There are more Chinese restaurants in this country than McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Wendy's, combined -- 40,000, actually. Chinese restaurants have played an important role in American history, as a matter of fact. The Cuban missile crisis was resolved in a Chinese restaurant called Yenching Palace in Washington, DC, which unfortunately is closed now, and about to be turned into Walgreen's. And the house where John Wilkes Booth planned the assassination of Abraham Lincoln is also now a Chinese restaurant called Wok and Roll, on H Street in Washington.
在这个国家里的中国餐馆 比麦当劳®,汉堡王®,肯德基®和温蒂快餐®加起来还要多。 事实上,有4万家。 中餐馆在美国历史上发挥了很重要的作用, 这也是事实。 古巴导弹危机 是在华盛顿一个名叫“燕京宫”的中餐馆里 解决掉的。 可惜的是,它现在关闭了, 而且要改建成沃尔格林连锁药店。 而约翰·威尔克斯·布斯 刺杀了林肯总统的那座房子, 现在也变成了一家中餐馆, 就是位于华盛顿的“锅和卷”。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And it's not completely gratuitous, because "wok" and "roll" -- Chinese food and Japanese foods, so it kind of works out. And Americans love their Chinese food so much, they've actually brought it into space. NASA, for example, serves thermostabilized sweet-and-sour pork on its shuttle menu for its astronauts.
这个餐馆名也不是完全没意义的, 因为锅和卷, 中国菜和日本菜, 还是有点关系的。 美国人如此的喜欢中国菜, 他们甚至带上了太空。 比如说,美国宇航局就把恒温的糖醋猪肉 列入了给宇航员准备的航天菜单。
So, let me present the question to you: If our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie, you should ask yourself: how often do you eat apple pie, versus how often do you eat Chinese food?
那么,让我来问你们这样一个问题: 如果我们自身的美国象征是个苹果派, 你应该问你自己, 你多久吃一次苹果派? 还有多久吃一次中国菜?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And if you think about it, a lot of the foods that we or Americans think of as Chinese food are barely recognizable to Chinese. For example: beef with broccoli, egg rolls, General Tso's Chicken, fortune cookies, chop suey, the take-out boxes. For example, I took a whole bunch of fortune cookies back to China, gave them to Chinese to see how they would react.
如果你仔细想想, 你就会发现 有很多你们认为,我们认为或者美国人认为是中国菜的食物, 中国人并不认识。 比如说: 西兰花牛肉,蛋卷,左宗棠鸡, 幸运饼干,炒杂烩,外卖盒子。 例如,我拿了一大盒幸运饼干带回中国, 给中国人吃,来看看他们会有怎样的反应。
[What is this?]
这是什么?
[Should I try it?]
我可以尝尝吗?
[Try it!]
尝一尝。
[What is this called?]
这叫什么名字啊?
[Fortune cookie.]
幸运饼干。
(Laughter)
[There's a piece of paper inside!]
里面有张纸啊~
(Laughter)
(笑声)
[What is this?]
这是什么?
[You've won a prize!]
你中奖了!
[What is this?]
这是什么?
[It's a fortune!]
是一个幸运。
[Tasty!]
挺好吃的。
So where are they from? The short answer is, actually, they're from Japan. And in Kyoto, outside, there are still small family-run bakeries that make fortune cookies, as they did over 100 years ago, 30 years before fortune cookies were introduced in the United States. If you see them side by side, there's yellow and brown. Theirs are actually flavored with miso and sesame paste, so they're not as sweet as our version. So how did they get to the US? Well, the short answer is, the Japanese immigrants came over, and a bunch of the bakers introduced them -- including at least one in Los Angeles, and one here in San Francisco, called Benkyodo, which is on the corner of Sutter and Buchanan. Back then, they made fortune cookies using very much the similar kind of irons that we saw back in Kyoto.
