好英语网海南鸡饭：坐15小时飞机也要品尝的美味
Hainanese chicken rice is the chickeniest chicken dish one can find in the chicken-eating world. Don’t believe me? Picture this: sitting in front of me at the Maxwell Food Centre in Singapore’s Chinatown was a tray filled with a pile of boiled chicken, a mound of rice cooked in chicken broth and a small dipping bowl of chilli sauce infused with – yes, you guessed it – chicken. And just to out-chicken every other chicken dish on the planet, the ensemble included a bowl of chicken soup. I figured I’d probably be clucking by the end of the meal.
在这个吃鸡世界里的鸡肉菜中，海南鸡饭算是鸡肉味最正最足的一道菜了。不相信我吗？想象一下这样的场景：身处（Maxwell Food Centre）麦士威路熟食中心的唐人街上，在我面前的是一只装满了成堆白斩鸡的托盘，一小碗在鸡汤中煮过的米饭，还有一小碗辣椒酱，里面浸泡着——是的，你没猜错——鸡肉。而只是为了在鸡肉味上赶超地球上的其它鸡肉菜，这个套餐中还包括了一碗鸡汤。我想，吃完这一餐，我可能都会咯咯叫了。
I specifically came to Maxwell to eat at 30-year-old food stall Tian Tian (1 Kadayanallur St), a spot renowned for its Hainanese chicken rice that has gotten praise from the likes of Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay. Just as I was about to shove spoonfuls of delicious-smelling food into my mouth, the owner, Madam Foo Kui Lian, wandered over.
为了品尝这道菜，我专程前往麦士威路的天天鸡饭（地址位于Kadayanallur街1号）。这是一家具有30年历史的大排档，因其供应的海南鸡饭而远近闻名，连安东尼•伯尔顿（Anthony Bourdain）和戈登•拉姆齐（Gordon Ramsay）这样的美食家都对其赞不绝口。正当我要把一勺勺香喷喷的美味塞进嘴里时，这家店的老板Foo KuiLian（符桂莲）女士走了过来。
天天鸡饭因其供应的海南鸡饭而远近驰名。
She explained that Hainanese chicken rice, one of Singapore’s national dishes, is deceptively simple – which is good, because on paper it sounds awfully boring. But you just have to try it when you’re in Singapore. I combined delicate pieces of chicken thigh – which had a thin layer of gelatinous fat between the skin and meat – with ginger-and-lemongrass-fragrant rice and chilli sauce, and then took a bite. The flavours set my taste buds ablaze with delight. You know when something is so good it’s sublime: when it hits your palate, you feel every molecule in your body jump and you can’t help but close your eyes and savour the moment. This was one of those moments.
她说，海南鸡饭作为新加坡的国菜之一，看起来似乎很简单，但却是人们来到新加坡必定要尝一尝的美味。我将精致细腻的鸡大腿——在大腿的鸡皮与肌肉间还存有一层薄薄的凝胶状脂肪——与姜、柠檬草和香稻制成的米饭搭配在一起，就着辣椒酱，然后轻轻地咬上一口。那种味道，使我的味蕾闪耀着喜悦的光芒。大家都知道，品尝到某种绝味极品时，那种感觉真是妙极了：在它击中你的味蕾的霎时间，你会觉得到自己身体里的每个分子都激动得跳跃起来，于是，你情不自禁地闭上了双眼，细细品味这个美妙的时刻。而现在的我，便是这样的感觉。
Although I can find chicken rice back home in New York City, this version was the kind of transcendent dish I’d fly 15 hours just to eat. Despite its dull-seeming appearance and lack of colour, it was phenomenal. But, what perplexed me was why?
虽然我在家乡纽约也能找到鸡饭，但是这才是我愿为它坐 15 个小时的飞机而品尝的佳肴。尽管它的外观看似平淡无奇，色彩也并不鲜艳，但它的美味真是令人叫绝。然而，令我困惑不解的是：是什么令它如此美味？
Let’s start with how it’s made. According to Madame Foo, you boil the chicken for about an hour. Then you plunge it into ice. “This traps the flavour in and also preserves the skin,” she said. After it sits in the ice for about 30 minutes, you hang dry it for half an hour. “Because the outside of the chicken is cold from the ice, the inside is still cooking.”
