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.
在這個國家(美國), 中國餐館的數量,比麥當勞、漢堡王、肯德基、和溫蒂漢堡的總和還要多。 實際的數目約為4萬家。 中國餐館在美國歷史上一向舉足輕重, 事實上, 古巴的飛彈危機, 就是在位於華盛頓D.C.的中國餐廳 北宮解決的。 遺憾的是,這家餐館現在已經關門大吉, 原址將改建成大型連鎖藥局沃爾格林。 而約翰‧威爾克斯‧布思 構思暗殺林肯總統計畫的屋子 現在也是家中國餐館 名為「熱炒搖滾」,就位在華盛頓D.C.的街上。
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
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.
這店名也不是取得完全沒道理啦! 因為店裡有熱炒跟春捲, 又有中國菜跟日本菜, 所以是行得通的。 美國人是如此熱愛中國菜, 連上太空都要帶著它。 美國太空總署為太空人準備的菜單中, 就有經高溫消菌的糖醋排骨以供選擇。
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?
嗯,我來問個問題: 如果蘋果派是美國食物的典型, 那麼你們應該曾經比較過, 自己吃蘋果派的頻率, 跟吃中國菜的頻率哪個比較高?對吧?
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
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.
再者,如果你們曾經想過這件事, 便會發現,很多你們、 或我們、甚至是美國人認知裡的中國菜, 中國人其實不太認得。 比方說:花椰菜炒牛肉、炸春捲、左宗棠雞、 幸運籤餅、雜碎、還有外帶用的紙盒。 這裡有個例子:我帶了一整包的幸運籤餅回中國去, 觀察他們在看到幸運籤餅時的反應。
[What is this?]
這是什麼?
[Should I try it?]
我能嚐嚐看嗎?
[Try it!]
嚐一嚐!
[What is this called?]
這叫什麼名字啊?
[Fortune cookie.]
幸運籤餅。
(Laughter)
[There's a piece of paper inside!]
還有一張紙啊!
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
[What is this?]
這是啥?
[You've won a prize!]
你中獎了!
[What is this?]
這是什麼?
[It's a fortune!]
是一個......幸運!
[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.
那麼,幸運籤餅是打哪來的? 答案是:它們其實來自日本。 在京都的郊區, 有個小小的家庭式糕餅點 仍照著100年前的方式, 製作幸運籤餅。 那是幸運籤餅被引進美國30年前的事了。 如果你比較日本和美國的籤餅, 會發現日本籤餅是褐色,而美國的是黃色; 而日式籤餅以味噌跟芝麻醬調味, 也就是說,日式籤餅並沒有美式的那麼甜。 那麼,幸運籤餅是怎麼來到美國的? 嗯,答案是,隨著日本移民來到美國, 一些糕餅師傅把幸運籤餅帶過來, 其中至少有一家店在洛杉磯; 而這家在舊金山的撒特街和巴禪南街街角, 名叫勉強堂的餅店, 當時, 他們所用來製作幸運籤餅的模具, 和京都人所使用的非常相似。
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.
欸,好玩的問題來了: 幸運籤餅是如何從日本人的點心, 變成中國人的? 這個嘛,簡單回答這個問題, 美國人在二次世界大戰時,把境內所有日本移民關起來, 包括那些做幸運籤餅的師傅。 這麼一來,中國移民有機可趁: 他們注意到幸運籤餅的商機,將其佔為己有。
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
So, fortune cookies: invented by the Japanese, popularized by the Chinese, but ultimately consumed by Americans. They're more American than anything else.
所以,幸運籤餅啊, 是日本人發明, 中國人發揚光大, 但最後卻是由美國人消費的。 它們其實是再美國不過的點心。
Another of my favorite dishes: General Tso's Chicken -- which, by the way, in the US Naval Academy is called Admiral Tso's Chicken.
另外一道我喜歡的料理: 左宗棠雞。 這菜在美國海軍官校, 又被叫做左上將雞。
(Laughter)
我愛這道菜。
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.