那么,他们是从哪里来的? 简单的说,他们是从日本来的。 在京都城外, 现在还有些小型的家庭糕点坊 在制作幸运饼干。 就像他们一百多年以前做的一样。 三十年后幸运饼干就传入了美国。 如果你把他们摆在一起看, 你会发现一个是黄色,一个是棕色。 日式的加入了豆面酱和芝麻酱, 没有我们的甜。 那么,他们是怎样传入美国的呢? 简单说来,日本移民来到了美国, 一群面包师就引进了他们。 洛杉矶至少有一家, 在旧金山这里有一家。 名字叫做学习堂。 在那时, 他们制作幸运饼干用的模具 和我们在京都看见的非常相似。
The interesting question is: How do you go from fortune cookies being something that is Japanese to being something that is Chinese? Well, we locked up all the Japanese during World War II, including those that made fortune cookies. So that's when the Chinese moved in, saw a market opportunity and took over.
有意思的是, 幸运饼干是怎么从日本的东西 变成中国的东西了的呢? 简单的说, 二战时,我们收押了所有的日本人, 包括了那些做幸运饼干的人。 就在这时候,中国人来了, 发现了一个市场机遇,就据为己有了。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So, fortune cookies: invented by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately consumed by Americans. They're more American than anything else.
因此,幸运饼干, 由日本人发明, 由中国人推广, 而最终给美国人消费。 他们比任何东西都要具有美国特色。
Another of my favorite dishes: General Tso's Chicken -- which, by the way, in the US Naval Academy is called Admiral Tso's Chicken.
接下来是我最喜欢的菜肴之一, 左宗棠鸡。 顺便提一下,在美国海军军官学校, 它被叫做左司令鸡。
(Laughter)
我喜欢这道菜。
I love this dish. The original name of my book was "The Long March of General Tso." And he has marched very far indeed, because he is sweet, he is fried, and he is chicken -- all things that Americans love.
在我的书中,它原本被叫做 左宗棠将军的长征。 他确实是前进了非常远, 因为他是甜的,是油炸的,是鸡肉做的—— 这三样都是美国人最喜欢的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
He has marched so far, actually, that the chef who originally invented the dish doesn't recognize it; he's kind of horrified.
他前进了如此之远, 连发明了这道菜的厨师都认不出来了。 他有点被吓到了。
Video: (In Chinese)
Audience: (Laughter)
他现在在台湾,
He's in Taiwan right now. He's retired, deaf and plays a lot of mah–jongg. After I showed him this, he got up, and says, "mòmíngqímiào," which means, "This is all nonsense," and goes back to play his mah-jongg game during the afternoon.
退休了,耳聋了,打很多麻将。 在我把图片给他看后, 他站起来, 说着“莫名其妙” 意思是“我完全不明白” 然后回去继续打了一下午的麻将。
Another dish, one of my favorites: beef with broccoli. Broccoli is not a Chinese vegetable; in fact, it is originally an Italian vegetable. It was introduced into the United States in the 1800s, but became popularized in the 1920s and the 1930s. The Chinese have their own version of broccoli, called Chinese broccoli, but they've now discovered American broccoli, and are importing it as a sort of exotic delicacy.
另外一道我喜欢的菜,西兰花牛肉。 西兰花不是中国的蔬菜, 事实上,它是意大利的蔬菜。 19世纪初时,引进了美国, 在20世纪20到30年代开始受到欢迎。 中国人也有自己的西兰花, 就是油菜。 但是现在,中国人发现了美国的西兰花, 便开始把它当作外国食物来进口。
I guarantee you, General Tso never saw a stalk of broccoli in his life. That was a picture of General Tso. I went to his home town. This is a billboard that says: "Welcome to the birthplace of General Tso." And I went looking for chicken. Finally found a cow -- and did find chicken. Believe it or not, these guys were actually crossing the road.
我可以向你保证,左宗棠将军一辈子都没有见过一株西兰花。 这是一种左宗棠将军的图像。 我去了他的家乡。 这个宣传栏上写着: “欢迎来到左宗棠的故里。” 我去寻找小鸡, 最后找到一头母牛~ 还是找到了一些鸡, 信不信由你, 这些家伙还真在过马路。
(Laughter)
还有~ (笑声)
And I found a whole bunch of General Tso's relatives who are still in the town. This guy is now five generations removed from the General; this guy is about seven. I showed them the pictures of General Tso Chicken, and they were like, "We don't know this dish. Is this Chinese food?" Because it doesn't look like Chinese food to them. But they weren't surprised I traveled around the world to visit them, because in their eyes he is, after all, a famous Qing dynasty military hero. He played an important role in the Taiping Rebellion, a war started by a guy who thought he was the son of God and baby brother of Jesus Christ. He caused a war that killed 20 million people -- still the deadliest civil war in the world to this day. So, you know, I realized when I was there, General Tso is kind of a lot like Colonel Sanders in America, in that he's known for chicken and not war. But in China, this guy's actually known for war and not chicken.
