标题: Ancient Chinese Recipe, Bear Paws as an Ingredient [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 8-15-2012 15:16 标题: Ancient Chinese Recipe, Bear Paws as an Ingredient Elaine Sciolino, Chinese Bear Paws Tickle the French. New York Times, Aug 8, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/0 ... hinese-cooking.html
(2) Liao Dynasty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liao_Dynasty
(907-1125 AD)
(3) The article mentioned, "Bear paw was a dish appreciated by King Zhou, the [Shang] dynasty’s last king."
纣王/ 商朝 (whose capital is Ruins of Yin 殷墟, near modern day Anyang 河南省 安阳市).
(4) The article talked about a recipe "chicken in cashew nuts" but did not say when the recipe was prepared.
cashew http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew
(Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú; section 2.1 Dispersal)
(5) The article continued, "I consulted a new book by Yu Zhou, a food expert who was born in Shanghai and has lived in Paris for years: 'The Chopstick and the Fork: Tribulations of a Chinese Gastronome in France.'”
(a) Actually, the book was written in French, not english:
You Zhou, La Baguette et la Fourchette; Les tribulations d'un gastronome Chinois en France. Fayard, June 28, 2012 http://www.amazon.com/La-baguett ... onome/dp/B0088BO9AK
(in both paper back and e-book)
(b) baguette (noun, feminine): "(a) wand, stick (b) baguette, French loaf"
(6) The article quoted Mr Zhou as saying, “We would therefore eat whatever we could find: chicken feet, fish livers and scales, jellyfish or beef stomach, which would probably be judged inedible in the eyes of Westerners.”
(7) The article went on: "I found what I was looking for in the 'Great Dictionary of Cuisine,' the 1873 encyclopedia and cookbook by Alexander Dumas, the novelist and playwright (and expert cook). Dumas wrote that in ancient times, frontal bear paws were considered the most delicate part of the animal."
(a) It must be Alexandre Dumas, fils http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Dumas,_fils
(1824-1895; the son of Alexandre Dumas, père)
It can not be his father, Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870).
(b)
(A) fils (noun, masculine): "son"
(B) père (noun, masculine): "(a) father (fig) father, founder (b) (Religion) Father"
(c)
(A) The southern French surname Dumas is made up of "fused preposition and definite article du, for someone who lived in an isolated dwelling in the country rather than in a village, from Occitan mas ‘farmstead,' from Late Latin mansum, mansus."
(B) du http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/du.html
("The preposition de, often meaning from or of, combines with the definite article to produce the following contracted forms. These forms thus all have the rough meaning of "of the...", "from the...":
* de + le > du
* de + les > des")
(d) frontal (adj): "of, relating to, or situated at the front"
This "frontal," together with "al dente" in (9), are English words.
(8)
(a) Xiao Rong Coutin 段 雅丽
(A) citation: 活着的面条，打工妹靠巴黎成功路. 博爱杂志 (中国红十字总会报刊社), Aug 1, 2012. http://www.redcrossol.com/sys/html/lm_10/2011-01-20/102603.htm
(B) Coutin is a French surname. So I assume that is she obtained it from her husband. (In the common law (practiced in Britain and US), a person can change name at will; opposite is true in civil law, such as continental Europe and Taiwan.)
(b) Les Pâtes Vivantes 活着的面条 (her restaurants)
pâte (noun, feminine): "paste, pastry, ~s pasta" (ie, its plural form means "pasta")
Vivant (adj): "alive, (fig [standing for "figuratively"]) lively"
(9) The article referred to Ms Coutin's noodles: "They were plunged into boiling water, drained as soon as they became springy and chewy (not merely resistant like al dente pasta), then topped with Zhajiang sauce."
(11) Chez Vong 日月星酒家 http://www.chez-vong.com/?lang=en
(a) Laura K Lawless, Chez - French Preposition; Learn how to use the French preposition chez. About.com, undated (in the category: Education > French Language) http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/preposition_chez.htm
(b) New York Magazine, May 20, 1985, at page 34 http://books.google.com/books?id ... mp;lpg=PA34&dq="chez+vong"+name+origin&source=bl&ots=md6EpQBrWf&sig=d4etAHwRU9soFxxN2N0ykmJ__3s&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fsorUMT_NIGg6QHvjoH4CA&ved=0CEoQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q="chez vong" name origin&f=false
("Chow[;] Imperial China: THE OUTRAGEOUSLY LUXE look of Chez Vong, a new Chinese restaurant on 46th Street between Second and Third {Avenues in Manhattan], is one for the annals of Restaurant Madness. * * * (there are two Chez Vongs in Paris: All are owned by Macao-born William Vong.)")
Mr William Vong in New York Magazine may well be Mr "Vai Kuan VONG"--I can not find the Chinese name--later referred to in the NYT article, because elsewhere in the Web, it was recently written about the Chez Vong of Paris: "For 25 years, chef and Shanghai-native Vai Kuan Vong" (who cooks Cantonese dishes, perhaps because his time at Macao).
(12) The article finally said of Chez Vong, "The Cantonese restaurant, on a rundown street near the site of the old Les Halles food market, is decorated like an old Chinese inn."
(a) Les Halles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Halles
(an area of Paris; named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles)
(b) halle (noun, feminine): "(a) hall (b) covered market, market hall"