在紐約哪裏可以吃到正宗的臺灣便當
Pell Street these days is two quiet blocks, no more, but Chinatown was born here, where Doyers Street dead-ends into Pell, where tour guides still talk of tongs and mah-jongg.
如今的披露街(Pell)只是兩個安靜的街區，但唐人街當年就是在宰也街(Doyers)盡頭與披露街交界的地方誕生的，到現在，旅遊指南仍然會說起幫會和麻將。
At night, on Pell’s eastern end, pilgrims queue for soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai. They may not notice Taiwan Bear House, which opened last June, with its teddy-bear logo suggesting just another perky bubble-tea shop.
到了晚上，在披露街的東頭，來到鹿鳴春(Joe’s Shanghai)品嚐湯包的人排起了長隊。他們可能沒注意到去年6月開張的臺灣原創便當店(Taiwan Bear House)，它的標識是一個泰迪熊，讓人覺得它可能又是一家生氣盎然的珍珠奶茶店。
But see those towers of empty wooden bento boxes in the window? They’re waiting to be filled. First a bed of rice, then a layer of minced pork simmered down to a near gravy. On one side, garlicky cabbage, barely wilted in a wok, still crunchy and bright. On the other, half a hard-boiled egg, inked with soy, and a dense pressed square of dry tofu with sweet seams of star anise.
但是看看櫥窗後面堆積如山的木頭空飯盒吧，它們在等着被裝滿呢。先是一層米飯，然後是用文火燉到快要成了肉汁的碎豬肉末。飯盒一側是蒜炒高麗菜，因爲僅僅過了一下火的緣故，仍然口感爽脆、顏色鮮亮。另一側是半個滷蛋，還有被壓得密密實實的豆腐乾，點綴着八角。
Over this may lie a pork chop hammered thin and sealed inside an improbably fluffy crust, or pork belly in slices thick as cake, with descending horizons of lean and fat, or chicken freed of its bones and deep-fried twice, so the crispy shell of skin turns chewy where it clings to the flesh.
上面可能還有一塊裹着極鬆軟脆皮的炸豬排，也可能是肥瘦分明、切成蛋糕薄厚的五花肉，或是被煎炸了兩次的脫骨雞肉，鬆脆的雞皮格外經嚼。
In Taiwan, these boxed meals are called bian dang, an adaptation of the word bento under Japanese colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century. They are stubbornly unfancy and in no need of elevation. Secret ingredients in the Taiwan Bear House kitchen include Skippy peanut butter and ketchup.
在臺灣，這種放在盒子裏的食物被稱爲“便當”，也就是日語中的“bento”，它來自20世紀上半葉日本殖民統治時期。它們樸實無華，也不需要什麼提升。臺灣原創廚房的祕方里包括Skippy花生醬和番茄醬。
Indeed, the highest compliment you can pay to the restaurant’s food is to say that it tastes as if it were served on a train. Not any train, but one traversing some of the thousand-odd kilometers of rails that run a loose circle around Taiwan. For while bian dang are found everywhere on the island, none are perhaps as beloved as those made for decades by the government-run Taiwan Railways Administration.
事實上，給這家餐廳菜品的最好恭維，就是說它的口味好像是火車餐。當然不是普通的火車，而是行程1000多公里的臺灣環島火車。臺灣全島到處都有便當，但幾十年來，最受人喜愛的還要算是政府運營的臺灣鐵路管理局推出的臺鐵便當。
Millions are sold on trains each year. Once, they were hawked from station platforms and tossed through rail-car windows. Last summer, they were borne reverentially by models down a runway as part of the four-day Formosa Railway Bento Festival, and praised in a news release as “boxes full of love, story and human nature.” This month, an announcement that bentos can now be ordered online made the evening news.