我書裡有個篇章原來就叫做: 左將軍的長征。 左宗棠雞的確非常深入美國民間, 因為這菜是甜的、又得油炸、還是用雞做的, 一整個美國人愛的東西。
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
He has marched so far, actually, that the chef who originally invented the dish doesn't recognize it; he's kind of horrified.
事實上,因為這菜改變太大, 以至於最早發明左宗棠雞的廚師, 不但認不得,還被嚇到了!
Video: (In Chinese)
Audience: (Laughter)
他現在住在台灣,
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.
過著退休的生活,失聰,每天摸好幾個八圈。 呃,他看到我秀給他左宗棠雞的照片, 站了起來, 然後說:「莫名其妙!」 意思就是:這一點道理都沒有! 接著就回去繼續打他下午場的麻將了。
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.
接下來,我的另一道最愛:花椰菜炒牛肉。 花椰菜並不是在中國土生土長的蔬菜, 事實上,它一開始生長在義大利, 在19世紀被引進美國, 直到1920到30年代才開始受到人們喜愛。 其實,中國人有他們自己的花椰菜, 也就是芥蘭菜。 不過現在,他們發現了美國的花椰菜後, 開始進口,視之為帶著異國風味的食物。
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.
我向妳們保證,左宗棠終其一生連花椰菜的梗都沒看過。 你們現在看到的,就是左宗棠的畫像。 我去過他的老家, 在那裏有個看板上寫著: 「歡迎來到清代名臣左宗棠的故里」。 我在當地找尋雞的蹤影, 結果找到一頭牛, 不過我最後還是有找到雞群, 無論你們相信與否, 牠們當時正在過馬路,
(Laughter)
然後...... (眾人笑)
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.
我也有找到不少左宗棠的後人, 他們仍住在那個小城。 這人是左宗棠的第五代孫。 這小孩大概七歲, 我給他們看左宗棠雞的照片, 他們一臉「我不知道這是什麼」的表情, 跟著問:「這是中國菜嗎?」 因為對他們來說,這一點都不像中國菜啊! 但他們一點都不感到驚訝。 我走遍世界各地, 就是為了見他們。 因為在他們眼裡, 左宗棠應該是有名的清朝將軍。 他在太平天國之亂裡扮演了重要角色。 太平天國是由一個, 認為自己是神的兒子、 耶穌基督的弟弟的男人發起的。 約有2億人死於這場戰爭, 到今日還是世界史上,死亡人數最多的內戰。 所以啊,到那兒時,我這才明白, 左宗棠就像是肯德基的創始人桑德斯上校一樣, 在美國是以雞肉料理聞名,而非戰爭; 但是在中國,這傢伙其實 是以戰爭而非雞肉聞名的啊!
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.'"
不過,真要說起來, 所有中式美國菜的老祖宗, 應該是我們接著要談的 雜碎。 這料理 大概是在20世紀初的時候出現的。 根據紐約時報, 1904年,中國餐廳在紐約如雨後春筍般冒出, 整個城市也為雜碎而瘋狂。 難怪一直要到大概30年後, 美國人才明白, 「啥?中國人不知道『雜碎』這道菜?」 如同這篇文章所說, 「無論是中國哪一個城市裡的居民, 沒有一個人知道雜碎。」 你得知道,在那個時候, 一個男人若想表現出自己受過良好教育,而不是個鄉巴佬, 來取悅心儀的女孩, 可以在約會的時候帶她去吃雜碎。 我得說, 雜碎大概是,一個文化之於另外一個文化, 所能開最大的飲食文化笑話了。 因為雜碎, 翻譯成中文, 就是「雜碎」;如果按字面翻譯成英文, 就是「又雜又碎」。 所以啊,如果你們在中國點炒雜碎, 就有點像是一個日本人, 來到美國,說: 「我聽說你們國家有道非常流行的料理, 叫做『剩菜』。嗯,這實在是......
