好英语网云吞配芝麻酥，兔年春节的“行运”美食
The last time my parents, siblings and I traveled together to Hong Kong — in 1997, to witness the handover from Britain back to China — my dad took us to the part of Kowloon where he grew up. At one point, he slipped down an alley, alone, to visit his favorite childhood wonton stand and returned with a contentment I coveted.
上一次我父母带着一家人前往香港还是1997年，那次是为了见证香港的回归。父亲带着我们去了九龙，那里是他长大的地方。他还自己跑去一条小巷，寻找他小时候最喜欢的云吞摊，回来的时候一副心满意足的样子，让我馋得不行。
Despite the uncertainty around us, he looked utterly at peace. That’s the power of wonton soup.
尽管周遭充满了不确定性，但他看起来非常平静。这就是上汤云吞的力量。
无论是炸云吞还是云吞面，云吞都是新的一年里繁荣昌胜的象征。
In Hong Kong, you can find wonton soup in high-end dining rooms or, more commonly, slung casually as a quick meal, as it is in Chinatowns around the world. Its ubiquity may be why it isn’t often served for the special feasts of Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, which this year falls on Jan. 22 and ushers in the Year of the Rabbit.
在香港，你可以在高档餐厅里找到它，或者，更常见的情形是，就像在世界各地的唐人街一样，把它当做简餐来上一碗。也许正是因为它的稀松平常，所以在中国新年（也称农历新年）这样的特殊日子里，是很少吃到它的。今年的农历新年是1月22日，即将到来的是兔年。
To my mind, wontons are ideal for a new year party precisely because they’re an everyday comfort food. They’re so closely intertwined with Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine that they can fill the loss of home for immigrants like my parents. For someone like me, born on the other side of the world but tied to the culture, they’re a tangible connection to family and homeland. And for anyone who loves wontons (that’s everyone, right?), the process of making them from scratch is as much a celebration as eating them.
在我看来，云吞是新年聚会的理想选择，因为它们是一种日常的爽心美食。它们与香港和粤菜密不可分，可以弥补像我父母这样的移民失去家园的感觉。对于像我这样出生在世界另一端，但与那里的文化息息相关的人来说，云吞是我与家人和故乡的一种具体联系。对于任何喜欢云吞的人（没有不喜欢的，对吧？）来说，从无到有制作云吞的过程所带来的愉悦，似乎不输大快朵颐，将云吞吃下的那一刻。
The presence of wontons on Chinese New Year is nothing new: According to Grace Young, an award-winning cookbook author and culinary historian, they were eaten for the holiday in ancient times because they symbolize wealth, given their resemblance to gold ingots. It’s the same reason other dumplings are standard fare for the holiday.
过年吃云吞并不是新鲜事。根据屡获殊荣的美食作家、烹饪史专家杨玉华的说法，在古代，人们逢年过节吃云吞是图个好彩头，因为它们样子看起来像金元宝。过年吃饺子也是出于同样的原因。
To clarify, wontons are dumplings, but not all dumplings are wontons. And not all wontons are Cantonese — there are thicker-skinned versions in northern China and spicy ones from Sichuan in the southwest, among others — but the Hong Kong style, distinguished by silky wrappers and shrimp in the stuffing, is arguably the best. “The Cantonese wonton makes an art form of it,” Ms. Young said.
这里需要强调一下，云吞属于饺子，但并非所有饺子都是云吞。而且，也并非所有云吞都属于粤菜——在中国北方，有皮厚的云吞，在西南部的四川还有放辣的抄手——不过，港式做法可以说是最好吃的，皮薄，里面还包了虾。“广东云吞堪称艺术，”杨玉华说。
Shrimp bring juiciness to the filling, which is usually bound by ground or finely minced fatty pork. Ms. Young said that the shrimp “should be crisp, not mushy or soft or mealy.” That snappy freshness is attainable in shrimp from seafood markets in Hong Kong and other waterside regions, but harder to find otherwise. To replicate that crunch, I use my mom’s trick of salting peeled shrimp, then letting them sit for a bit. That step helps draw out excess water from the crustaceans’ freeze-and-thaw journey to the kitchen, making them firmer. It also amplifies their subtle sweetness.
虾让云吞馅料变得嫩滑多汁，而通常的馅料采用的是绞碎或者剁碎的肥肉。杨玉华说，对于虾而言，“口感应该是弹牙的，而不是糊的、软塌塌的或粉的”。在香港和其他沿海地区的海鲜市场里都可以买到这种新鲜的虾，但在其他地方就很难找到。为了营造出这种弹牙的口感，我用了妈妈的秘诀，把去皮的虾用盐腌制，然后放一会儿。这个过程有助于将甲壳类动物在冷冻和解冻过程中的多余水分析出，使肉质更为紧实。它还能突出虾肉隐隐的甜味。
A hallmark of Cantonese cuisine is highlighting ingredients’ inherent flavors, so I season my filling simply — with just a few sauces, scallions and ginger. Some cooks add diced fresh water chestnuts for more crunch and rehydrated dried shiitakes or wood ear mushrooms for chew.
