講真，每年一到圣誕節(jié)大多數(shù)美國(guó)猶太人的傳統(tǒng)不是去點(diǎn)亮他們癡迷的八盞燭燈或享用土豆餡餅，而是要去當(dāng)?shù)氐闹袊?guó)餐廳。
Many American Jews grow up eating Chinese food every Christmas night. Jews are at the local Chinese place noshing on moo shu pork with a side of spare ribs. Sure, Chinese food is full of pork and shellfish—both of which are considered traif, or non-Kosher under traditional Jewish dietary guidelines—but among the less strict, eating Chinese is a de facto ritual.
很多美國(guó)猶太人從小到大每個(gè)圣誕夜晚都會(huì)享用中餐。在中餐館里，猶太人絲毫不在意點(diǎn)一盤(pán)豬排骨加上木須豬肉。當(dāng)然，中餐里也有大量的豬肉和貝殼類食品，這些都被猶太教認(rèn)為是不清潔(non-Kosher)的食物。但是在這一天，吃滿含這些東西的中餐幾乎成了他們的儀式。
Hell, the tradition-cum-trope even famously wormed its way into the halls of power a few years back. In what is now an exchange widely known throughout the polito-sphere, Senator Lindsey Graham asked Justice Elena Kagan how she had spent the previous Christmas during her 2010 confirmation hearing, and Kagan shrewdly responded to uproarious laughter, “You know, like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”
然而在過(guò)去幾年中，這樣反傳統(tǒng)的行為在美國(guó)猶太人文化中為自己爭(zhēng)得了一席之地。最有名的就是2010年國(guó)會(huì)大法官任命聽(tīng)證會(huì)上，參議員格拉漢姆(Lindsey Graham)詢問(wèn)即將成為最高法院大法官的艾琳娜.卡根是如何度過(guò)上個(gè)圣誕節(jié)的。當(dāng)時(shí)卡根回應(yīng)道：“你懂的，就像所有的猶太人一樣，我可能在一家中餐館。”
All of this has us wondering: What the hell is up with Jews and Chinese food, especially on Christmas? We reached out to a number of food experts and chefs on both sides of the cultural divide—Chinese and Jewish—to learn why so many members of the tribe seem to love wontons as much as they do matzoh balls.
所有這些都讓我們納悶，猶太人和中餐是咋勾搭上的，特別是在圣誕節(jié)。所以我們采訪了幾個(gè)華裔和猶太裔美食專家和大廚，談?wù)勊麄兪侨绾谓忉尀槭裁丛诿绹?guó)猶太人眼中餛飩和猶太餅球(Matzoh Balls)可以不分伯仲。
Theories abound. For starters, there’s this: Back in the day, the only place open for non-Christians to dine on Christmas was the local Chinese restaurant, but that excuse doesn’t explain the growing popularity of the trend today, given that there are now plenty of other restaurants, from Indian to Thai, open on Jesus’s bday. Indeed, the trend of Jews eating Chinese on Christmas seems to be growing—especially in New York City—where several restaurateurs told me that Christmas is, by far, their busiest day (and eve) of the year, thanks largely to Jewish customers.
先說(shuō)說(shuō)理論吧。在最開(kāi)始的時(shí)候是這樣的，當(dāng)時(shí)唯一一家在圣誕節(jié)期間為非基督教徒群眾營(yíng)業(yè)的就是當(dāng)?shù)氐闹胁宛^。但是現(xiàn)在這個(gè)理由似乎已經(jīng)無(wú)法解釋為什么中餐變得越來(lái)越流行，因?yàn)椴徽撌怯《炔蛷d還是泰國(guó)餐廳在這一天全都不關(guān)門(mén)。的確，猶太人在圣誕節(jié)吃中餐這個(gè)潮流似乎還在不斷發(fā)展，特別是在紐約，很多中餐廳告訴記者，目前為止圣誕節(jié)(/圣誕前夕)是他們每年中最忙的一天，且主顧就是猶太人。
Could the origins of the Jewish love of Chinese food be as simple as geography? The ancestral entry point into the US for most Jews was New York City’s Lower East Side, where the LES abuts Chinatown. Ergo, this theory goes, proximity led to the Jewish love of Chinese food.
會(huì)不會(huì)剛好是地理原因呢?早期的猶太移民來(lái)到紐約會(huì)聚居在下東區(qū)，那里毗鄰唐人街。所以剛好解釋了為什么猶太人喜歡吃中餐。
Joan Nathan, a well-known Jewish food culinary expert and award-winning cookbook writer, isn’t buying it. She says the popularity of Chinese food among Jews took off when they moved out of New York City and into local suburbs in the 1950s and 60s; it was the food of growing affluence and assimilation. Eating Chinese food was also a comfortable way to dine, with Lazy Susans on each table and a low-key atmosphere: “Families that felt they wanted to be American, but weren’t highfalutin, loved it. You didn’t have to have great manners—you could share. And Jews have always like sharing food.”