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
Right?
對吧!
(Laughter)
還不只是這樣:
And not only that: "This dish is particularly popular after that holiday you call 'Thanksgiving.'"
雜碎在 被你們稱做感恩節的假日,特別受歡迎!
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
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.
所以, 雜碎是怎麼來的?從哪裡來? 事情可以追溯到19世紀中葉, 第一批中國移民來到美國的時候。 那個時候,美國人 一點也不熱衷於吃中國菜。 相反的,他們視這群初來乍到的人為外星人。 就算這些人不吃狗, 他們也吃貓, 就算他們不吃貓,他們也吃老鼠! 事實上,紐約時報,我敬愛的雇主, 在1883年刊出一篇文章問: 「中國人吃老鼠嗎?」 這當然不是現今會問最「政治正確」的問題, 不過如果你試著用當時的美國人對中國人最常見的想像來看, 這問題一點都不奇怪。 這是一則真實的廣告,用來宣傳老鼠藥, 出現在19世紀晚期。 如同你所看到的,在「清除」的下面,有一行非常小的字, 寫著:「他們得離開。」 這並不只是針對老鼠, 同時也針對被視為跟老鼠同一類的中國人。 因為中國人吃食的方式, 跟我們美國人完全不同, 所以中國人一定跟美國人不一樣。
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.
除此之外,這類 反對中國人的言詞, 普遍存在於歷史紀錄中,一如這份, 在美國國會圖書館裡找到的, 由山謬‧龔帕斯出版的小冊子, 龔帕斯是美國勞工運動的英雄。 上面說,「排華的理由── 肉食與米食/美國人和亞洲廉價勞工 哪一個該留存下來?」 這冊子以這樣的論點為基調: 吃米的中國人, 必定會降低我們生活的水準, 對吃肉的美國人來說, 這樣的水準, 就是 我們必須將華人趨離這個國家的其中一個理由。 在這樣的情境下, 美國於1882年和1902年間執行排華法案。 這是美國史上唯一一段時期, 有一特定族群, 就只是因為他們的國籍或是種族,而被逐出美國。 所以,在某種程度上,被冒犯的中國人們, 把雜碎的發明當做是防禦的手段。
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.
現在我們來談談,是誰發明這道菜的? 我找到許多關於雜碎的秘密跟傳說, 其中有個我覺得最有趣的, 出現在1904年的一篇文章裡, 提到一個叫做連紳的中國人, 有天出現在紐約的中國城,說: 「希望你們這些傢伙不要再做雜碎了, 因為我才是雜碎的發明者, 也是唯一的擁有人。」 根據他的說法,雜碎是這樣來的: 有這麼個人, 在有名的中國大使來到美國時, 要求他做道看起來很受歡迎, 而且能以「中國人也認可」的字眼宣傳的料理。 他提到, 嗯,如在今日,我們絕對不會做這樣的報導, 但大致上就是,那個美國人後來變得非常富有。 連紳,也就是這個中國廚師,說: 「我也可以賺這麼多錢的, 可是我卻得花時間在找這個 偷了我的食譜的美國人上。 今天我來到這裡,也找到他了, 想拿回我的食譜。 我希望大家都不要再做炒雜碎了, 要不然就得付我做這菜的權利金。」 也因此,這其實是一個早期的 保護智慧財產權的活動。
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."
不過嘛, 這樣一道中式美國菜, 並不僅只在美國而已。 事實上,你會發現, 中國菜是這個世界上滲透力最強的菜系, 在七大洲,包括南極都可以發現其蹤影。 在麥克莫多站,南極的主要科學研究據點, 星期一晚上是中國菜之夜。 接著,來讓你們看看各式各樣的中國菜: 比方說,法國的中菜館, 提供椒鹽田雞腿肉; 義大利的中菜館, 那裡雖然沒有幸運籤餅, 不過她們有炸義式冰淇淋。 我家樓下的鄰居,亞歷珊卓, 在到我這麼說時,被嚇到了: 「欸,炸義式冰淇淋不是中國菜啊!」 她問:「不是嗎? 可是,全義大利的中國餐館都有這道甜點啊!」
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
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.