我发现了一群左宗棠将军的亲戚, 他们仍然在这个小镇上生活。 这个人是左宗棠将军的第五代后代, 这个人差不多是第七代。 给他们看了我给你们看的这些左宗棠鸡的图片, 他们都说,我们不知道这道菜。 他们还问,这是中国菜吗? 因为对他们来说,这看上去不像中国菜。 但是他们并没有对 我大老远跑来拜访他们 而感到惊讶, 因为在他们看来,左宗棠将军 到底是位著名的清朝名将。 他在镇压太平天国运动中发挥了重要的作用。 太平天国运动的发起者, 自称是上帝的儿子, 耶稣的亲弟弟。 这场战争中,有2千万人丧生, 至今仍是世界上伤亡最惨重的战争。 你知道吗,我那时就意识到了, 左宗棠将军有点像美国的桑德斯上校, 因为他是因为鸡肉而不是战争而闻名。 但在中国,他确实是因为战争而不是鸡肉 而闻名。
But the granddaddy of all the Chinese American dishes we probably ought to talk about is chop suey, which was introduced around the turn of the 20th century. According to the New York Times in 1904, there was an outbreak of Chinese restaurants all over town, and "... the city has gone 'chop suey' mad." So it took about 30 years before the Americans realized that chop suey is actually not known in China, and as this article points out, "The average native of any city in China knows nothing of chop suey." Back then it was a way to show you were sophisticated and cosmopolitan; a guy who wanted to impress a girl could take her on a chop suey date. I like to say chop suey is the biggest culinary joke one culture ever played on another, because "chop suey," translated into Chinese, means "jaahp-seui," which, translated back, means "odds and ends." So, these people are going around China asking for chop suey, which is sort of like a Japanese guy coming here and saying, "I understand you have a very popular dish in your country called 'leftovers.'"
但我们可能要谈到的 所有美式中国菜 的祖师爷 是炒杂烩。 它是在20世纪初的时候 传入美国的。 据《纽约时报》指出, 在1904年,整个市镇上下,突然出现了很多中餐馆, “整个城市为了炒杂烩而疯狂。” 过了30多年, 美国人才意识到, 原来在中国,没有人知道炒杂烩。 就如同这篇文章所指出的一样, “中国任何一个城市里的普通老百姓, 完全不知道炒杂烩。” 在那时,有一种办法来显示 你很老于世故有世界意识。 如果你是个男人,你想要给一个女孩留下深刻印象, 那么你可以带她出去吃炒杂烩。 我想说, 炒杂烩是一个文化给另外一个文化 开的最大的一个烹饪玩笑。 因为炒杂烩, 如果你翻译成中文, 意思是“杂碎”,在翻译过来, 就是“零碎的东西”。 因此,很多人去中国要吃炒杂烩, 这就有点像有个日本人 来到美国说, 你知道你们国家有一道非常有名的菜, 叫做“剩菜”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Right?
—— 对吧?
(Laughter)
还不仅仅是这,
And not only that: "This dish is particularly popular after that holiday you call 'Thanksgiving.'"
这道菜尤其著名, 是在你们称之为“感恩节”的节日后。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So, why and where did chop suey come from? Let's go back to the mid-1800s, when the Chinese first came to America. Back then, Americans were not clamoring to eat Chinese food. In fact, they saw these people who landed at their shores as alien. These people weren't eating dogs, they were eating cats. If they weren't eating cats, they were eating rats. In fact, The New York Times, my esteemed employer, in 1883 ran an article that asked, "Do Chinese eat rats?" Not the most PC question to be asked today, but if you look at the popular imagery of the time, not so outlandish. This is actually a real advertisement for rat poison from the late 1800s. And if you see under the word "Clears" -- very small -- it says, "They must go," which refers not only to the rats, but to the Chinese in their midst, because the way that the food was perceived was that these people who ate foods different from us must be different from us.