让我们先从它的制作流程说起。且听Foo（符）女士娓娓道来：先要将鸡肉炖煮一个小时左右，然后把它投入冰中。她指出：“这样便将味道锁进肉里，同时也保护了鸡皮。”在冰中浸泡约30分钟后，将其拿起晾干半个小时。“因为此时鸡的表层浸泡了冰水而冰凉爽口，但鸡肉内里则仍热气腾腾。”
In the meantime, you take the leftover broth from cooking the chicken and use it to boil the rice, make the chicken soup and enhance the chilli sauce. The leftover chicken fat often ends up in a soy-sesame sauce that is slathered over the chicken before being plated. In total, the whole dish takes about two hours to complete.
在此期间，用烹饪鸡肉时所剩的汤汁煮米饭、制作鸡汤并增进辣椒酱的味道。所剩的鸡肉脂肪往往加进一种大豆芝麻汁中，摆盘前将其涂抹在鸡身表面。总的来说，整道菜需要大约两个小时才能完成。
But what makes Tian Tian so good – and so popular – among the myriad “food courts” sprinkled throughout this city-state? “It’s our secret sauce,” said Madam Foo, referring to the brownish liquid lightly poured over the chicken. I spooned some up from the bottom of the bowl. “Soy sauce, oyster sauce… and maybe chicken lard?” I said. Madame Foo just laughed and shook her head, not ready to reveal the ancient Singaporean secret just yet.
然而，在身处新加坡这个散落了无数“美食广场”的城市国家之中，是什么使天天鸡饭的海南鸡饭味道如此叫绝，声名在外而如此受欢迎呢？Foo（符）女士告诉我：“酱汁便是我们的秘密武器，”她指的是轻轻地倾倒在鸡身表面的褐色液体。我从碗底舀起一些酱汁。“酱油、蚝油……这个或许是鸡猪混合油吧？”我问道。Foo（符）女士随即笑着，摇了摇头，却不打算揭开这个古老的新加坡美味的谜底。
In my attempt to figure out just what makes this seemingly plain dish so abundantly delicious, I stopped at Chatterbox – an upscale eatery near posh Orchard Road that has continuously won awards for its Hainanese chicken rice – and sat down with chef Liew Tian Heong. At first glance, his chicken rice didn’t look too different than Tian Tian’s version, except that it was plated in expensive bowls – which led me to ask the chef what set it apart from the ultra-affordable, government-subsidised hawker centre versions, like at Maxwell Food Centre.
我努力想找到这道看似平淡无奇却醇厚可口的菜的美味秘诀。在此期间，我拜访了Chatterbox，这是一家高档餐厅，靠近豪华的乌节路（Orchard Road），这家餐厅因其制作的海南鸡饭而屡获大奖.我坐下来与餐厅的大厨刘殿雄（Liew Tian Heong）畅谈。乍一看之下，他的鸡饭与天天所供应的鸡饭并没有太大区别，除了盛放鸡饭的碗价格不菲，这让我不禁询问刘厨师：是什么使它有别于那些超级实惠、享受政府补贴的小贩聚集地的海南鸡饭，就像麦士威路熟食中心的那种海南鸡饭。
“The most important part of chicken rice,” Liew said, “is not the chicken, but the rice. It has to be fragrant.” He picked up the bowl of grains and gave it a whiff, his eyes closed as he savoured the smell. “Lemongrass, ginger, garlic and pandan leaf. The rice has to be good enough to eat on its own.”
刘指出：“鸡饭最重要的部分不是鸡，而是米饭，它必须是香喷喷的。”他拿起盛满稻米的碗，吸了一口气，闭上了双眼，以细细品味其中的滋味。“柠檬草、生姜、大蒜和香兰叶。米饭要足够美味，即使单吃也会觉得香甜。”
The chicken rice at Chatterbox was excellent and exuded all the qualities of Tian Tian – even if it was four times more expensive. For the higher price you get a bigger portion, an elegant dining room, and, as Liew noted, their special breed of chicken from Malaysia. The fowl was softer and more tender than the others I’d tried, so maybe there’s something to having the luxury of your very own breed.
