在紐約 遇見令人慾罷不能的小辣椒

Little Pepper began life a dozen years ago in the competitive Chinese nucleus of downtown Flushing, Queens. Five years ago, Cheng Ying Wu and her husband, Gui Ping Huang, the owners, moved it northwest to College Point, where its nearest rival is a graffiti-scrawled storefront across the street selling takeout chop suey and chow mein. Little Pepper is not entirely free of American Chinese food, but its pork lo mein is not one of its chief attractions.

十多年前，小辣椒川菜館(Little Pepper)誕生在皇后區法拉盛鬧市區競爭激烈的華裔聚居地。五年前，餐廳老闆吳成英（音譯）和丈夫黃貴平（音譯）把餐廳搬到了西北方向的College Point。在那裏，它最近的對手是街對面一個畫滿塗鴉、提供炒雜碎和炒麪外賣的店面。小辣椒川菜館並非完全未受美式中餐的影響，不過豬肉撈麪並非它的招牌菜。

The reason to drive to College Point Boulevard (by far the easiest way to get to Little Pepper, about a 20-minute bus ride from the nearest subway stop) is to eat undiluted Sichuan cooking, like silken tofu with scallions. Little chilled blocks of tofu will be covered with scallions and chopped peanuts turned the color of bricks by chile oil. Woven through the burning heat of the oil will be the unmistakable, medicinal hum of Sichuan peppercorns. The crunch and burn and throb of the sauce crashes against the soft and passive tofu; the contrast enhances both.

我開車去College Point大道（到目前爲止，去小辣椒川菜館走這條路最方便，它離最近的地鐵站要坐大概20分鐘公交車）是爲了吃上正宗川菜，比如柔滑的蔥燒豆腐。小小的冷豆腐塊佈滿蔥花和碎花生，辣椒油把豆腐塊染成了紅色。經過滾燙辣椒油洗禮的是絕不會被認錯的花椒。滋滋作響、熱騰騰的醬汁與柔軟、被動的豆腐形成鮮明對比，相輔相成。

Or the kitchen may take another slab of silken tofu and do something else. This time it will be warm, in bigger chunks that cleave into two pieces at the touch of a spoon. The dressing will be tangy bits of ground pork in black vinegar and a shimmering gloss of chile oil. The dish, of course, is ma-po tofu. At Little Pepper, it combines power and nuance to make other renditions around the city seem heavy-handed.

這家餐廳還能用柔滑的豆腐做出別的菜。比如把豆腐切成更大的塊，用勺子一碰就能裂成兩半，也更燙嘴。配料是用黑醋和亮晶晶的辣椒油炒出的豬肉末，香味撲鼻。這道菜當然是麻婆豆腐。小辣椒川菜館的這道菜既有力道，又微妙，相比之下，紐約市其他餐廳這道菜的做法就顯得很粗暴。

Some New Yorkers grade Sichuan food by its firepower. When their tongues have been reduced to smoldering ruins, they declare themselves (through sign language) to be in a great restaurant. Little Pepper is capable of inflicting great pain when needed. Its Chong Qing chicken, which weaponizes capsaicin in just about every known form and should not be faced without a full glass of water or beer at hand, is proof of that. But what sets Little Pepper apart from the many other good Sichuan restaurants in the city is its skill at bringing spicy forces into tense alignment with sweet, sour and salty ones.

有些紐約人按辣度評判川菜。如果他們的舌頭辣麻了，他們就會（通過手語）宣佈這家餐廳很棒。必要的時候，小辣椒餐館也能讓顧客經受辣椒的折磨。比如重慶辣子雞，它把辣椒的威力發揮到極致，要是手裏沒有一滿杯水或啤酒，真別去嘗試這道菜。但是小辣椒川菜館與紐約其他許多優秀川菜館的區別在於，它能把辣味與甜味、酸味和鹹味搭配的力度把握得恰到好處。

It’s possible that the chefs at Little Pepper cook with extra precision because real estate is cheaper in College Point than in Flushing, allowing the owners to spring for the roomy, shipshape kitchen in the back. This at least is what I tell myself as I’m driving past the exit for Flushing and Little Pepper is still another 15 minutes away.

