千里之行始於一勺 看那些世界聞名的冰激凌
The ice cream had been cut into a half-moon slab that was dense to the touch and so cold my fingers went numb. It required teeth. It tasted as if it had been made on a planet with stronger gravity, concentrated yet airy, and smoking cold all the way down.
冰激凌被切成半月形，摸起來很刺激，冰得我手指發木。你得牙口好才行。它嚐起來像是在另一個星球製作的，那裏的地心引力更大。它濃郁、空靈，一直冒着冷氣。It’s hard to be astonished by ice cream these days. We’ve grown inured to the exotic, with a new generation of indie Baskin-Robbinses flaunting flavors like banana curry, Sichuan peppercorn, miso, garlic and lox.
如今很少有什麼冰激凌能讓你感到震驚。我們已經習慣了新一代獨立冰激凌店打出的各種奇怪的口味，比如香蕉咖喱、花椒、味增、蒜和薰鮭魚。But there are other, older ice cream parlors, tucked away in ethnic enclaves in and around New York City, where the flavors may seem exotic but are familiar to and beloved by those who make them; where ingredients like seaweed and pine sap are not tokens of acquired worldliness but occasions for nostalgia; where even the standard ice cream textures (that is, creamy or icy) don’t apply. Over the last several weeks, I’ve traveled from New Jersey to Westchester County, N.Y., to seek out some of the more intriguing and undercelebrated shops.
但是其他一些更老的冰激凌店藏在紐約市裏和周圍的少數族裔聚居區裏，那裏的冰激凌口味可能聽起來有點怪異，但是製作者熟悉也喜歡這些口味；像海藻和松香這樣的配料不是刻意添加的俗氣象徵，而是爲了懷舊；甚至連冰激凌的質地（奶油狀的或冰的）也可能不是常見的。在過去幾周裏，我走遍了紐約州，從新澤西到韋斯切斯特縣，尋找一些更有趣而沒有得到足夠讚美的冰激凌店。
The ice cream I ate with my teeth isn’t ice cream as Americans know it. Called kulfi, it is an Indian dessert dating back to the Mughal Empire, made from milk simmered until thick as cream, caramelized and nutty. I had tried it many times, from freezer bins at grocers and at restaurants high and low, but never fully submitted to its charms.
有一種冰激凌需要用牙齒咬，它不是美國人所說的那種冰激凌。它叫印度冰激凌，可以追溯到莫臥兒王朝時代。它是把牛奶用文火慢煮，直至和奶油一樣濃稠，然後加入焦糖和堅果。我試過很多次，從雜食店的冰箱到各種層次的餐館，但是從未完全被它迷住。Then I arrived at Kwality Ice Cream, which has, among other locations, a tiny storefront in Jersey City on a strip of henna salons and Indian cash-and-carries, a few blocks from the PATH station at Journal Square. (Only three stops from Lower Manhattan, folks.) It has three flavors of kulfi to get giddy over: malai (in which the rich milk reduction is steeped with cardamom pods), pista (pistachio, with a nubby rind of nuts) and kesar (saffron, the lushest).
然後我去了瓦利蒂冰激凌店(Kwality Ice Cream)，它有很多分店，在澤西城有個小小的店面，位於一個佈滿美甲店和印度現付自運店的狹長地帶，離日報廣場(Journal Square)的PATH車站只有幾個街區之遙（夥計們，離下曼哈頓只有三站）。其中有三種口味會讓你着迷：瑪萊（malai，濃郁的濃縮牛奶裏面充滿了豆蔻夾），開心果（pista，外面佈滿了堅果）和凱薩爾（kesar，含有藏紅花，是最昂貴的）。Kwality has traditional American-style ice creams as well, including some confusingly labeled kulfi. “They are kulfi-inspired,” the salesclerk said. One named Mawa Kulfi approximates the flavor of kulfi’s caramelly milk base, which is sort of like vanilla ice cream minus the vanilla; faloodeh, a floatlike drink of kulfi and rice vermicelli, is reimagined as Faloodeh Kulfi, a self-sufficient ice cream permeated with rosewater and crunchy with basil seeds.
瓦利蒂也有傳統的美式冰激凌，其中一些也稱爲印度冰激凌，讓人迷惑。“它們是受到印度冰激凌啓發而設計的，”店員說。有一款名叫馬瓦印度冰激凌(Mawa Kulfi)，它的味道接近於印度冰激凌中的焦糖味牛奶基料，就像沒加香草的香草冰激凌；還有一款叫法露德印度冰激凌(Faloodeh Kulfi)，它是用印度冰激凌和細米粉絲做成的，有點像上面浮有冰激凌的飲料，它是一款完滿的冰激凌，瀰漫着玫瑰水，含有羅勒籽，所以有嚼頭。Here, too, are thandai, a buttery compound of cashews, almonds and pistachios; chickoo, laced with a fruit that conjures malt and spun sugar; and pan masala, named after (and studded with) the sprinkle of seeds, nuts, lime, cloves and menthol that you might throw into your mouth at the end of an Indian meal. It half stings, like toothpaste.
