2015-03-21

【Aiden in English】

        Hunger seems like an animal, raging inside. A beast is waiting to eat itself if he has to. At the time, to be honest, my hand looks pretty appetizing when I’m hungry. Like a monster’s hunger, but a single meal can really fill me up at the Chinese restaurant Margaret Kuo’s Dragon's Lair in Wayne, PA.

        We arrived at the restaurant just in time before I began biting off my fingers. There was nothing like the taste of human flesh, blood, and bone before bed. It sounded good, but Margaret Kuo’s culinary certainly made my hand look disgusting, not that if it would taste too delicious in the first place.

        The place had Lai Lai Garden or Peony Pavilion’s air of order and formality, and so the first impression had been set on “good” so far. The restaurant then fell to “OK” when I smelled the food because my stomach gave a roar like a lion, shaking the room. I hated being tempted, but I just gritted my teeth and waited. Sure glad I didn’t bite my hand off earlier because I’d still need it to use chopsticks or else eating would be a mess. At first bite, I savored heaven partially because it was 9 o’clock PM and partially because the taste. Well, I shouldn’t say bite, because it was a soup. However, it may as well have been plastic for all I knew. Something was put in front of me, and I’d eat it, food and dish. So I slurped up the soup, and mom named the ingredients of Sea Cucumber & Yellowfin Tuna Chowder. I caught something like…“sea cucumbers… yellowfin tuna…” somewhere in that range and I liked it. Soup tasted good, yellowfin tuna… sounded good. So together, it had to be great. Before I knew it, my spoon scraped the last droplets, savoring every last bit. All hecks broke loose as soon as I was done.

        Dishes were served, two or three at a time, covering the table. They were Peking Style Open-ended Pot Stickers, Crab Meat with Pork Steamed Juicy Bun, Peking Scallion Pancake, Beef Patty Fried Buns, Margaret’s House Lamb Stew, Sautéed Shiitake with Abalone and Scallops, Beef Tender in Garlic Sauce, and Sautéed Mountain Yam with Shepherd's Purse.

        The stuffed buns were passed out. For once, I didn’t bite into it all cave-man like. Instead, I carefully warily prodded the bun, scouting for possible juice eruptions. You never can be too cautious. Another eruption could cause another short casualty or stain. After eliminating and terminating all possible eruption sites on the bun, I enjoyed the flavor, well deserved from all that work.

        As I ate, I noticed more of the restaurant’s style. Most Chinese restaurants in USA aren’t purely Chinese. They came for business, so to run a good one, restaurants need to adapt to the tastes of their customers. In school, all kids say “Wow, have you tried this Chinese food?” “This” Chinese food isn’t purely Chinese style because the restaurant adapted to the tastes of the locals. The Margaret Kuo’s Dragon's Lair cooked in the Chinese style, although it isn’t the same as a dish back in Beijing. It isn’t afraid to lose customers from this, and it didn’t. I could tell this especially in the mountain yam. Americans like mountain yams, but they don’t exactly like the way this restaurant would cook the mountain yams. At least that’s what I thought. Being a Chinese kid grown up in America, I’ve eaten more American-styled-Chinese food than most people. These mountain yams, in my mind, didn’t taste too good, probably because it lacked specific flavor. When I said I didn’t enjoy it, mom and grandma heaped piles of mountain yams onto their plates, showing and expressing joy that there was one less sharer to that dish. They had so much experience with the authentic Northern Chinese cuisine that something even I didn’t like they loved.

        Restaurants want their customers to come often, so they change their original style to something else. That defeats some of the purposes, and Margaret Kuo’s Dragon's Lair knows it too. They are Chinese to the end and would like you to “experience our Chinese culture in your taste”. Maybe it’s time the customers change their taste buds a bit.