小辣椒川菜館的大廚們做菜可能格外精準，可能是因爲College Point的地價比法拉盛低，餐廳老闆們能在後堂配置寬敞整齊的廚房。至少，當我開車經過法拉盛出口，還得再開15分鐘才能到達小辣椒川菜館時，心裏就是這麼想的。

I’ve always found a parking space within sight of the front door, which doesn’t often happen in downtown Flushing. Inside, there is art everywhere: a mural of oversize peonies in red and pink; small canvases of an empty, wrinkled red plastic bag and a still life with Spam; a larger painting of a crushed Coke can over the round table where in quiet moments the employees top and tail a heap of beans for the excellent dry-sautéed string beans.

我總能在餐廳門口附近找到車位，這樣的好事在法拉盛鬧市區並不總能讓你趕上。餐廳內部隨處可見藝術品：紅色和粉色超大牡丹壁畫；描繪一個皺巴巴的紅色空塑料袋的小幅帆布畫以及世棒午餐肉(Spam)靜物寫生；還有一幅更大的、表現被壓扁的可樂罐的油畫——空閒的時候，員工們會在這幅畫下面的大圓桌上給一堆豆角去頭去尾，爲美味的乾煸豆角備菜。

English is not one of the restaurant’s core competencies. In the middle of my last lunch there, a waiter handed the phone to one of my guests. What did he want? It was unclear at first. Eventually an odd relay game began; my guest talked to a customer who was trying to place a takeout order, then looked for each dish on the menu and pointed. Finally the waiter wrote it down. It took about five minutes. When the customer walked in to get his food, it was like seeing a minor celebrity.

說英語並不是這家餐廳的核心競爭力之一。上次我在那兒吃午餐時，一名服務員把電話遞給我的一位客人。他這是要幹嘛？一開始我們都摸不着頭腦。然後一場奇怪的接力遊戲開始了。電話那端是一位想點外賣的顧客，我的客人按照對方的指示在菜單上找出每道菜，指給服務員，服務員再記下來，前後大概花了5分鐘。當那位顧客來拿外賣時，我們感覺像見到了一位小明星。

I don’t recall what he ate, but everything I had is bright in my memory. First, super-crisp scallion pancake wedges dunked in a black, tangy, syrup-thick sauce. Then thin, chewy slices of beef tendon in chile oil, classic and great. Thin-skinned dumplings of juicy, sweet pork followed, resting in a pool of vinegar and chile oil. Sautéed snow pea leaves were next, and too salty.

我不記得他點了什麼，但我清楚記得自己吃過的每一道菜。首先是無比鬆脆的大蔥煎餅，切成楔形，蘸上如糖漿般濃稠的香味濃烈的黑色醬汁。然後是一道經典美味：用辣椒油拌的很有嚼頭的薄切牛腱肉。接下來是美味多汁的薄皮豬肉餃子，盛放在用醋和辣椒油調製的醬汁裏。下一道菜是炒豌豆苗，太鹹了。

At last a big main course: “lamb with hot and spicy sauce,” also known as cumin lamb because that spice dominated the intensely fragrant dry rub clinging to the tender strips of meat. (There was no sauce to speak of, just stir-fried onions and green chiles.) And a whole fish hidden below fiery ground pork sauce, lip-smacking and deeply flavorful, like a Bolognese by way of Chengdu.