那么,炒杂烩 为什么,从哪里来呢? 让我们回到19世纪中页, 第一批中国移民来到美国的时候。 那时,美国人 并不喜欢吃中国菜。 事实上,他们把这些移民当做外星人。 这些人没有吃狗肉, 就在吃猫肉, 没有吃猫肉,就在吃老鼠肉。 事实上,我尊敬的雇主《纽约时报》 在1883年发表了一篇文章说, “中国人吃老鼠肉吗?” 现在看来,这并不是个政治正确的问题, 但是如果你稍微考虑一下当时的普遍情况, 这个问题并没有特别怪异。 这是19世纪末期的一个真正的 老鼠药广告。 你看,在“清除”这个字下面,非常小的字, 写着,“一定要赶走他们。” 这里的“他们”不仅仅是指老鼠, 还指生活在他们当中的中国人。 因为当时人们对于食物的理解方式是, 和我们吃不一样的食物的人, 一定和我们不一样。
Another way that you saw this antipathy towards the Chinese is through documents like this. This is in the Library of Congress. It's a pamphlet published by Samuel Gompers, hero of our American labor movement. It's called, "Some Reason for Chinese Exclusion: Meat versus Rice: American Manhood against Asiatic Coolieism: Which shall survive?" And it basically made the argument that Chinese men who ate rice would necessarily bring down the standard of living for American men who ate meat. And as a matter of fact, then, this is one of the reasons we must exclude them from this country. So, with sentiments like these, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed between 1882 and 1902, the only time in American history when a group was specifically excluded for its national origin or ethnicity. So in a way, because the Chinese were attacked, chop suey was created as a defense mechanism.
你可以看到,对中国人的厌恶情绪 在另外一种方式 表现为这样的文件。 这份文件现存于美国国会图书馆; 是由美国劳工运动的英雄, 塞缪尔·龚帕斯发表的。 它叫做“排除华人的一些理由: 肉食对大米:美国男人对亚洲苦力 孰胜孰负? 这份文件基本上提出了一个论点, 吃大米的中国人 必然会降低吃肉食的美国人的 生活标准。 事实上, 这就是为什么我们一定要把他们排斥在我们国家之外 的原因之一。 因此,有了像这样的观点, 《排华法案》在1882年到1902年之间通过了。 那是美国历史上唯一一段时期, 一个群体会因为自己的民族特性 而被特别的排斥。 在某种程度上说,因为中国人被攻击了, 他们就发明了炒杂烩做为一种防卫机制。
Who came up with the idea of chop suey? There's a lot of different mysteries and legends, but of the ones I've found, the most interesting is this article from 1904. A Chinese guy named Lem Sen shows up in Chinatown, New York City, and says, "I want you all to stop making chop suey, because I am the original creator and sole proprietor of chop suey. And the way he tells it, there was a famous Chinese diplomat that showed up, and he was told to make a dish that looked very popular and could, quote, "pass" as Chinese. And as he said -- we would never print this today -- but basically, the American man has become very rich. Lem Sen: "I would've made this money, too, but I spent all this time looking for the American man who stole my recipe. Now I've found him and I want my recipe back, and I want everyone to stop making chop suey, or pay me for the right to do the same. So it was an early exercise of intellectual property rights.
那么,是谁想出来做炒杂烩的呢? 这里有很多不同的传说 但在我发现的一些故事中我认为最有趣的 是1904年的一篇文章。 一个叫做林森的中国人 出现在了纽约的唐人街,说道, 我要你们所有人都停止做炒杂烩, 因为我是炒杂烩菜的原始的发明者, 也是唯一的所有者。 据他所说, 有个人, 有个很著名的中国外交官来了, 别人叫他做一道菜,要看起来很流行, 可以当作中国菜。 他还说, 我们今天也许都不会说出来, 但是美国人都变的很有钱了。 林森说: 我本可以也赚这么多钱, 但我吧所以时间都花在了寻找那个 偷了我的食谱的美国人。 现在我来到了这里找到了他, 我想把我的食谱要回来, 我想要每个人都停止制造炒杂烩菜, 要不就付版权费给我。 这么看来,这是一次知识产权的 早期运用。
The thing is, this idea of Chinese-American food doesn't exist only in America. In fact, Chinese food is the most pervasive food on the planet, served on all seven continents, even Antarctica, because Monday night is Chinese food night at McMurdo Station, which is the main scientific station in Antarctica. You see different varieties of Chinese food. For example, there is French Chinese food, where they serve salt and pepper frog legs. There is Italian Chinese food, where they don't have fortune cookies, so they serve fried gelato. My neighbor, Alessandra, was shocked when I told her, "Dude, fried gelato is not Chinese." She's like, "It's not? But they serve it in all the Chinese restaurants in Italy."