瓊.內(nèi)森，一位著名的猶太烹飪專家，曾出過(guò)一本獲獎(jiǎng)菜譜。她就不認(rèn)同這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)。她告訴記者，其實(shí)猶太人熱愛(ài)中餐的起點(diǎn)恰恰不是在紐約，而是在上個(gè)世紀(jì)五十年代到六十年代年代他們搬出紐約到了郊區(qū)之后才形成的。當(dāng)時(shí)的食物種類日益豐富且逐漸同化。中餐吃起來(lái)很舒服。有些猶太人希望更融入美國(guó)，但是他們又不想太張揚(yáng)。吃中餐不需要有那么多條條框框，而且中餐可以分享，猶太人熱愛(ài)分享食物。
Jayne Cohen, an author and Jewish food historian, agrees. She told me, “I don’t think eating Chinese food on Christmas became a tradition until Jews moved out of their enclosed, tight-knit communities and into mixed areas with Christian neighbors.”
簡(jiǎn).科恩(Jayne Cohen)，一名作者兼猶太食物歷史學(xué)家。她告訴記者：“我認(rèn)為猶太人是在搬出猶太聚居區(qū)，住到與基督徒混居區(qū)后才開(kāi)始興起這個(gè)圣誕節(jié)吃中餐的習(xí)俗的。”
Ed Schoenfeld, who currently runs Red Farm and Decoy in New York, may understand this tradition better than anybody. After all, he’s a Brooklyn Jew who has been in the Chinese-food business for the better part of half a century. He says eating Chinese food became a way for assimilating Jews to embrace the exotic without going too far afield. “If you came from an educated Jewish family in Brooklyn or Queens or Manhattan, Chinese food was an easy-to-go-to, exotic food. It had lost its stigma in the early part of the 20th century and had become affordable. My parents wouldn’t go to Le Pavillion or fancy French restaurants. If they wanted to go out to a restaurant, they’d go out to a Chinese restaurant.”
艾德.斯科恩菲爾德(Ed Schoenfeld)在紐約經(jīng)營(yíng)著兩家餐廳，他認(rèn)為自己對(duì)這個(gè)事情有著更深入的了解。畢竟他是已經(jīng)和中餐打了50年交道并居住在布魯克林的猶太人。他表示吃中餐對(duì)于猶太人來(lái)說(shuō)是一個(gè)很好的體驗(yàn)異國(guó)風(fēng)味又不用走太遠(yuǎn)的方法。“如果你是一個(gè)住在布魯克林，皇后區(qū)或者曼哈頓的受過(guò)良好教育的猶太人，那么一說(shuō)到異國(guó)風(fēng)味就會(huì)想到中餐。在20世紀(jì)早期中餐是昂貴高檔的代名詞，現(xiàn)在它卻走入尋常百姓家。我的父母絕對(duì)不會(huì)去一個(gè)高檔的法國(guó)餐廳。如果他們想要去外頭吃飯，他們一定會(huì)去中餐廳。”
Joan Nathan says the exoticism of Chinese food added to its appeal, but also believes the Jewish love of Chinese food may be attributable to the outsider status of both communities in a largely white, Christian America: “Maybe it was the familiar feeling of otherness; in other words, they were not as comfortable as the ‘Americans’ were, and so they become comfortable with each other.”
內(nèi)森說(shuō)中餐的異國(guó)風(fēng)味肯定是原因之一，不過(guò)猶太人愛(ài)中餐的另外一個(gè)原因是可以找到歸屬感。在圣誕節(jié)這個(gè)典型的白人基督徒的節(jié)日里，內(nèi)森說(shuō)：“猶太人和中國(guó)人可以分享這種局外人的感覺(jué)。他們對(duì)這個(gè)節(jié)日不像最傳統(tǒng)的‘美國(guó)人’一樣感冒，所以他們覺(jué)得待在一起挺舒服。”
Then there’s the nature of Americanized Chinese food itself: Proteins are chopped small and mixed with veggies and a heavy sauce, thereby disguising forbidden pork and shellfish, effectively hiding them in plain sight. Jayne Cohen says Chinese food is “the perfect gateway to the traif-y bits of pork and shellfish hidden in kreplach-like wontons, and eventually, even the blatantly unkosher world of spareribs.”
另外美食中餐的一些元素也幫助其在猶太人中打下基礎(chǔ)。豬肉、貝殼肉和蔬菜被切碎了藏在面皮和濃濃的醬汁之中。特別是蛋卷和餛飩，這些食物讓又想吃豬肉又不想承認(rèn)自己吃了豬肉的猶太人找到了一個(gè)極佳的作弊方法。
Also, there tends to be no dairy in Chinese food, allowing observant Jews to avoid dietary prohibitions on combinations of milk and meat. In short, eating Chinese food is an easy way to cheat on dietary restrictions without having your transgression scream in your face.
并且中餐食物里貌似沒(méi)有奶制品，使得那些善于觀察的猶太人避開(kāi)了牛奶和肉類組合的飲食禁忌。總之，中餐是一條在飲食限制上作弊的便捷途經(jīng)，也不用擔(dān)心會(huì)道德越界。