然後是一道大菜，名叫辣醬羊肉，又名孜然羊肉，因爲香味撲鼻的柔嫩羊肉上主要附着的幹調料就是孜然（這道菜裏沒有醬，只有炒洋蔥和青椒）。還有辣豬肉末醬燒全魚，特別入味，讓人忍不住咂嘴，就像意大利波倫亞風格的成都菜。

The fish at Little Pepper often tastes muddy. The sauces, though, are so transporting that it doesn’t matter very much. And while not every dish on the menu is the best in town — the shredded potatoes with green peppers are pretty bland — the overall energy and variety of the cooking more than makes up for it.

小辣椒餐館的魚吃起來口感總是有點柴，不過它的醬汁太美味，所以也無所謂了。雖然菜單上不是每道菜都是紐約市最好吃的——青椒土豆絲就很一般——但它整體的烹飪活力和多樣性大大彌補了這一點。

With so many peppers whiplashing around, the mouth needs something mild for balance. Tea-smoked duck dripping with warm fat is a fine and soothing appetizer. Cold smashed cucumbers with garlic are turning up in non-Chinese restaurants now, but few improve on the ones at Little Pepper. Corn kernels stir-fried with pine nuts are strangely easy to get along with. Fried rice, cooked with so much finely minced scallion that it turns the color of a Shamrock Shake, is a superb mop for fiery sauces.

因爲很多菜裏都有辣椒，所以嘴巴需要一些溫和的東西來緩和一下。滴着溫暖油脂的樟茶鴨是一道能撫慰人的開胃菜，非常好吃。拍黃瓜現在也出現在非中餐廳裏，但是沒有哪家做得比小辣椒川菜館還好吃。松仁玉米令人意外地好吃。炒飯裏放了很多蔥花，顏色變得像三葉草奶昔，炒飯是沖淡辣味的上好選擇。

On some days, I have gone giddy for the eggplant, as soft as pudding and slick with garlic sauce. On others, I’ve been sweetly captivated by the riddle of preserved eggs with green peppers. The riddle is not how the egg whites turn dark brown and transparent, while the yolks go creamily soft and ash-colored; that’s explained by the chemistry of a pH shift. What I can’t figure out is why the eggs’ mild whiff of sulfur is so appealing when they are eaten together with chopped mild green chiles and decidedly unmild red chile oil.

有時候，我爲茄子着迷，它和布丁一樣柔軟，因爲加入蒜汁而變得非常光滑。有時候，我又迷上青椒松花蛋。它的謎題不是蛋白如何變成透明深棕色、蛋黃如何變成灰色，如奶油般柔軟——這是pH值變化所引起的化學反應。我不能理解的是爲什麼松花蛋溫和的硫磺味與不辣的碎青椒和辛辣的紅椒油一起吃的時候口感會這麼好。

But this is nothing compared with the enigma of Little Pepper’s “fried potato in hot sauce.” These are crinkle-cut French fries that, as far as I can tell, come out of a bag stored in the freezer. They are dark and ragged with a dry spice mix of coarsely ground cumin, roasted dried chiles, Sichuan peppercorns, salt and maybe MSG.

不過，這個謎團與小辣椒川菜館的“辣醬炸土豆”相比不算什麼。據我猜測，這種波紋薯條是儲藏在冰箱裏的袋裝薯條。土豆顏色炸得很深，表面粗糙不平地附着着用孜然粒、幹辣椒、花椒、鹽，甚至有可能還有味精混合而成的幹香辛料。

The questions torture me. How did crinkle-cut fries get into a Sichuan restaurant? How can I be so helplessly, irretrievably crazy about them? Why, when they cool and lose their allure, do I want to ask the waiter to drop them back into the fryer again? Is something wrong with me? What is this wild desire? And where is the hot sauce?

很多問題折磨着我：波紋薯條是怎麼進入川菜館的？我怎麼會如此不可救藥、不可挽回地迷戀它們？爲什麼在它們變冷、失去吸引力之後，我想讓服務員把它們再放回冰箱裏？我是不是有毛病？這種瘋狂的慾望從何而來？還有，菜名中的辣醬在哪兒？