這裏還有桑代(thandai)，它是用腰果、杏仁和開心果組成的黃油狀的混合物；奇庫(chickoo)，它用一種水果進行裝飾，這種水果讓人想起了麥芽和棉花糖；泛馬沙拉(pan masala)，它點綴着瓜子、堅果、酸橙、丁香和薄荷，它就是以此命名的。你可以在一頓印度大餐之後把它一下子放入口中。它有點刺激性，像牙膏那樣。Try to scoop up the ice cream at Cedars Pastry, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and it stretches upward, tugging at the spoon, resisting. The tackiness comes from a base of kashta, Lebanese clotted cream, skimmed off the top of boiled and slowly cooling milk and mixed with glassy teardrops of mastic resin. There are mainstream flavors like chocolate and strawberry, but pay them no mind. The stretchiest varietals are plain kashta, chewy yet icy at once, and the less sugary, better balanced kashta with pistachio.
去布魯克林灣脊區的香柏糕點店(Cedars Pastry)挖一勺冰激凌，會發現它向上拉伸，拽着勺子，不肯鬆開。它的粘性來自於黎巴嫩凝結奶油(kashta)基料，它是從沸騰後慢慢晾涼的牛奶表層撇出來的，加入了透明的淚滴狀的松香。這裏也有一些主流口味，比如巧克力和草莓，但是不要理會它們。有兩款最粘：一款是純黎巴嫩凝結奶油，很有嚼頭，而且冰感十足；另一款是不那麼甜、味道比較均衡的含有開心果的黎巴嫩凝結奶油。Dondurma, Turkish ice cream, is traditionally made with goat’s milk, mastic and salep, which is derived from the bulbs of wild Anatolian orchids. These flowers are now endangered, so Lezzetli Ice Cream, which recently started selling its homage to dondurma at the Hester Street Fair on the Lower East Side, substitutes Japanese konjac powder. The ice cream is churned in a machine, frozen, then beaten with a long rod (as is traditional) until it clings to itself. Of the four flavors currently available, Chios vanilla, named after the Greek island where the mastic tree grows and thoroughly colonized by flecks of vanilla bean, is the doughiest; pull it and you can see strands part, as with string cheese.
土耳其冰激凌(Dondurma)傳統上是用羊奶、乳香脂和蘭莖粉做成的。蘭莖粉來自安納托利亞野生蘭花的球莖。這種花現在瀕危，所以萊澤利冰激凌店(Lezzetli Ice Cream)用日本魔芋粉代替它。該店最近開始在下東區的赫斯特街頭集市(Hester Street Fair)上向土耳其冰激凌致敬。這裏的冰激凌是在機器裏攪拌，冷凍之後再用長杆（這是傳統做法）攪拌，直至變得粘稠。目前供應的四種口味中最粘稠的是希俄斯島香草冰激凌(Chios vanilla)，希俄斯島是希臘的一座島嶼，上面生長乳香黃連木，這款冰激凌里布滿了香草豆。你拉一下，能看到細絲斷裂，就像奶酪那樣。Paleteria El Sabor de Michoacan is an unassuming Mexican shop in New Rochelle, N.Y., about a half-mile from the Metro-North station. On my visit, none of the ice creams in the freezer case were labeled, but the salesclerk kindly recited them all. Best were tequila, a shade of blue somewhere between swimming pool and Tulum, tasting almost like the real thing, albeit with the edges buffed; lime, fluorescent green and seethingly tangy; tres leches, loaded with chunks of milk-and-cream-soaked cake; and mamey, hibiscus pink and tasting of almonds, raspberries and sweet potato pie.
米卻肯味道冰激凌店(Paleteria El Sabor de Michoacan)是紐約新羅謝爾的一個樸素的墨西哥店，離大都會北站約有0.5英里。我去那兒時，冰櫃裏的冰激凌都沒有命名，但是店員友好地把它們介紹了一遍。最好的是龍舌蘭(tequila)，它的藍色介於游泳池和圖盧姆的大海之間，味道很接近龍舌蘭，但沒那麼刺激；酸橙(lime)是熒光綠色的，味道刺激濃郁；“特別好色”(tres leches)裏面有浸滿牛奶和奶油的大塊蛋糕；曼密蘋果(mamey)有着芙蓉花的粉紅色，嚐起來像杏仁、樹莓和紅薯派。Sweet Dynasty, next to a gas station on a noisy avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, favors the standard voluptuous American style of ice cream, in flavors like purple taro (almost a deeper, rounder vanilla) and red bean (not too sweet, a rarity for this flavor). Also lurking is durian, the fruit so notoriously smelly that in some Southeast Asian nations it is illegal to eat on mass transit. Even in the freezer case it’s clearly trouble, the only ice cream to have a lid tamped over it. Odd, because it proved to have no scent at all, only the fruit’s vaguely sweaty flavor, a swirl of custard, papaya, caramelized onions, butterscotch and cheese.