问题是, 这种美式中国菜 并不仅仅存在于美国。 只有你想想就会发现, 中国菜是地球上最无处不在的食物, 在七大洲上都有,甚至是南极洲。 因为在南极洲最大的考察站麦克默多站 星期一晚上是中国菜之夜。 有许许多多不同种类的中国菜。 例如,有法式中国菜, 他们提供椒盐蛙腿。 有意式中国菜, 他们没有幸运饼干, 但他们有油炸意式冰淇淋。 我的楼下邻居亚历山大 在我告诉她 “伙计,油炸意式冰淇淋不是中国的。”之后无比震惊。 她说,“不是的? 但在意大利的每一家中餐馆都有的吃。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Even the Brits have their own version. This is a dish called "crispy shredded beef," which has a lot of crisp, a lot of shred, and not a lot of beef. There is West Indian Chinese food, there's Jamaican Chinese food, Middle Eastern Chinese food, Mauritian Chinese food. This is a dish called "Magic Bowl," that I discovered. There's Indian Chinese food, Korean Chinese food, Japanese Chinese food, where they take the bao, the little buns, and make them into pizza versions.
英国人也有有自己特色的中国菜。 这道菜叫做酥碎牛肉丝, 有很多酥皮,很多碎屑,没有很多牛肉。 还有西印度中国菜, 牙买加式中国菜, 中东中国菜, 毛里求斯中国菜。 我发现了一道叫做魔术之碗 的菜。 还有印度中国菜, 韩式中国菜, 日式中国菜, 日本人把小包子 做成了比萨。 他们还
(Laughter)
很随意的,
And they totally randomly take Chinese noodle dishes, and just ramenize them. This is something that, in the Chinese version, has no soup. So, there's Peruvian Chinese food, which should not be mixed with Mexican Chinese food, where they basically take things and make it look like fajitas.
他们把中式的面条, 也做出了日式拉面。 像这个, 在中国的版本中就没有汤的。 还有秘鲁中国菜, 不要和墨西哥中国菜混淆了, 因为后者基本上只是 把所有的菜都做得像墨西哥法士达铁板烧。
(Laughter)
还有一个,
And they have things like risotto chop suey. My personal favorite of all the restaurants I've encountered around the world was this one in Brazil, called "Kung Food."
他们还有炒杂烩意式调味饭。 我在整个世界里 见到的所以餐馆中我最喜欢的一个 是在巴西的这个,叫做“功夫菜” (笑声)
(Laughter)
让我们退回来一步,
So, let's take a step back and understand what is to be appreciated in America. McDonald's has garnered a lot of attention, a lot of respect, for basically standardizing the menu, decor and dining experience in post-World War II America. But you know what? They did so through a centralized headquarters out of Illinois. Chinese restaurants have done largely the same thing, I would argue, with the menu and the decor, even the restaurant name, but without a centralized headquarters. So, this actually became very clear to me with the March 30, 2005 Powerball drawing, where they expected, based on the number of ticket sales they had, to have three or four second-place winners, people who match five or six Powerball numbers. Instead, they had 110, and they were completely shocked.