每一年都會售出成千上百萬份臺鐵便當。它們一度在站臺上被小販兜售，從火車窗裏拋下來。去年夏天，模特們一本正經地帶着它們走過秀臺，這是爲期四天的“臺灣鐵路便當節”活動的一部分，一份媒體通稿稱之爲“滿盒都是愛、故事與人性。”本月，臺灣電視上的晚間新聞稱，臺鐵便當可以通過網絡訂購。
At Taiwan Bear House, each bento costs less than $10 and is fuel for a day. (In Taiwan, it would be less than $3.) They come tightly packed in light, biodegradable boxes of poplar veneer. There are no compartments, as with Japanese bento. Arrangements are vertical, starting with a base of sushi rice and building up with minced pork, cabbage, egg and tofu.
在臺灣原創，每份便當的價錢不到10美元，足以讓你一整天都活力十足（在臺灣的售價可能連3美元都不到）。它們被裝在輕盈，可生物降解的楊木飯盒裏，飯菜壓得密密實實。它不像日本便當那樣分格，飯菜的分佈是縱向的，最底部是壽司米飯，上面一層層壓着豬肉末、高麗菜、雞蛋和豆腐。
Subtract any one part, and the meal is diminished. (Evidence: the vegetarian option, an uninspired muddle of bell peppers and mushrooms flung into a wok with oyster sauce.) Rice soaks up the juices so nothing is lost; cabbage cuts the edge of salt. The egg, darkened and meaty from stewing in soy paste, ketchup, scallions, garlic and ginger, would be welcome at any meal, anywhere. Dry tofu is more of an acquired taste, here almost candied in flavor.
如果去掉其中任何一部分，便當就會減色不少（這裏的素食便當就是證據，只是柿子椒和蘑菇加蠔油的大雜燴）。米飯浸在菜汁中，一點味道也不會損失；高麗菜和鹽配合得恰到好處。雞蛋在醬油、番茄醬和蔥薑蒜末中滷過，染成了深色，帶有肉香，無論何時何地都大受歡迎。豆腐乾是經過調味的，在這裏幾乎是甜的。
Two of the restaurant’s young owners, Kris Kuo and Carol Wu, grew up in Taiwan and came to the United States for graduate school; a third, Christopher Chang, is from New York. Not one has a culinary background. Ms. Wu works at a hedge fund, Mr. Chang is an engineer, and Ms. Kuo studied accounting. So they enlisted a chef from a Taiwanese bento shop to come to New York and teach Ms. Kuo his recipes, which she taught her staff.
餐廳老闆都是年輕人，其中郭怡文和吳侄璉在臺灣長大，來美國念研究生，第三位老闆張育齊來自紐約。三人都沒有廚師背景。吳女士在一家對衝基金工作、張先生是工程師、郭女士學會計。所以他們從一家臺灣便當店僱了一位大廚來紐約，把自己的拿手菜傳授給郭女士，由她再來培訓員工。
The fried chicken is inspired by the “popcorn” style of chicken sold at night markets in Taiwan, boneless hunks of meat perfumed with Chinese five-spice and slightly feverish, with a chewiness just under the surface. The pork chop is dredged not in the usual sweet potato starch but in panko. Purists may object, but the sheath of crumbs comes out well bronzed, somehow crispy and wispy at once.
炸雞的靈感來自臺灣夜市上出售的“雞米花”，它把無骨的大塊雞肉用中國的五香香料薰過，帶着微微的熱度，表皮之下有一點韌性。豬排上裹的不是普通的地瓜粉，而是日式麪包粉。追求正宗的人可能會反對，但炸出來的脆皮呈古銅色，既鬆脆又柔軟。
Still, if I had to choose, I would forgo pork chop or chicken for a larger heap of that minced pork, the cheapest bento option, and the best.
不過，如果必須選擇，我還是會放棄豬排或雞肉，來上一份分量更大的豬肉末，這是最便宜的便當，也最好吃。
Half the pleasure of the bento is demolishing it with swiftness and intent. One afternoon, a young man at the next table bent sharply, his face as close to the food as public decency would allow. He did not speak. None of us there, eating, had any interest in speech.
吃便當的快樂有一半來自於專心致志地很快吃光。一天下午，我鄰桌的年輕人彎下身子，臉貼到食物上的樣子近乎不雅。他什麼話也沒說。店裏的人全都沒說話，只顧着吃，完全沒興趣交談。