【紅霞譯文】

        要是動物餓瘋的話，就變得煩躁不安飢不擇食，甚至會糟蹋自己。坦率地說，一旦飢腸轆轆，我也會啃手指頭。今天鄙人像餓狼似的，幸虧來賓州韋恩小鎮“郭夫人龍園”飽餐一頓，心中委屈才得以釋然。

        要不是及時趕到這家餐館，我的手指肯定遭殃，上床入睡前沒有比吃口血了呼啦的新鮮排叉更提情緒，話可以這麼說，但跟郭夫人家的廚藝相比，手有啥好吃，況且髒兮兮得叫人作嘔。

        “郭夫人龍園”就餐氛圍堪比賓州藍鈴鎮的“來來花園”和新州普林斯頓城的“牡丹亭”，第一印象相當不錯。當聞到香噴噴的飯菜以後，我立馬確認沒找錯地方。此時此刻，肚子立馬像九靈元聖咆哮怒吼，震得房間抖動起來，我討厭被誘惑控制不住自己，因此咬緊牙關靜座等待。值得欣慰的是，先前我並沒有跟指頭過意不去，否則因無法用手拿筷子夾東西吃而更覺狼狽不堪。剛咬下第一口，猶如置身於人間天堂，幸福的感覺油然而生，一部分因為時針已指向晚上九點鐘，一部分因為味道確實美妙。沒錯，在此稱咬的確用詞不當，入口的玩藝其實不過為湯食而已，即使說成塑料也無關緊要，只要好吃，管它是盤子還是碟子，況且這是媽媽欽點的“海參黃魚羹”。我嘗出了“海參”……“黃鰭金槍魚”……之類的食料，挺好喝的。湯的確不錯，黃鰭金槍魚……也說得過去，拼在一起味道非常特殊，不知不覺地，我用勺子把碗蒯得乾乾淨淨。

        該上菜了，服務生每次端來兩、三盤，等擺好了便占滿了全桌：開口鍋貼、蟹粉湯包、蔥油餅、牛肉餡餅、紅燜羊肉、冬菇鮑貝、蒜爆牛筋、薺菜炒山藥。

        湯包遞到跟前，這回我小心先不碰肉餡，待慢慢咬開包子皮時，看看肉湯會不會濺出來，可有時謹慎也沒用，肉湯不是射到身上就是染髒衣服。等打消每個顧慮排除各種隱患之後，我好生欣賞“放在盤裡像座鐘，夾在筷上像燈籠”，為了嘗鮮這麼一口，之前所做出的任何犧牲都在所不惜。

        我一邊吃，一邊觀察這家餐館的特色。在美國，多數中餐館做的飯菜並非正宗地道，從生意的角度出發，無論何種菜餚必須迎合顧客的口味。難怪在學校的時候，所有的美國同學都說：“咦，吃過這道中餐嗎？”“這”道中餐並不是真正的中餐，而是具有中國特色改良了傳統烹飪的當地菜餚。“郭夫人龍園”烹調不乏家鄉風味，但並不等於說同樣的東西在這吃跟在北京吃味道相同。好在它早已闖出名聲，不必一味顧慮生源問題，“薺菜炒山藥”就是其中典型例子，老美再喜歡山藥，恐怕未必喜歡本堂做法，起碼我自己這麼認為。作為在美國出生長大的中國孩子，我比一般人要吃過更多的美式中餐，山藥不怎麼受歡迎，大概因為本身沒什麼特殊味道，當然這僅代表本人見解。眼瞧着媽媽和外婆兩人趁機大塊朵頤，生怕過了這村沒這店，敢情巴不得少一位分我杯羹的人，她倆真心喜歡這道北方名饌，而我根本不上杆子。

        餐館的生意好壞取決於回頭客多少，因此所有的烹飪變化無非都是為了順應市場競爭滿足顧客需要，有時不得不犧牲一些傳統元素，“郭夫人龍園”深諳其重要性。當然店主畢竟是華裔，他們衷心希望每一位前來就餐的朋友不管背景如何，都能“兼收並蓄中國飲食文化”，從這個意義上來說，也許到了顧客改變口味的時候。