ever since, I’ve been preoccupied with a mystery: how one of the world’s most sophisticated and flavorful cuisines can be reduced to such a starchy and insipid mess.

在美國(guó)以及泰國(guó)以外的地方，我們?cè)谔嗟奶┎蛷d里只能吃到寡淡甜膩的菜品。從那以后，我就一直在思忖這樣一個(gè)謎團(tuán)：世界上最為精致復(fù)雜、口感豐富的美食之一，為什么會(huì)退化成這種充斥淀粉、淡而無(wú)味的一團(tuán)糟?

I’ve heard lots of explanations. One is the persistence of a belief — not unfounded — among some Thai chefs that Westerners like their food sweet and can’t handle spice.

我聽過(guò)很多種解釋。其中一則是一些泰國(guó)廚師一貫堅(jiān)持的信念——并非毫無(wú)根據(jù)——西方人喜歡泰餐中的甜食，但卻受不了他們的香料。

When I was living in Bangkok, a Thai friend told me she had worked in the kitchen of a Thai restaurant in Austria. I asked her whether it was difficult to cook for farangs, the term Thais use to describe Europeans and Americans.

住在曼谷時(shí)，一位泰國(guó)朋友告訴我，她曾在奧地利一家泰餐廳當(dāng)過(guò)廚師。我問(wèn)她為西方佬(farangs)——這是泰國(guó)人對(duì)歐美人的稱呼——做飯是不是特別困難。

“It’s easy,” she said. “You pretend you are cooking for children.”

“很簡(jiǎn)單，”她說(shuō)。“假裝你是在給孩子做飯就行了。”

Thai food is not the only cuisine to have been transformed in the journey across oceans. But I’ve made it my mission to track down good Thai cooking in the Bay Area, where I am now the Times bureau chief. I quiz every Thai person I meet, trade tips with diplomats and scour the streets for high-end and hole-in-the-wall restaurants that hold promise.

泰餐并不是唯一一種漂洋過(guò)海之后就被改變的美食。但是現(xiàn)任時(shí)報(bào)灣區(qū)分社長(zhǎng)的我，已經(jīng)把在這里尋找美味泰餐視為己任。我詢問(wèn)遇見的所有泰國(guó)人;和外交官們交換信息;走遍街頭，搜索各種有希望的高端餐廳或路邊小店。

What I’ve found has been encouraging. A number of restaurants here serve dishes that respect the complexity of Thai food and its balance of sweet, sour, salt and spice. They’re part of a sea change that in recent years has produced ambitious and acclaimed Thai restaurants around the country, particularly in West Coast cities like Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.

我的發(fā)現(xiàn)令人振奮。這里許多餐廳提供的菜肴都尊重泰國(guó)食材的復(fù)雜性，注重甜、酸、咸與香料的平衡。近年來(lái)，全國(guó)各地涌現(xiàn)出不少有抱負(fù)、有聲譽(yù)的泰餐廳，特別是在洛杉磯和俄勒岡州波特蘭等西海岸城市，我探訪的這些餐館也是這股潮流的一部分。

“It’s a golden age for Thai food,” said James Syhabout, a Thailand-born chef and cookbook author who owns Hawker Fare, a San Francisco restaurant that specializes in dishes from that country’s Isaan region. “Restaurants serving good Thai food, as they do now, didn’t exist two decades ago because there wasn’t the community to support it, besides our own community.”

“眼下是泰餐的黃金時(shí)代，”泰國(guó)出生的廚師和食譜作家詹姆斯·希亞波特(James Syhabout)表示，他在舊金山擁有一家名叫Hawker Fare的餐廳，專營(yíng)泰國(guó)伊訕地區(qū)的美食。“20年前，根本沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)在這樣提供精美泰餐的餐廳，因?yàn)橹挥形覀冏约旱纳鐓^(qū)會(huì)支持它們。”

“Now diversity is more celebrated. And we are more brave, more proud of showcasing our ethnicity,” said Syhabout, who also owns Commis, an Oakland, California, restaurant that has two Michelin stars.

“現(xiàn)在多樣性受到更多鼓勵(lì)。我們也開始更加勇敢、更加自豪地展示自己的民族，”希亞波特說(shuō)，他還在加利福尼亞州奧克蘭市擁有米其林兩星餐廳Commis。

When his parents opened their first Thai restaurant in the late 1980s, they made their dishes milder and sweeter to attract diners unfamiliar with the cuisine. “The last thing any chef wants is to get the food sent back,” he said. “You want to play on the safer side.”

1980年代末，他的父母開了他家的第一個(gè)泰餐廳，當(dāng)時(shí)，為招徠不熟悉泰餐的食客，他們把菜肴的味道弄得更清淡、更甜。“任何廚師最不想看到的就是食物被送回后廚，”他說(shuō)。“你希望一切都安全穩(wěn)妥。”

In California, the change has come in part because the Thai population has reached a critical mass: The Thai Consulate in Los Angeles estimates that there are more than 200,000 Thais in the state, enough to have restaurants that cater only to them.

在加州，這個(gè)變化的一個(gè)原因在于，泰裔人口的數(shù)量已經(jīng)足夠多：據(jù)泰國(guó)駐洛杉磯領(lǐng)事館估計(jì)，加州約有逾20萬(wàn)泰裔，足以讓餐館面向滿足他們的需求。

San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, the epicenter of the down-and-out in a city that has become largely unaffordable to all but the very wealthy, is also home to some of the city’s best Thai food.

在只有大富豪才不覺(jué)得物價(jià)離譜的舊金山，田德龍區(qū)是窮困潦倒者的集中地，也是這座城市最好的一些泰國(guó)餐廳的所在地。

There I met Narupon Silargorn, who came to this city as an art student and in 2008 opened Lers Ros Thai, where most of the early customers were Asian.