即使是英國人,也有他們自己版本的中國菜── 這是脆牛肉絲, 很脆,很多肉絲,吃起來卻不太像牛肉。 西印度的中國餐廳; 牙買加的中國餐廳; 中東的中國餐廳; 模里西斯的中國餐廳, 我發現這裡有道 叫做「魔丼」的料理。 印度的中國餐廳; 韓國的中國餐廳; 我們在日本的中國餐廳, 吃了包子,一種像是小餐包的食物, 不過他們把它印上「披薩」的字樣。 而且他們還
(Laughter)
隨意的
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.
把中式麵食 拉麵化 像這個, 若是中式麵條的做法,是沒有湯的。 秘魯的中國餐廳, 這跟墨西哥那裡的中國菜可不一樣。 墨西哥人通常將中菜料理成 像是墨西哥烤肉的食物。
(Laughter)
還有,這個:
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."
義大利雜碎燉飯。 我走遍各地, 所去過的中菜館裡,我最愛的是這家, 位在巴西,叫做「功夫菜」的餐館。 (眾人笑)
(Laughter)
好,讓我們回到美國,
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.
來試著了解, 美國的中國菜有什麼值得欣賞之處。 麥當勞 之所以受人注意和尊重, 是因為他們在二次世界大戰後, 將美國速食餐廳的 菜單、布置和用餐經驗標準化。 但你們知道嗎? 這些其實是由麥當勞 在位於伊利諾州邊緣區域 的總部做出的決策,對吧? 我認為,中菜館 也一直在做同樣的事情。 他們標準化中國餐廳的菜單和布置, 甚至是餐廳名字, 只差沒有一家統籌的總公司。 讓我明白這點的, 是2005年3月30號那一期的威力彩。 如你所知,主辦者依據彩券銷售量估算, 當期 應該會有三、四個二獎, 也就是彩卷中5碼或是6碼的獎金得主。 但是,那一期卻有110個二獎得主,
They looked all across the country and discovered it couldn't be fraud,
這把主辦單位嚇壞了。
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 --
他們分析全美國中獎者的分布情況,發現, 這應該不是作弊。 因為得主出現在 不同的州,也從不同的電腦系統下注, 所以無論是什麼原因造成這麼高的得獎率, 一定跟人們某種 大規模的集體行為有關。 也就是說,嗯,或許是在這小小的投注單上, 人們出現某種行為模式, 像是讓下注的數字連成菱形, 或是位在對角線上數字的連線。 然而,事情並非如此。 既然不是這樣,他們就想, 好吧,從電視下手。 也許是某集的《Lost檔案》給的靈感, 岔題一下,我家現在沒電視, 因為電視會讓我變成個非常有生產力的怪胎,而且, (眾人笑)
(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.
