2014-09-28

【Aiden in English】

        I love spicy Chinese food. It fills me in warmth and melts away any of my worries. I could just feel the spice burn the mouth with flavor. But there's a catch. Oh, yes, a very big catch. Sometimes, I overestimate my limits and somewhat burn my mouth. So I must eat at my own risk. Other than that, I didn't care about the burn in the food.

        With that said, Mom and I had a dinner with a bunch of friends from Guanghua Chinese School at Bamboo, a Szechuan restaurant in PA this Sunday. Szechuan has the best type of spice, and it is hot. Unfortunately, not everyone eats the hot food. I mean, come on, there's an 8-year old girl named Katie who ate anything but spicy food.

        Spice tasted really bad to her. When the first dish "Homemade Spicy Beef Jerky" appeared on the table, Katie got hold of it first. She was also the first to scream. The sound sliced through the air like a knife through butter and she spit the food out as if it was poisonous. And she sat there for 10 minutes, with her arms crossed, rejecting any comment that came in her way.

        Meanwhile, I was digging into my plate and the heaps of food appearing on the table. As soon as one plate of food was finished, two more filled its place. So I just kept chewing down stuff as fast as stomach would let me. I went on this pace up for about three minutes, and at the end, my insides were stuffed from top to bottom. Uhh, that felt great. The fiery intensity of the hot food was still tingling my tongue.

        Eventually, Katie got a plate of fried green beans as expected and she turned out all right. The rest of the night was filled with laughter and chatting. It looked absolutely awesome. At last, when everyone had eaten all that stomach could tolerate, and goodbyes where said, I thought, maybe next time, I should just stick to eating spice food slowly.

【紅霞譯文】

        我喜愛中國麻辣菜餚，既沁人心脾，又消愁解悶。只要什麼東西沾上麻辣，我頓覺余香繞梁，大有燎原之勢。但螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在後。沒錯，麻辣飲食隱患重重。有時我不知天高地厚，辣得喉嚨冒煙嘴巴竄火，簡直自找苦吃。除此之外，我並不忌諱麻辣。

        話說至此，今天星期日，我和媽媽與光華中文學校的朋友們應約來到賓州一家四川餐館“蜀苑”共進晚餐。川菜可謂集濃烈調料之大成，尤以麻辣著稱。遺憾的是，並非人人欣賞麻辣美味。瞧，眼前這位年僅八歲的女孩苗霖雖不挑食，但對麻的小吃辣的饌玉卻一概嗤之以鼻。

        苗霖真的吃不慣麻辣。當第一道“麻辣牛筋”送上桌時，她近水樓台最早嘗鮮，哪知領先發出尖叫。尖叫聲響徹上空，猶如一把利刀插入黃油膏，食物紛紛從口中噴出，好像吃了什麼有毒東西。這時，苗霖坐着原地，兩臂交叉，前後足有十分鐘，辣得一句話也說不出來。

       同時，我則趁機大快朵頤盤中美食，饕餮筵席八珍。剛吃完一盤，又上來另外兩盤。此刻胃口有多大，我的嘴巴就有多忙。連續搗飭了三分鐘之後，我渾身上下已撐得圓鼓隆咚。呃哈，甭提有多爽，儘管舌頭被辣得火燒火燎。

        末了，苗霖終於如願以償吃上了盼望已久的干煸四季豆。隨後，整個“蜀苑”洋溢着一片歡聲笑語，男女老少皆大歡喜。告別時刻，我禁不住在想，也許下回自己應該放慢點享用麻辣食物的節奏。