而对另一些人来说，做饭是一项苦差事，一日三餐单调乏味，尤其为小孩子做饭时——他们的食谱就只能在鸡蛋、豆子和吐司中不停地排列组合。
Enter condiments. They satisfied both tribes. For the enthusiasts, it was a chance to make the dips and drizzles usually provided by the local deli. For the weary, a jar of something spicy or sour was an easy way to enliven the umpteenth cheese toastie.
而调味品能解决众口难调的问题。对烹饪爱好者来说，可以尝试制作本地特色餐厅才有的风味，而厌倦了做饭的人们则可以用一罐辣味或者酸味佐料，让千篇一律的三明治焕发生机。
Chilli crisp—a glowing red oil, heady with chilli and heavy with crisp fragments of garlic and shallots as well as fermented black beans and sesame—became the sauce of the moment. The place it has secured in many fridge doors since then hints at how foods become fashionable.
中式辣椒酱正是这样一种流行的调料，它是一种光泽满满的红油，由辣椒、大蒜、青葱碎块，以及发酵后的豆豉和芝麻调制而成。如今它在许多西方家庭的冰箱中都占据了一席之地。
People in China may have been bemused by the revelatory joy with which those in countries such as America seized on chilli crisp. They have been eating varieties of the stuff for centuries. Lao Gan Ma, made in the south-western province of Guizhou, is the most famous brand.
对于美国等西方国家对辣椒酱产生的兴趣，中国人可能会感到很困惑。这样的食物他们已经吃了几个世纪，产于中国贵州省的老干妈是其中最著名的品牌。
Its founder, Tao Huabi, started selling noodles coated with the sauce in 1989, setting up a factory a few years later. Her face peers out sternly from every label on the 1.3m bottles the company says it now produces a day. (Heinz’s plant in the Netherlands makes about 10m bottles of ketchup a week.)
其创始人陶华碧于1989年在她售卖的凉粉中拌入这种辣椒酱，几年后便建立了一家专门生产辣椒酱的工厂。如今，该公司每天生产130万瓶瓶身上附有陶华碧严肃表情的辣椒酱。（相比之下，亨氏在荷兰的工厂每周生产大约1000万瓶番茄酱。）
It took a pandemic to bring the delicacy to the rest of the world’s attention. Chilli crisp had many of the necessary characteristics to be a hit. It is spicy, but not overly so. It is delicious slathered on noodles, as originally intended, but it can also be added to fried eggs and other dishes familiar to Americans. It satisfies humans’ love of crispy foods, rooted in an evolutionary preference since crunchiness is often an indicator of freshness.
一场疫情让这种美味走入了全世界民众的视线。中式辣椒酱具备成为热门商品的必要特点。它是辣的，但又不会辣得过度。按照其原有的吃法，把它拌在面条里就很好吃，但加在煎蛋这类美国人更熟悉的菜肴中也很合适。它满足了西方人对酥脆口感的偏好，因为在很多人眼中，酥脆往往代表着新鲜。
Usually tastemakers visit restaurants and interview chefs to immerse themselves in what people are cooking and eating, says Kevan Vetter of McCormick’s Flavour Forecast, which predicts and influences which tastes become popular. In lockdown that was no longer possible. Instead they had to watch what cooks, both home and professional, were making via social media. The answer, along with banana bread, was chilli crisp.
麦考密克口味预测公司的凯万·维特表示，食品口味的风尚引领者往往会通过探店和采访主厨，沉浸式体验餐厅的烹饪水平及顾客的用餐情况，从而预测流行的口味。但在封控时期，这显然是不可能的。他们只能通过社交媒体，观察家庭厨子和专业厨师在做什么。而答案正是中式辣椒酱（正如香蕉面包一般）。
Today’s question is not whether people will keep eating it. The liberation of post-pandemic dining has not dulled the delight of the condiment. The East Asian population in America and Britain is growing. Many new brands have joined Lao Gan Ma. Like salsa, which once seemed exotic, chilli crisp is set to become a pantry staple.
如今的问题不在于人们是否会继续享用这种中式调味品，而是业余厨师们是否会自制辣酱。后疫情时期解放了人们的饮食选择，但并没有让它黯然失色。在英美等国居住的东亚人群在增长，许多新品牌也加入了老干妈的队伍。就像曾被视为异国风味的墨西哥传统萨尔萨辣酱一样，中式辣椒酱必然会成为后厨的中坚力量。
The question is whether amateurs will keep making it. Nobody bothers making ketchup: as a condiment is assimilated, people develop a taste for the mass-produced version. And in the case of chilli crisp, Ms Tao might argue that the commercial option is as authentic as it gets.
问题是业余爱好者是否会继续做下去。没有人会费心去制作番茄酱：随着调味品被同化，人们会对大规模生产的番茄酱感兴趣。至于辣椒酱，陶华碧可能会说，商业选择是最真实的。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
重难点词汇：
condiment [ˈkɑndəmənt] n. 调味品；佐料
drudgery [ˈdrʌdʒəri] n. 苦工；乏味的工作
tedium [ˈtidiəm] n. 冗长；啰唆；单调乏味
umpteenth [ʌmptinθ] adj. 第无数次的
slather [ˈslæðər] v. 覆盖；涂抹
immerse [ɪˈmɜːrs] v. 浸；泡；投入；陷入
assimilate [əˈsɪməleɪt] v. 吸收；领会；汲取
苏格拉底有一句名言： 我知我无知。说的是，当你认识到的东西越多就越发现自己无知。苏格拉底认为，人对于客观世界的认识是有限的，且不可能完全认识客观世界，并且不应对客观世界刨根究底。神对于世界的规划自有安排，若人一意孤行地探索世界和自然的奥秘，则最终将亵渎甚至触怒神明。正因为人对神所构建的世界不可能实现完全认知，因此那些宣称自己能够认识和改造世界的人，本身便是无知的代言。尽管苏格拉底的关于“ 我知我无知”的观念的解读，在现在看来有失客观科学。但至少苏格拉底告诫人们，人的认知是有限的，现有的知识甚至可能存在错误和疏漏。同样地，我们在求学之路上也要报以我知我不知的心态，才能走得更远。最后，祝愿莘莘学子都能终有所成！
来源：每日双语经济学人
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