在紐約大董，花98美元吃一只干且無味的烤鴨

Every so often, I’ll wake up to an inbox full of friendly emails from people volunteering to help me do my job. The specific assistance they are offering is to meet me at some forthcoming restaurant, their stomachs empty and ready to contain at least half the menu. When I get three or four of these volunteers on the same morning, it invariably means that while I was sleeping other people were reading the advance press on an incipient opening that sounds both unusually enticing and intimidatingly expensive.

隔三差五我就會(huì)一大早看到許多人的友好來信，自告奮勇要幫我完成我的工作。他們所提供的具體幫助是和我在某個(gè)預(yù)定的餐館見面，空著肚子，做好了吃下半本菜單的準(zhǔn)備。當(dāng)我在某個(gè)早上看到了三四名志愿者，這一定表示在我睡覺的時(shí)候有人讀了某篇提前報(bào)道，其中提到了某個(gè)聽起來既出奇地誘人卻又貴得令人發(fā)指的新開業(yè)餐館。

The most recent rush of volunteers, it turned out, was inspired by the arrival in December of a Manhattan branch of the Beijing-based restaurant DaDong. While the Beijingese have excelled at the art of duck roasting for centuries, DaDong, I learned, is a relative newcomer, founded in the 1990s by the chef Dong Zhenxiang.

最近一批涌來的志愿者，原來是被北京餐館“大董”12月在曼哈頓開的分店引來的。北京人已經(jīng)精研烤鴨藝術(shù)數(shù)個(gè)世紀(jì)，但我了解到，大董相對來說是個(gè)后來者，于1990年由廚師董振祥創(chuàng)立。

At the restaurants — there are 10 in Beijing and six in other Chinese cities, not counting casual spinoffs — the birds revolve, a dozen at a time, inside a circular wood-fueled oven that Mr. Dong has patented. The result is what some people consider Beijing’s best Peking duck. This is a magical combination of words. “Beijing’s best Peking duck” suggests a mandatory eating experience in a way that, say, “Russia’s best Russian dressing” does not.

不算上衍生餐館，大董在北京開了10家店，在中國其他城市開了6家。在這些餐館里，鴨子在董振祥申請了專利的圓形燒柴烤爐內(nèi)旋轉(zhuǎn)著，一次12只。這樣烤出來的是一些人認(rèn)為北京最好的北京烤鴨。這樣的詞匯組合真神奇。“北京最好的北京烤鴨”給人一種不同于“俄羅斯最好的俄式沙拉醬”的美食體驗(yàn)保證。

It took me and my first corps of volunteers some time to find one another because the restaurant’s address, 3 Bryant Park, implied that the entrance would be somewhere around Bryant Park. DaDong is inside a stack of glass-and-steel blocks that has somehow been plunked down west of the park between 42nd and 41st Streets, beside a pocket plaza that was new to me, although the skateboarders seemed to know all about it.

我和我的第一支志愿者軍團(tuán)的會(huì)合費(fèi)了點(diǎn)周折，因?yàn)椴宛^的地址“3 Bryant Park”(布萊恩特公園3號(hào))表示入口會(huì)在布萊恩特公園的周圍某處。大董所在的那堆玻璃鋼鐵大樓，卻不知怎地跑到了公園西邊42街和41街之間，與一個(gè)我沒去過的迷你廣場相毗鄰，但那些玩滑板的人似乎什么都知道。

Inside the front door was a lobby where a host stood by herself behind a desk made out of a rock. I gave her the name and she gestured toward the elevators, sending me up to the dining room on the second floor. This space, designed by the hotel specialist George Wong, is the latest manifestation of modern China in Manhattan, a soothing study in straight lines and neutral tones with random outbreaks of contemporary Chinese art. A wraparound bar sits in the middle of the room under a hanging sculpture that looks like a flock of gold paper-towel tubes learning to fly.

