外祖母的食譜，那是愛的味道

在外漂泊的遊子

最想念的

莫過於一頓家鄉的飯菜

小時候的我不明白

不管是什麼食材

為何一到外祖母那裡

就能化腐朽為神奇呢

後來長大的我

才慢慢懂得

外祖母食譜的背後

是那深深的愛

Times are a little tough at our house right now. Neither one of us makes a lot of money, but years of experience have taught us how to walk between the raindrops and make it from one month to the next with a fair amount of grace.

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我們家這陣子日子有點難過。我倆賺的錢都不多，但多年的生活經驗教會了我們如何熬過困難時期，比較體面地過日子。

I cook a lot at home, more when we』re facing lean times. When I know that I have to keep us fed on not much money, I fall back on my grandmother"s recipes.

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我經常在家做飯，日子一緊巴，做得就更多了。我知道全家就指望不多的那點錢填飽肚子，於是外祖母的食譜在我這兒又派上了用場。

She taught me to cook. When I was a kid, my twin brother and I spent long summer weeks and Christmas vacations with my mother"s parents, a rural mail-carrier and a textile mill worker in the mountains of north-west North Carolina.

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是外祖母教會了我做飯。小時候，每到悠長的夏日或是聖誕節假期，我和我的雙胞胎兄弟都會去外祖父母家。他們住在北卡羅來納州西北部的山區，外祖父是鄉村郵遞員，外祖母是紡織廠工人。

I didn"t care much forquail【1】hunting or fishing forbass【2】andrainbowtrout【3】like my brother and grandfather. Guns were loud and terrifying, fields were gross and full of mud. Also, little David just wasn"t great at killing things. I shuddered when pushing worms on to fishhooks, cried quietly when stuffing bloody limp birds into the game sack.

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我不像我兄弟和外祖父那樣喜歡打鵪鶉或是釣鱸魚、虹鱒魚。槍聲太響，又嚇人，地里全是泥，感覺很噁心。而且，我小時候就不是那種擅長宰殺動物的人。那會兒，往魚鉤上穿蟲子都能讓我打哆嗦，當我把鮮血淋漓、軟不拉幾的鳥塞進獵物袋時，我會默默地哭泣。

1. quail [kwe?l] n. 鵪鶉

2. bass [b?s] n. 鱸魚

3. rainbow trout：虹鱒魚

Turned out, though, that I was really good at baking cakes. So rather than go shiver on frozen mornings in a deerblind【4】praying I wouldn』t have to pull the trigger on this shotgun, I found myself more and more in the kitchen with my grandmother, watching her soft,arthritis【5】-bent hands drizzling cornstarch【6】into the filling for a lemon chess pie.

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不過，我後來發現自己特別擅長烘焙。所以，冰冷的清晨我不再待在獵鹿的埋伏處一邊凍得瑟瑟發抖，一邊祈禱著不要讓我扣獵槍的扳機。我發現自己和外祖母待在廚房的次數越來越多，看著她因患關節炎而有點彎曲的手輕柔地將玉米澱粉撒到做檸檬切斯派的餡中。

4. blind [bla?nd] n.〈美〉(狩獵時的)埋伏處

5. arthritis [ɑ?(r)?θra?t?s] n. 關節炎

6. starch [stɑ?(r)t?] n. 澱粉

「The more you pay, the worse you eat,」 she would say. Grandmother had a near-total disdain for restaurants, particularly expensive ones. I told her once that I』d been to a 「soul food【7】」 restaurant in New York City where they charged six dollars for a serving ofcollard greens【8】and she was aghast.

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外祖母會說：「花錢越多，吃得越差。」 對於餐館，尤其是那種價格昂貴的餐館，外祖母的態度幾乎是完全的不屑。曾經有一次，我跟她說我去過紐約的一家「靈魂料理」餐廳，那裡的一份羽衣甘藍就要六美元。她聽了目瞪口呆。

7. soul food：靈魂料理，美國黑人的傳統菜肴，以煎炸為主。

8. collard greens：羽衣甘藍

「Somebody needs to tell those people that they can pick their own collards for free on the side of the road!」 she said, disgusted. And it』s true. Collards are a weed, but they"re a weed that』s packed with iron, calcium and other nutrients, so my dirt-poor ancestors learned how to cook them and make them taste delicious.

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