春節，2015-02-19

【Aiden in English】

       Lai Lai Garden was certainly a sensational experience on Chinese New Year’s Eve. It has been quite a while since my mouth has been lit on fire like that and I really appreciate it. 

        Mom took break out of work specifically for Chinese Spring Festival today. She joined in a group of her friends from GlaxoSmithKline. They gathered together for lunch at Pin Wei Chinese Restaurant in King of Prussia, PA. So I’m confident that she had picked the right quantity that fit her appetite. 

        To continue celebrating Chinese Spring Festival, Mom took me to Eastern Dragon Chinese & Japanese Cuisine for our dinner, a local Chinese cuisine run by a family from Fujian Province of China. The restaurant itself looks small; however, the menu is surely big. So without much to hesitate, Mom took in charge of ordering again.

        Unlike at Lai Lai Garden yesterday, Mom ordered a more sensible amount of food this time. We began our meal with a Shanghai Spring Roll, which was fried crispy and golden. Inside was a mixture of vegetables, making it healthy and digestible. Both of us destroyed every last crumble on our plates, and then waited for Chef’s Triple-Shell Soup. It arrived shortly after, steaming and smelling delicious. The colorful soup contained yellow egg drops, red shrimps, white scallops, orange carrots, and green snow peas. It tasted good but too salty. While we were slowly sipping it, some Pan-fried Veggie Dumplings were served. The pot stickers were full of vegetables similarly to the spring rolls. Although the flavor tasted good, I thought that we would’ve been better off with meat. 

        Our entrée came with Happy Family, a plate of different meats in a brown sauce. We pitched in fresh scallops, roasted pork, and sautéed beef with garden vegetables and water chestnuts, surrounded by fried shrimp and lemon chicken. There were two main problems about it. First of all, all meats seemed way too salty. It probably resulted from the sauce or the chef’s personal choice. Whatever it was, it drowned out most of the flavor of the meat. Secondly, the dish felt too … American. The chicken was fried to a crisp and placed above the other meat. It tasted exactly like the chicken in a burger from BK. It smelled really delicious, but wasn’t what Mom and I were expected for Chinese New Year. 

        Another dish of the main course was a plate of Eggplant in Garlic Sauce. It appeared to be much more like Chinese, even though I thought that the sauce dripped onto the eggplant was just a little too sweet. The sweetness consumed the eggplant’s original flavor, making it tasted like candy.

        American style and Chinese cuisine have two different tastes, and both are supposed to stay this way. If they blended together, the food’s culture isn’t so distinguished and the tradition won’t exist anymore.

【紅霞譯文】

        “馬帶祥雲走，羊攜惠風來。”

        除夕夜晚在“來來花園”酒家飽餐過後，我可謂收穫連連，重新體驗久違的麻辣鮮香，着實令人難忘。

        今天春節當頭，媽媽特意給自己放假一天，專程趕到賓州普魯士王鎮“品味”中餐館與葛蘭素史克公司的姐妹同胞歡聚一堂，相信媽媽這回吃多少點多少，別再眼大肚子小。

        隨着羊年春節慶祝活動持續展開，媽媽帶我前去附近一處家庭經營的中日餐廳—“龍館”共進晚餐，店主來自中國福建。“龍館”規模不大，但麻雀雖小五臟俱全，菜譜上羅列出各色美饌佳餚，包羅萬有。媽媽見狀二話不說，當即點出要吃的東西。

        不像昨個兒在“來來花園”，這回媽媽對菜量總算有所節制。第一道頭台是“上海春卷”，春卷皮被炸得香酥金黃，裡面包的素什錦吃起來非但健康容易消化，而且很合胃口，我們橫掃殘餘，將碎屑渣末打掃得乾乾淨淨。第二道頭台是“三鮮湯”，看上去熱乎乎香噴噴的，黃色蛋花、紅色蝦仁、白色扇貝、橙色胡蘿蔔，還有綠色雪豆，顏色搭配得體，喝過感覺也蠻不錯，可惜味道偏咸。我們正慢慢享用，不覺第三道頭台“蔬菜鍋貼”已端上桌面，鍋貼的餡與春卷的餡如出一轍，都素得掉渣，雖說好吃歸好吃，可我情願換成肉餡鍋貼。

        主菜“闔家歡”是幾種肉製品的雜燴，以鮮貝、茶燒豬肉及醬牛肉為主，應時蔬菜罐裝荸薺為輔，表面再蓋上一層炸蝦和炸雞。這下問題馬上出現了，第一：所有的葷菜味道太重，不知是調料的毛病，還是廚師的喜好，但無論何種原因，肉質本身純正的香味已蕩然無存；第二：這道菜過於…美國化，雞炸得太脆，並且擱在眾肉之上，味道簡直就是“漢堡王”雞肉漢堡的翻版，好聞不好吃，根本不應成為我們慶祝新年的食譜。

        另一主菜“魚香茄子”好似地道的中國菜餚，儘管我覺得茄汁調得有點偏甜，結果茄子反倒沒有茄子味，甜得像糖果一般。

        米式快餐與中國美食有着兩種截然不同的烹飪風格，不應合二為一，否則不僅飲食文化缺少多元性，而且民族傳統也將失去本色。