進(jìn)門是一個(gè)大堂，有一位迎賓員在一張石頭做的桌子后面站著。我向她報(bào)了名字，她示意我走進(jìn)電梯，把我送上了二樓的餐廳。這個(gè)由專業(yè)酒店設(shè)計(jì)師喬治·黃(George Wong)設(shè)計(jì)的空間是現(xiàn)代中國在曼哈頓的最新體現(xiàn)，有著舒緩的直線線條和中間色調(diào)，時(shí)而摻雜進(jìn)中國當(dāng)代藝術(shù)作品。房間的中央是一個(gè)包圍型吧臺(tái)，上方懸掛著一件雕塑，看上去像一群在學(xué)習(xí)飛行的金色紙筒卷芯。

In this room, it is not exactly shocking to learn that the usual Peking duck garnishes may be supplemented with 10 grams of caviar for $42. In lieu of toast points, servers recommend a shard of skin. If you skip the fish eggs, they will tell you there are three ways to eat the duck: wrapped in one of the very thin and tender pancakes with scallions and a smear of sweet soy-black bean sauce (great stuff); poked into a round sesame puff with julienned cucumber and melon, raw garlic paste and the black bean sauce; and finally, dipped in a small pile of sugar, recommended for the skin alone.

在這個(gè)空間里，得知北京烤鴨一般可以用42美元10克的魚子醬來搭配并不令人驚訝。作為三角吐司的替代，侍者推薦了一片鴨皮。如果你不要魚子，他們會(huì)告訴你烤鴨的三種吃法：配著大蔥，蘸一點(diǎn)甜面醬(超棒的東西)，用一張非常薄而柔軟的面皮卷著吃;搭配著切成了絲的黃瓜、甜瓜和蒜泥、甜面醬一起塞進(jìn)圓形的芝麻燒餅里吃;最后一種，是沾一小搓白糖，建議在光吃鴨皮時(shí)這么吃。

This kept everybody busy for some time. The bird was precisely carved, as if by a laser. None of us had seen crisper skin — you could bounce a quarter off it. The dip didn’t improve it, but it is always nice to find a new use for sugar.

這讓大家忙活了好一陣。片鴨子的刀功精準(zhǔn)，仿佛是用激光切的。我們都沒有見過比這更脆的鴨皮——往上扔一個(gè)硬幣都能彈起來。蘸糖并沒有太大幫助，但能發(fā)現(xiàn)糖的新用法總是件好事。

The meat didn’t make as firm an impression. It made very little impression at all, apart from my strong sense that there ought to have been more of it. Tasted on its own, it reminded me a bit of the lean, whitish, noncommittal supermarket pork chops I grew up on. Slowly, gradually, with great mental resistance but still inexorably, it dawned on me that I had paid $98 for a duck with almost no flavor.

鴨肉沒給我留下深刻印象。實(shí)際上，它幾乎沒給我留下任何印象，我只是強(qiáng)烈感覺分量太小了。至于它本身的味道，讓我想起小時(shí)候吃的那種偏瘦、發(fā)白、說不上什么味道的超市豬排。慢慢地、漸漸地，雖然在精神上強(qiáng)烈抗拒，但我依然不可避免地想到，我花了98美元，買了一只幾乎沒有任何味道的鴨子。

It was dry, too.

而且它很干。

New York City being a lush jungle of regulations, DaDong was forced to convert its wood-burning ovens to gas. Smoke might have added some flavor, but something seems to be lacking in the birds themselves, members of the Pekin breed raised on a farm in Indiana with special instructions to keep them lean, the way Mr. Dong prefers them.

紐約市有著各種各樣的規(guī)定，大董也被迫將碳燒烤爐換成了天然氣烤爐。煙熏也許可以給它增加一點(diǎn)味道，但鴨子本身似乎也缺了點(diǎn)什么，它們是在印第安納州一個(gè)農(nóng)場飼養(yǎng)的北京鴨，按照特殊的指示養(yǎng)得不太肥，那是大董偏愛的類型。

Unfortunately, DaDong’s problems don’t end with the duck. The menu in New York has been trimmed down considerably from the 280-page book presented to diners in Beijing, but it is still rife with dishes that are dead on arrival.

不幸的是，大董的問題不僅在于鴨子。與北京280頁的菜單相比，紐約的菜單已大幅削減，但依然充斥著一來到美國便已遭到失敗的菜肴。

Kung pao shrimp with beet coins and raw mushrooms tasted like ketchup. Sweet-and-sour pork ribs with preserved plums were as sweet as if they’d been stewed in Dr Pepper, and a dusting of powdered sugar at the table didn’t help.

含有甜菜莖塊和鮮蘑的宮保蝦球嘗起來像番茄醬。梅漬糖醋排骨就像在胡椒博士軟飲里燉過一樣甜，上桌時(shí)撒上糖粉也沒有幫助。

Little teepees of Ibérico ham came wrapped around cold, dry wads of sticky rice. Champagne-glazed tomatoes were sweet enough to serve for dessert, and the “crispy mushroom salad” they were stuffed with wasn’t crisp and didn’t particularly taste like mushrooms.