而這一集的《Lost檔案》,據我所知, 內容繞著一組某白人角色的幸運、 也不太幸運的號碼打轉, 這組號碼同時也暗示他們將在島上待的日數。 然而,當主辦單位查證後, 發現這組數字,沒有一個跟開獎號碼一樣。 主辦單位又查了另一部影集《年輕與躁動》, 也跟開獎號碼無關。 一直到隔天,有個中獎者出面領獎, 他們問他: 「你是怎麼決定要簽哪些號碼的?」 他說:「喔,我是在幸運籤餅上看到的。」 這的的確確是其中一個中獎者拿到的籤詩, 而田納西州的彩券安全部警官看到它, 反應是:「喔!這怎麼可能!」 但事情就是這樣。 這110個人中, 有104個人 是根據幸運籤餅裡頭的籤詩決定下注的號碼。
(Laughter)
(眾人笑)
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,因為這件事,我開始, 從美東走到美西, 尋找這些 提供中獎者幸運籤餅的中菜館。 他們之中, 包括這家由韓國人經營的, 奧馬哈的李家菜。這其實是另外一個故事了...... 還有,很多中菜館都叫中國自助餐。 有趣的是,這些餐廳既相似, 卻又非常不同。 這家只供午餐,那家只供外帶, 這家點餐,那家是自助餐, 這家三周前開幕,那家三個月前開幕, 但是, 所有的中獎者都因為幸運餅乾和中菜館, 共享非常相似的經歷。 而這些中菜館 全都提供幸運籤餅。 當然,我們現在都知道, 幸運籤餅本非中式點心。 所以,這是一種, 我稱做自發性組織的現象, 就像是螞群 在微觀尺度所做的決策, 卻能在巨觀尺度產生極大的影響力。
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.
另一個好的對照組, 是麥克雞塊。 麥當勞花了十年, 才推出第一個類雞肉產品。 她們曾經試過雞肉派、 炸雞、 最後終於找出麥克雞塊的配方。 而麥克雞塊的創意厲害之處, 不在於把雞肉雞塊化, 這太容易了, 而在於製造麥克雞塊時, 麥當勞得以合乎成本效益的方式, 讓雞肉骨肉分離。 這才是為什麼其他的競爭對手得花很長的時間, 方能複製麥當勞經驗的原因。 麥當勞花了十年研發出的麥克雞塊, 只在數個月間 就能大賣。 他們所做的,不過就是推出新產品,然後推廣到 遍布美國的麥當勞分店。
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.
相對的, 左宗棠雞 最早出現在1970年代初期的紐約, 那時我剛開始在紐約念大學......
(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."
喔,還有這個「我愛紐約」的標誌。 所以,我、左宗棠雞和這標誌, 是有很大關連的。 但是,這道菜也花了10年, 才得以從紐約一家不起眼的餐廳, 到現在全美各地的中菜館都能吃到它。 很多人覺得: 哇!天啊!這菜是甜的、是油炸食物、是雞肉料理, 美國人都會喜歡的。
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?
我想說的是,嗯,套個舊金山灣區、或是矽谷的人會用的說法: 如果把在麥當勞用餐的經驗, 比做微軟, 或許,中國餐廳就能看做是Linux操作系統, 帶著自由軟體的概念,對吧!
(Laughter)
自由軟體可以讓一個人的程式設計,
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.
藉由不斷複製軟體程式碼來推廣給所有的系統使用人。 中國菜也一樣, 因為我們都知道,有隨著饕客所在的地域,而出現的特別版中菜。 比如說, 紐澳良有卡津式的中國菜, 即川味的鱷魚和糖醋淡水龍蝦。 在費城, 你可以找到費城牛肉起司捲, 外觀跟春捲沒兩樣, 卻包著牛肉起司三明治的內餡。 我非常驚訝, 這料理不僅出現在費城,連亞特蘭大也有。 這是因為 有個經營中菜館的家族 從亞特蘭大,呃不,是從費城搬到亞特蘭大時, 把這道菜的做法帶去了。
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.
所以啊, 因為我們偏好的述事方式, 讓我們的歷史課裡, 有偉大貢獻的人比比皆是, 像是,星巴克的霍華‧舒茲, 麥當勞的雷‧克羅克, 可口可樂的亞沙‧坎德勒。 但是,就因為這樣, 我們很容易就忽略平凡人, 比如說,連紳, 那個發明炒雜碎的廚師。 或是發明左宗棠雞的 彭師傅, 還有所有將 幸運籤餅帶進美國的日本糕餅師傅。 也因此,我在這場演講中,想要跟妳們分享的是, 請你們再想想, 這些曾在歷史上出現,但名字已被我們遺忘的小人物, 往往也能 對我們今日的飲食內容有非常大的影響。
Thank you very much.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)