来想想, 在美国有什么值得注意的。 麦当劳® 获得了很多的关注与尊重, 因为其在二战后的美国 在菜单,装潢和就餐体验方面 树立了一个基本的标准。 但是你知道吗? 他们实际上 是通过伊利诺斯州的总部 来做的这些的,是吧? 我可以说, 中餐馆也做了大致一样的事情, 规范菜单,装潢 甚至是餐馆名称, 但他们没有一个中心总部。 于是,在2005年3月30日的超级球抽奖活动中, 我明白了。 那一次抽奖, 他们根据售出的彩票数目 估计会有三四个二等奖获得者, 就是那些猜中了五六个号码的人。 但他们有110个,
They looked all across the country and discovered it couldn't be fraud,
他们完全惊呆了。
since it happened in different states, across different computer systems. Whatever it was, it caused people to behave in a mass-synchronized way. So, OK, maybe it had to do with the patterns on the pieces of paper, like it was a diamond, or diagonal. It wasn't that, so they're like, OK, let's look at television. So they looked at an episode of "Lost." Now, I don't have a TV, which makes me a freak, but very productive --
他们在全国上下调查, 发现不太可能是个骗局, 因为这些彩票 是在不同的州,不同的电脑系统。 不管是什么, 有种东西,让人们有了 群体同步行为。 好吧,也可能是那一小张彩票 上面的某种图案。 就像也许是菱形, 或者是对角线。 但不是这样的。 不是这样的,他们就说, 让我们从电视节目上找找吧。 因此,他们看了一集《迷失》 我没有电视机, 别人觉得我很古怪,但这使得我工作富有成效~ (笑声)
(Laughter)
And there's an episode of "Lost" where one guy has a lucky number, but it's not a lucky number, it's why he's on the island, but they looked and the numbers did not match. They looked at "The Young and The Restless." It wasn't that, either. It wasn't until the first guy shows up the next day and they ask him, "Where did you get your number?" He said, "I got it from a fortune cookie." This is a slip one of the winners had, because the Tennessee lottery security officials were like, "Oh, no, this can't be true." But it was true. Basically, of those 110 people, 104 of them or so had gotten their number from a fortune cookie.
我知道,这一集《迷失》 讲的是一个白人的幸运号码, 事实上却不是幸运号码, 讲的是他们在岛上呆了多长时间, 他们对照了, 号码不相符。 他们还看了《不安分的青春》, 号码也不对。 直到第二天第一个获奖者出现 他们问他, “你的号码从哪里来的?” 他说,“哦,我从一个幸运饼干中得到的。” 这就是其中一个获奖者的幸运签, 因为田纳西州彩票安全局 觉得这不可能是真的, 但这是真的。 这110个人中,基本上有 104个人 的号码是从幸运饼干中得到的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Yeah. So I went and started looking. I went across the country, looking for these restaurants where these people had gotten their fortune cookies from. There are a bunch of them, including Lee's China in Omaha -- which is actually run by Koreans, but that's another point, and a bunch of them named "China Buffet." What's interesting is that their stories were similar, but different. It was lunch, it was take-out, it was sit-down, it was buffet, it was three weeks ago, it was three months ago. But at some point, all these people had a very similar experience that converged at a fortune cookie and a Chinese restaurant. And all these restaurants were serving fortune cookies, which, of course, aren't even Chinese to begin with. It's part of the phenomenon I called "spontaneous self-organization," where, like in ant colonies, little decisions made on the micro level actually have a big impact on the macro level.
是的,因此,我开始调查。 我跑遍了全国, 来寻找那些 获奖者吃到幸运饼干的餐馆。 有很多家, 包括在奥马哈市的李氏中餐厅, 事实上那是由韩国人开的,但这不是重点。 还有很多家叫做自助中餐。 有意思的是,他们的故事都相似, 但却有所不同。 有的是午餐,有的是外卖, 有的是坐下来吃,有的是自助餐, 有的是三星期前,有的是三个月前。 但在某种程度上, 所以这些人都有一个非常相似的经历, 在一个中餐馆,吃了一个幸运饼干。 所有这些中餐馆 都有幸运饼干。 而我们已经知道, 这些饼干一开始就不是中国的。 这就有点像我所说的 自发组织现象。 就像在蚂蚁群中, 在微观层面上做出的小小的决定, 会在宏观层面上产生巨大的影响。
A good contrast is Chicken McNuggets. McDonald's actually spent 10 years coming out with a chicken-like product. They did chicken pot pie, fried chicken, and finally introduced Chicken McNuggets. And the great innovation of Chicken McNuggets was not nuggifying them, that's kind of an easy concept. The trick was, they were able to remove the chicken from the bone in a cost-efficient manner, which is why it took so long for people to copy them -- 10 years, then within a couple months, it was such a hit, they introduced it across the entire McDonald's system in the country.