我在那里遇見了納魯旁·斯拉貢(Narupon Silargorn)，當(dāng)初他來(lái)這座城市學(xué)習(xí)藝術(shù)，2008年開了Lers Ros Thai餐廳，早期的顧客大多是亞洲人。

“I didn’t care whether farangs liked it,” he said. He also didn’t care that many customers couldn’t properly pronounce the name (layre rote tie), which means “excellent taste.” Now he has three branches, and two-thirds of his customers are not Thai. The image of farangs with unsophisticated palates is out of date, Narupon said.

“我不在乎歐美人是否喜歡它，”他說(shuō)。他也不在意很多顧客不知道餐廳的正確發(fā)音(應(yīng)該是“雷爾羅特泰”)，意思是“超級(jí)美味”?，F(xiàn)在，他開了三家分店，三分之二的顧客不是泰裔。納魯旁說(shuō)，歐美人不懂美食的觀念已經(jīng)過(guò)時(shí)了。

For years, Thai chefs in America pointed out that fresh ingredients were not available; they were forced to buy Thai vegetables frozen or out of a can. That has changed with the intertwining of immigrant groups in California.

多年來(lái)，美國(guó)的泰菜大廚們抱怨買不到新鮮食材，只能購(gòu)買冷凍或罐裝泰國(guó)蔬菜。但是隨著加州移民群體的融合，情況已經(jīng)發(fā)生了變化。

Thai chefs today describe an informal partnership with ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos who came to America after the Vietnam War. Many settled as farmers in California’s Central Valley.

如今的泰菜大廚們稱，他們與越戰(zhàn)后來(lái)到美國(guó)的老撾赫蒙族難民達(dá)成了非正式合作關(guān)系。許多赫蒙族人在加州的中央谷地定居，從事農(nóng)業(yè)生產(chǎn)。

It’s a classic American and Californian story: The Hmong farmers grow herbs and plants essential to Southeast Asian cooking, and the Thai chefs rejoice over access to freshly plucked Kaffir lime leaves; calamansi, a small citrus fruit akin to a kumquat; unripened papayas ready to be shredded into som tam; and the chickpea-size Thai eggplant found in dishes like green curry.

這是一個(gè)典型的美國(guó)和加州故事：赫蒙族農(nóng)民種植東南亞烹飪所必需的香草和作物，泰菜大廚們欣喜地得到新鮮采摘的泰國(guó)青檸葉;類似金橘的小柑橘類水果“calamansi”(酸柑);用于切碎做成青木瓜沙拉的未成熟木瓜;以及鷹嘴豆大小的泰國(guó)茄子，用于制作綠咖喱等食物。

One avid customer for Hmong produce is Pim Techamuanvivit, the Bangkok-born owner of Kin Khao (Let’s Eat), a Thai restaurant wedged between the Tenderloin and Union Square.

曼谷出生的皮姆·特查姆安維維特(Pim Techamuanvivit)是赫蒙族農(nóng)產(chǎn)品的狂熱擁躉，她是泰國(guó)餐廳Kin Khao(意為“我們吃吧”)的老板，該餐廳位于田德龍區(qū)和聯(lián)合廣場(chǎng)之間。

Kin Khao breaks the mold of Thai restaurants in a number of ways. The staff is a mix of Thai and non-Thai. There are no wooden elephants and pictures of Thai landmarks; in an otherwise sparse wood-and-white dining room, Pim has chosen a Thai accent mark, mai toh, as the restaurant’s icon.

Kin Khao餐廳在很多方面打破了泰國(guó)餐館的模式。它的工作人員由泰裔和非泰裔組成。店里沒(méi)有木頭大象或泰國(guó)地標(biāo)的圖片;在簡(jiǎn)潔的木色和白色就餐區(qū)，皮姆選擇了一個(gè)mai toh，一個(gè)泰語(yǔ)中的音調(diào)符號(hào)，作為餐廳的標(biāo)志。

My favorite dish there so far is a yam som-o, which is normally made from pomelo, a citrus fruit the size of a cantaloupe that grows in the tropics. This version is a medley of citrus fruits — pomelo, grapefruit, blood orange — mixed with small fried shrimp, cilantro, peanuts, shallots, mint and toasted coconut.

到目前為止，我在這家店最喜歡的菜是“yam som-o”(柚子沙拉)，它通常是用熱帶地區(qū)生長(zhǎng)的一種哈密瓜大小的柑橘類水果——柚子制作的。而這家店的這道菜是柑橘類水果的混合——柚子、葡萄柚和血橙——再加入小炸蝦、香菜、花生、青蔥、薄荷和烤椰子。

Sometimes an item on the menu is followed by this: “Warning: This is not Thai food for beginners.”

菜單上的某些菜的后面有這樣的備注：“警告：這道菜不適合初級(jí)泰餐食客。”

And, often, authenticity can be painful. When I beseeched a waitress at Daughter Thai Kitchen, in the Montclair neighborhood of Oakland, not to hold back on the spice, she asked me to estimate my heat tolerance on a scale from 1 to 10.

而正宗的往往可能是會(huì)令你痛苦的。我在奧克蘭蒙特克萊附近的閨女泰餐廚房(Daughter Thai Kitchen)懇求女服務(wù)員不要少放調(diào)料，她讓我按照1到10的級(jí)別評(píng)估自己對(duì)辣椒的承受程度。

I told her 9. And I nearly cried my way through a three-alarm southern curry.

我說(shuō)是9。結(jié)果，我?guī)缀跏强拗酝昴堑烙腥齻€(gè)警告標(biāo)志的南方咖喱。