粤菜的一个特点是重视食材本身的味道，所以我的馅料不做太多调味——只加了一些酱汁和葱姜。为了增加爽脆口感，一些厨师会添加切碎的新鲜荸荠，还用泡发的干香菇或木耳来增加嚼劲。
Premade square wrappers, sometimes labeled “Hong Kong-style,” can be found in many supermarkets and work great, but if they’re unavailable, preparing the dough from scratch requires only pantry ingredients. Because Cantonese wonton wrappers are thin, they let the filling shine. Distinct from thicker dumpling skins made with only flour and water, they include egg, which yields a richer, more supple dough that can roll into extremely flat sheets. Pressing the dough through a pasta machine makes the technique especially easy. (Rolling by hand takes more muscle and patience.)
很多超市都能买到很好的预制方形云吞皮，有时会标注“港式”。但如果没有现成的，从头准备面皮也只需家常食材。粤式云吞的皮很薄，这样才能突出馅料。与仅用面粉和水制作的厚皮不同，这种皮还要放鸡蛋，面团的质地更加丰富柔软，可以擀出极薄的皮。用意面机压制面皮会让这一步骤特别简单。（手擀则需要更多手劲和耐心。）
Both store-bought and from-scratch wrappers can be pinched into endless shapes. While the neatly tucked look of ingots are ideal for deep-fried wontons, a free-form fold is best for wontons in soup. A corner of the wrapper should be pleated over the marble of filling, and the remaining dough should flow off the end like the train of a wedding gown. When boiled, then floated in soup, that golden wrapper will ripple on the surface and taste like the most delicate slip of a noodle. In Cantonese, “wonton” translates to “swallowing a cloud,” and these look and taste that ethereal. Add long, wiry wonton noodles to the bowl and you have a complete meal, along with the promise of longevity for the new year.
店售和自制云吞皮都可以被捏成各种形状。虽然整齐的元宝形状是油炸云吞的理想选择，但随意的包法最适合做云吞汤。从云吞皮的一角捏褶，包住整块馅料，再将面皮尾端合拢，就像婚纱的裙摆。云吞煮熟后会在汤里漂起，金黄面皮在汤面荡漾，尝起来就像最精致的面条。粤语“云吞”意为“吞云”，这个名字正能说明云吞那种优雅轻柔的美感和口味。在碗里加入细长的云吞面，就完成了这道菜，也许下了一个健康长寿的新年愿望。
The “dessert” most often offered after a Cantonese meal is fresh fruit. For Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges are served because their name is a homophone for gold in Cantonese, symbolizing prosperity, and they’re often chased with candied nuts and seeds. But to follow simple, traditional wontons, here’s a simple twist on tradition: sesame shortbread that bake the nutty black sesame seeds found in Chinese New Year candies and sweets, like tang yuan, into buttery cookies.
粤菜中最常使用的“甜品”是新鲜水果。过春节要吃柑橘，因为在粤语中它与“金”谐音，是财富的象征，因此经常搭配蜜饯坚果和瓜子上桌。但为了搭配简单的传统云吞，这里还要介绍一种传统小吃的简单新花样：芝麻酥。将春节糖果和汤圆等甜点中含有的香焙黑芝麻放入黄油曲奇烘烤。
While cookies may not be customary for the holiday, they represent the ever-changing nature of Hong Kong’s food. In her seminal book, “New Cantonese Cooking,” Eileen Yin-Fei Lo wrote: “Only the food of Canton has no limitations, no restrictions. It is a cookery open to experimentation and creativeness.” Crumbly and not too sweet, these modern treats capture the spirit of renewal for the holiday, a time to reset with something new.
虽然可能不是春节习俗，但是这种曲奇代表了香港美食不断变化的本质。艾琳·罗（音）在她的开创性著作《粤式新烹饪》(New Cantonese Cooking)中写道：“只有粤菜是那么无拘无束，这一菜系乐于尝试和创新。”这些口感爽脆又不太甜的现代美食抓住了春节除旧迎新的精神。
“Coming from a tiger year — and it did feel pretty ferocious — I think that we’re bound to have good fortune,” Ms. Young said about the coming year of the rabbit, which some predict will be calm and peaceful. There’s no better way to bring that on than with a beloved classic dish and a brand-new one.
“告别了虎年——这确实是凶险的一年——我相信大家一定行大运，”杨玉华在谈到即将到来的兔年时说，有人预测这会是平静祥和的一年。一道经典老菜搭配一份全新美食，再也没有比这更棒的过年吃法了。