Chatterbox的鸡饭出类拔萃，并在各项品质上都超过了天天鸡饭——尽管Chatterbox的鸡饭要比天天的贵出四倍。在此消费的人支付了更高的价格，因而得到了一个更大份的鸡饭，享受到了餐厅的优雅环境，而且据刘厨师称，鸡饭的鸡还是来自马来西亚的特殊品种。较之我以往品尝过的鸡饭中的鸡，这种鸡肉质更加柔嫩润滑，所以，奢侈地享用独门品种的鸡，多少还是有一些意义的。
However, when considering its origins, there’s an irony to people forking over a lot of money or waiting in line for a quality version of Singapore’s national dish.
然而，当我细想它的起源时，便觉得人们为了品尝这道美味可口的新加坡国菜而花大把钱或者排长队，是一件颇具讽刺意味的事情。
When the Hainanese people from the south Chinese island of Hainan began immigrating to Singapore around the middle of the 19th Century, they were marginalised because their dialect prevented them from fully communicating with other Chinese immigrants and because most of the lucrative industries were dominated by mainland Chinese who were already established in Singapore. This relegated them to being servants for the British colonialists or to working in the food service industry, which sometimes was the same thing. The Hainanese served the British chicken rice, thinking the seemingly non-exotic boiled chicken would be acceptable to their palates.
19世纪中叶前后，海南人开始从中国南方的海南岛移民到新加坡。而因为海南方言使他们无法与其他华人移民畅通无阻地交流，而且当时大部分利润丰厚的行业都已被早就在新加坡站稳了脚跟的中国大陆移民所控制，所以，这些海南移民被边缘化了。这使他们不得不去做英国殖民者的仆人，或者在食品服务行业里打工谋生，而有时候，这两者是一回事。海南人为英国人烹饪了鸡饭，因为他们觉得，这道看起来不那么古怪的白斩鸡应该能符合英国人的口味。
But the fact that the chicken flavour is so pervasive throughout the dish suggests something surprising. Liew explained it best: “People would use the old mother hen for chicken rice when she couldn’t lay any more eggs. And so they would make sure they got the most out of it by stretching out the flavour of the chicken – via the broth and the rice and so on – as much as possible.”
但事实上，鸡肉的香味真是无处不在地贯穿进了这道菜，这进而促使人们做出了一些创举。对此，刘厨师给出了最佳的解释：“人们会用不能再下蛋的老母鸡来制作鸡饭。随后，为了确保物尽其用，他们会把鸡肉的香味绵延不断地渗进鸡汤、米饭等尽可能多的环节。”
Chicken rice is a full meal born out of the frugality that comes with strife and a battle to survive, as the Hainanese struggled to establish themselves in Singapore.
当时，海南人很难在新加坡立足，他们要面对冲突对抗，还要为了求生存而奋斗，因而日子过得很俭朴。鸡饭便诞生于这种俭朴的环境中，那时，鸡饭可算一顿大餐。
And then everything began to change with the Japanese occupation of Singapore during World War II – when the British were forced out and the Hainanese people lost their source of income. This was when the first chicken rice restaurant opened. As local food blogger Tony Boey explained to me, “Before that, the Hainanese just prepared it in the home, but during and after the occupation, they were looking for new ways to make money.”
随后不久，二战爆发，日本人占领了新加坡，一切都开始发生改变。日本人把英国人赶出新加坡，海南人因而失去了收入来源。也就在这个时候，第一家鸡饭餐厅开业了。正如当地美食博主托尼·博埃（Tony Boey）告诉我的那样，“在此之前，海南人只在自家家里制作鸡饭，但在日占期及之后的岁月里，他们是在寻找新的生财之道。”
One of those early places to open was Yet Con (25 Purvis St), established in the early 1940s. It’s still there, serving up the same chicken rice.