圓錐形的小塊伊比利亞火腿用又冷又干的糯米包裹著。發(fā)出香檳光澤的番茄甜到可以用來做甜點(diǎn)，番茄里面塞的“脆蘑菇沙拉”一點(diǎn)也不脆，吃起來也不像蘑菇。

Shiny and red as candied apples, the tomatoes were at least pretty to look at. Nearly everything I ate at DaDong was. The kitchen, led by Andy Xu, a veteran of Atlantic Grill and Blue Fin, certainly shows attention to the details of presentation. Occasionally, it sends out something that lives up to its appearance.

番茄像糖漬蘋果一樣閃亮鮮紅，至少看起來很美。我在大董吃的一切幾乎都是看起來很美。廚房由安迪·許(Andy Xu)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，他曾是Atlantic Grill餐廳和Blue Fin餐廳的資深大廚，無疑展現(xiàn)出對賣相細(xì)節(jié)的關(guān)注。這個(gè)廚房偶爾也能送上并非徒有其表的食物。

A perfectly clear globe of ice, to be cracked with a spoon, kept soy-marinated ribbons of geoduck deliciously cold. Braised sea cucumber in a glossy soy-based sauce hit all the right sticky and soft marks. 用勺子敲開一個(gè)完全透明的冰球，里面盛放著用醬油腌制的象牙蚌絲，冰爽可口。海參煨在亮澤的醬油湯汁里，粘膩柔軟，恰到好處。

My favorite dish may be the seafood variation on the Sichuan classic Chongqing chicken called Hot and Spicy Lobster: a cut-up lobster stir-fried with nearly enough dried chiles to fill a pillowcase. A close second is the baby cabbage, sliced into threads and braised with chestnuts in saffron sauce.

我最喜歡的菜可能是經(jīng)典川菜重慶辣子雞的海鮮版——香辣龍蝦：用足以填滿一個(gè)枕頭套的干辣椒爆炒切碎的龍蝦肉。緊隨其后、排名第二的是娃娃菜：它是用切成細(xì)絲的娃娃菜加入藏紅花汁，和栗子一起燉制出來的。

Whatever is causing the kitchen’s reach-grasp ratio to break down doesn’t seem to have affected the desserts. There is a fine plate of Beijing snacks, dense little half-sweet cakes made of lotus root, red beans, yellow split peas and so on. I enjoyed popping tiny seashells of white chocolate into my mouth to find out what each was filled with: Nutmeg? Tangerine? Wasabi? The simplest, though, the ice cream with an alluringly bitter edge of dried tangerine peel, was also the most rewarding.

不管導(dǎo)致廚房失敗比例奇高的原因是什么，它似乎并沒有影響到甜點(diǎn)的水準(zhǔn)。有一盤精美的北京小吃，是用蓮藕、紅豆和黃豌豆等做成的微甜小蛋糕。我喜歡把用白巧克力做成的小貝殼丟進(jìn)嘴里，品出每個(gè)貝殼里面藏的是什么：肉豆蔻?柑橘?芥末?帶有陳皮迷人苦味的冰激凌是最樸實(shí)的一道甜品，不過也是最值得回味的。

Servers sometimes seemed to be reading dish descriptions from a teleprompter, but they made up for that with a care and attentiveness that felt unforced. The sommeliers were particularly good at interpreting the wine list, which is well-rounded and can be quite reasonable. This list would get your attention almost anywhere, but in a Chinese restaurant in New York, it’s a treasure.

服務(wù)員有時(shí)似乎是在照著提詞器念菜肴描述，但他們對顧客的關(guān)心自然親切，彌補(bǔ)了這個(gè)不足。侍酒師特別擅長解讀酒單，酒水品種很全，設(shè)計(jì)合理。這樣的酒單幾乎在任何一個(gè)地方都會(huì)引起你的注意，但在紐約的一家中餐館里，它就顯得更加難得。

But even the most gently priced bottle can go only so far to smooth over the potholes on the menu, and the suspicion that the best Peking duck in Beijing has turned into something that would struggle to stand out in Parsippany.

但即便是定價(jià)最合理的酒水，也只能有限地彌補(bǔ)菜單上的缺陷以及顧客的懷疑，那就是，北京最好的烤鴨已經(jīng)變成了某種想在帕西帕尼脫穎而出都很難的東西。