一个很好的对比是, 麦当劳®的麦乐鸡块。 麦当劳®花了十年 才推出了鸡肉之类的产品。 他们做了鸡肉馅饼, 炸鸡, 他们最后推出了麦乐鸡块。 麦乐鸡块的新发明, 并没有给他们带来金块, 因为这个想法很简单, 但麦乐鸡块背后的技巧是, 如何用一种划算的方式来 把鸡肉从骨头上剔出来。 这就是为什么过了这么久 才有人模仿他们。 花了十年时间, 然后在短短几个月之内, 他们就推出了麦乐鸡块, 并在全国麦当劳连锁的整个系统中都推广了, 可真是风行一时。
In contrast is General Tso's Chicken, which actually started in New York City in the early 1970s, as I was also started in this universe in New York City in the early 1970s.
相反, 我们有左宗棠鸡, 是在20世纪70年代在纽约城里兴起的, 20世纪70年代初期,我也正在纽约读大学~
(Laughter)
And this logo! So me, General Tso's Chicken and this logo are all karmicly related. But that dish also took about 10 years to spread across America from a restaurant in New York City. Someone's like, "It's sweet, it's fried, it's chicken -- Americans will love this."
还有这个标志! 于是,我,左宗棠鸡,还有这个标志 都在宇宙范围内有了联系。 但是这道菜也花了将近十年, 才从纽约城里的某家餐馆 推广到全国的。 有人想到, 噢,天哪~ 这道菜是甜的,是油炸的,是鸡肉做的: 美国人一定会喜欢。
So what I like to say, this being Bay Area, Silicon Valley, is that we think of McDonald's as sort of the Microsoft of dining experiences. We can think of Chinese restaurants perhaps as Linux, sort of an open-source thing, right?
我想说的是,如果这是海湾地区,硅谷 我们可以把麦当劳®看作 是餐饮业的微软。 我们可以把中餐馆看作Linux: 一种开源系统,对吧?
(Laughter)
一个人的想法
Where ideas from one person can be copied and propagated across the entire system, that there can be specialized versions of Chinese food, depending on the region. For example, in New Orleans we have Cajun Chinese food, where they serve Sichuan alligator and sweet and sour crawfish. And in Philadelphia, you have Philadelphia cheesesteak roll, which is like an egg roll on the outside and cheesesteak on the inside. I was surprised to discover that not only in Philadelphia, but also in Atlanta. What had happened was, a Chinese family had moved from Philadelphia to Atlanta, and brought that with them.
可以在这整个系统中被复制,被普及。 在不同的地区,就有特别版本的 中国菜。 比如说, 在新奥尔良,我们有法人后裔风味的中国菜, 你可以吃到四川短吻鳄和糖醋小龙虾。 在费城, 你可以吃到费城奶酪牛排卷, 它外面看上去像一个蛋卷, 但在里面有奶酪牛排。 我很惊讶的发现, 不仅仅是在费城有,在亚特兰大也有。 原因是, 一个中国家庭 从费城搬到了亚特兰大, 把奶酪牛排卷也带过去了。
So the thing is, our historical lore, because of the way we like narratives, is full of vast characters, such as Howard Schultz of Starbucks and Ray Kroc with McDonald's and Asa Candler with Coca-Cola. But, you know, it's very easy to overlook the smaller characters. For example, Lem Sen, who introduced chop suey, Chef Peng, who introduced General Tso's Chicken, and all the Japanese bakers who introduced fortune cookies. So, the point of my presentation is to make you think twice; that those whose names are forgotten in history can often have had as much, if not more, impact on what we eat today.
问题是, 我们的历史知识中, 由于我们对于叙事故事的喜爱, 充斥了大量的人物。 比如说,星巴克®的霍尔德·舒尔茨 麦当劳®的雷·克拉克 还有可口可乐®的艾萨·凯德勒 但是,你知道, 我们非常容易忽视掉小人物。 比如说,发明了炒杂烩的 林森, 发明了左宗棠鸡的 彭厨师, 还有发明了幸运饼干的 所有日本面包师。 我这篇报告的目的是, 让你能够反复的思考, 那一些名字被历史遗忘了的人, 对于我们现在吃的食物, 有着同样,也许更加重要的影响。
Thank you very much.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)