甜蜜朝代(Sweet Dynasty)在布魯克林日落公園一條喧鬧的大街上，在一個加油站旁邊。它傾心於標準的、撩人的美式冰激凌，比如紫色芋頭（差不多是顏色更深、更圓的香草）和紅豆（不太甜，對這種口味來說比較少見）。店裏還潛伏着榴蓮口味，大家都知道這種水果聞起來很臭，在東南亞的一些國家，在公共交通工具上吃榴蓮是違法的。即使在冰櫃裏，它也顯然是個麻煩，它是唯一一種用蓋子密封起來的冰激凌。奇怪的是，它實際上完全沒有怪味，像是蛋奶凍、木瓜、焦糖洋蔥、奶油糖和奶酪的混合物。Sundaes and Cones started out in Brooklyn, before moving to the East Village. Here green tea yields just enough bitterness to prove its origins; black sesame tastes more exactingly of its title ingredient than any I’ve had. But wasabi is strangely deracinated, all flavor and no heat. To the south, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory has the scenic advantage of a cinematically claustrophobic Chinatown block (plus Xi’an Famous Foods next door, for lamb face as a chaser). Scoops are wildly generous. Zen Butter captures the essence of cold sesame noodles without their slickness. But other flavors, like a pleasant but umami-less soy sauce, occasionally go out of focus.
聖代和圓筒冰激凌店(Sundaes and Cones)最初在布魯克林，後來搬到了東村。這裏的綠茶味冰激凌有一絲苦味，剛好可以證明它的出處；黑芝麻冰激凌嚐起來比我吃過的其他以黑芝麻命名的冰激凌更具有濃郁的黑芝麻味。但是山葵醬口味卻奇怪地與衆不同，什麼味道都有，就是不衝。中國城街區往往如同電影畫面，會導致幽閉恐懼症，而南邊的中國城冰激凌工廠(Chinatown Ice Cream Factory)在那裏算是賞心悅目的（旁邊還有個西安名吃店(Xi’an Famous Foods)，裏面的羊臉值得一試）。這裏每一勺的量都很足。禪宗黃油(Zen Butter)充分捕捉到了冷芝麻面的精髓，但沒那麼滑。不過其他口味，比如令人愉快但不夠鮮的醬油，有時會有失水準。Thai ice creams tend to be more crystalline and sweeter, at least the ones found at SkyIce in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which does well with evanescent flavors like cucumber lime and lychee rose; and at Tea Cup Cafe in Elmhurst, Queens, which serves, amid a clutter of Blythe dolls and Polaroids, ice creams suffused with green tea, military in color and tasting almost burned, and Thai thea, garish orange with a distant floral tinge.
泰國冰激凌一般更透明，更甜，至少布魯克林公園坡的天冰冰激凌店(SkyIce)裏的是這樣的。這家店擅長做那些味道逐漸消散的冰激凌，比如黃瓜酸橙味的和荔枝玫瑰味的。皇后區埃爾姆赫斯特的茶杯咖啡店(Tea Cup Cafe)除了有一堆布娃娃和寶麗來相機外，還供應充滿綠茶的冰激凌，它是軍綠色的，嚐起來像燒焦了；這裏的泰式冰激凌是絢麗的橙色，帶有淡淡的花香味。The Greek owners of Fresco Gelateria, in the East Village, honor their roots with a beautifully light goat cheese fig gelato, with the fluffiness of goat cheese and just enough honey and fig to approach rather than fully embrace sweetness. Across town, at Cones, in the West Village, corn ice cream comes with a toasty undertone and a dusting of cinnamon.
東村壁畫冰激凌店(Fresco Gelateria)的希臘裔店主用漂亮的淡羊乳酪無花果冰激凌來向自己的祖籍致敬，羊乳酪的鬆軟以及份量剛剛好的蜂蜜和無花果讓這款冰激凌有點甜，卻不是很甜。在城的另一端，西村圓筒冰激凌店(Cones)裏的玉米冰激凌有烤麪包的底色，外面撒了一層肉桂。One last stop: Johnny Air Mart, a Filipino market in the East Village, for a tub of Magnolia ice cream, produced by a California-based company run by a Filipino-American family. Cross your fingers that they have macapuno ube, coconut mixed with sweet purple yam, purple as hydrangea, creamy and expansive. This is the Filipino vanilla, the baseline, the comfort you return to after other flavors inevitably fall short. It tastes as if you’ve been eating it your whole life.
最後一站：約翰尼空氣市場(Johnny Air Mart)。它是東村的一個菲律賓市場。來這裏是爲了得到一杯木蘭冰激凌(Magnolia)，它是一個菲律賓裔美國家庭經營的加利福尼亞公司生產的。祈禱他們有macapuno ube口味吧，它是椰子和甜紫薯混合物，具有繡球花那種紫色，柔滑，昂貴。它像是菲律賓的香草冰激凌，在其他口味讓你失望時，你可以從它那裏獲得安慰。它吃起來像是你一直都在吃的那種冰激凌。