位于巴米士街（Purvis St）25号的“逸群鸡饭”便是早期的鸡饭餐厅之一。它于20世纪40年代初开业，现今仍在那里营业，供应同样的鸡饭。
I recruited a local chef friend, Vivian Pei, to accompany me there. When we walked in, around 5 pm, the owners gave us a dirty look. We were not only there between meals, but were there during their own dinner. They reluctantly allowed us to sit down.
我邀请了一位当地的厨师朋友薇薇安·裴（Vivian Pei）一同前往探店。我们大概是下午5点左右抵达目的地，此时正值两餐之间，我们的到来打断了店主家的晚餐时光。他们给了我们一副臭脸，很不情愿地让我们坐下。
And so here I was, sitting at one of a handful of marble tables scattered about the room. The no-frills mid-century ambience – with plain light-blue walls and a tiled floor – gave the restaurant an archaic feel.
于是，我便置身在了一间弥漫着20世纪中期风格的屋子里，大理石餐桌横七竖八地散落着，我们挑了其中一张坐下，只见屋内的装潢朴实无华，墙壁砌成了平实的淡蓝色，地板上铺着瓷砖，整个餐厅给人一种陈旧古老的感觉。
When the chicken arrived at our table, something seemed strange. “There’s no sauce on the chicken,” said Pei.
当鸡肉上桌时，我们觉得似乎有些不对劲。裴说：“鸡肉上还有没加酱汁。”
Sometime in the 1970s or early 1980s, chicken rice cooks began drizzling the soy-sesame sauce on the cooked chicken. But Yet Con, apparently, still cooks up chicken like it’s 1949 – meaning sans sauce, giving the fowl an especially bland look.
从20世纪70年代抑或20世纪80年代初的某个时刻起，做鸡饭的厨师开始往煮熟的鸡身上洒大豆芝麻汁。但显然，逸群鸡饭还在按照1949年的做法来制作鸡肉——亦即鸡肉上没有酱汁，使它看起来格外单调乏味。
The other big difference, Pei pointed out, was that Yet Con lets the chicken dry naturally and eschews the whole ice-dipping technique. She took a bite. “It’s a bit dry.” Perhaps it wasn’t always viewed as dry, but as new techniques have evolved to make chicken more tender – such as dropping it in ice – this version seemed woefully behind the times.
裴指出，另一个重要区别是，逸群鸡饭制作的鸡肉是自然风干的，一点儿都没用到冰浸技术。她咬了一口，说：“鸡肉有点干。”也许，并不是每个人都觉得这个鸡肉干瘪，但随着诸如冰浸技术等能将鸡肉变得更加鲜嫩的新技术一一涌现，这个版本的鸡饭似乎远远落后于时代了。
“I think the key to excellent chicken rice,” Pei said, “is that everything must be balanced. If one thing is not good then it brings down the dish.” Like a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, chicken rice suffers if one element is mediocre. In the case of Yet Con, the “weak link” was the chicken itself.
裴表示：“我认为，要制作一碗出类拔萃的鸡饭，关键是要平衡其中的所有元素。只要有一个元素不恰到好处，整道菜的水准就会被随之拉低。”就像一条链条的强度取决于它最薄弱的环节，如果鸡饭中有一个元素不够好，整道鸡饭都会因之黯然失色。而至于逸群鸡饭，其“薄弱环节”便是鸡肉本身。
It wasn’t the best way to end my week of eating chicken rice, but it didn’t matter. I said goodbye to Pei – she had a cooking class to teach and I had a few hours to kill before my flight – and I strolled in the direction of the airport. Before I hailed a cab, I savoured my remaining time in a city-state where a seemingly boring dish can – most of the times – be elevated into something so sapid and comforting that my memories of it alone will sustain me until my next visit.
以这样的方式结束我为期一周的鸡饭之旅并不算最理想，但这并不重要。与裴道别后——她得去教学生烹饪，而我在登机前还有几个小时要打发——我朝着机场的方向闲荡。在叫出租车离开之前，我尽情享受着这剩余的逗留时间。在这座城市国家中，很多时候，一道看似乏味的菜经过精雕细琢，便升格为了如此醇厚美味并令人倍感欣慰的佳肴，以至于仅仅是我对它的念念不忘，就足以给我精神的供养，直到下次再次踏上这里的土地。