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.

【红霞译文】

        要是动物饿疯的话，就变得烦躁不安饥不择食，甚至会糟蹋自己。坦率地说，一旦饥肠辘辘，我也会啃手指头。今天鄙人像饿狼似的，幸亏来宾州韦恩小镇“郭夫人龙园”饱餐一顿，心中委屈才得以释然。

        要不是及时赶到这家餐馆，我的手指肯定遭殃，上床入睡前没有比吃口血了呼啦的新鲜排叉更提情绪，话可以这么说，但跟郭夫人家的厨艺相比，手有啥好吃，况且脏兮兮得叫人作呕。

        “郭夫人龙园”就餐氛围堪比宾州蓝铃镇的“来来花园”和新州普林斯顿城的“牡丹亭”，第一印象相当不错。当闻到香喷喷的饭菜以后，我立马确认没找错地方。此时此刻，肚子立马像九灵元圣咆哮怒吼，震得房间抖动起来，我讨厌被诱惑控制不住自己，因此咬紧牙关静座等待。值得欣慰的是，先前我并没有跟指头过意不去，否则因无法用手拿筷子夹东西吃而更觉狼狈不堪。刚咬下第一口，犹如置身于人间天堂，幸福的感觉油然而生，一部分因为时针已指向晚上九点钟，一部分因为味道确实美妙。没错，在此称咬的确用词不当，入口的玩艺其实不过为汤食而已，即使说成塑料也无关紧要，只要好吃，管它是盘子还是碟子，况且这是妈妈钦点的“海参黄鱼羹”。我尝出了“海参”……“黄鳍金枪鱼”……之类的食料，挺好喝的。汤的确不错，黄鳍金枪鱼……也说得过去，拼在一起味道非常特殊，不知不觉地，我用勺子把碗蒯得干干净净。

        该上菜了，服务生每次端来两、三盘，等摆好了便占满了全桌：开口锅贴、蟹粉汤包、葱油饼、牛肉馅饼、红焖羊肉、冬菇鲍贝、蒜爆牛筋、荠菜炒山药。

        汤包递到跟前，这回我小心先不碰肉馅，待慢慢咬开包子皮时，看看肉汤会不会溅出来，可有时谨慎也没用，肉汤不是射到身上就是染脏衣服。等打消每个顾虑排除各种隐患之后，我好生欣赏“放在盘里像座钟，夹在筷上像灯笼”，为了尝鲜这么一口，之前所做出的任何牺牲都在所不惜。

        我一边吃，一边观察这家餐馆的特色。在美国，多数中餐馆做的饭菜并非正宗地道，从生意的角度出发，无论何种菜肴必须迎合顾客的口味。难怪在学校的时候，所有的美国同学都说：“咦，吃过这道中餐吗？”“这”道中餐并不是真正的中餐，而是具有中国特色改良了传统烹饪的当地菜肴。“郭夫人龙园”烹调不乏家乡风味，但并不等于说同样的东西在这吃跟在北京吃味道相同。好在它早已闯出名声，不必一味顾虑生源问题，“荠菜炒山药”就是其中典型例子，老美再喜欢山药，恐怕未必喜欢本堂做法，起码我自己这么认为。作为在美国出生长大的中国孩子，我比一般人要吃过更多的美式中餐，山药不怎么受欢迎，大概因为本身没什么特殊味道，当然这仅代表本人见解。眼瞧着妈妈和外婆两人趁机大块朵颐，生怕过了这村没这店，敢情巴不得少一位分我杯羹的人，她俩真心喜欢这道北方名馔，而我根本不上杆子。

        餐馆的生意好坏取决于回头客多少，因此所有的烹饪变化无非都是为了顺应市场竞争满足顾客需要，有时不得不牺牲一些传统元素，“郭夫人龙园”深谙其重要性。当然店主毕竟是华裔，他们衷心希望每一位前来就餐的朋友不管背景如何，都能“兼收并蓄中国饮食文化”，从这个意义上来说，也许到了顾客改变口味的时候。