经济学人精读 | 新加坡的“路边摊”

本期导读

本文节选自《经济学人》20201031期。在新加坡街头，你也许会看到人们把诸如“印度煎饼”和叻沙面之类的美食随便地盛放在盘子里芭蕉叶上或把这些热气腾腾的美食舀到塑料碗里，这些美食能让人想起中国和印度的移民，因为这些美食正是中国和印度的美食经过几个世纪慢慢地与当地马来人的美食进行融合的产物。

Street food in Singapore

Out with the new

The state helps old hawkers but not young ones, with predictable results

SOME COUNTRIES build palaces or temples as monuments to their greatness. Singapore builds hawker centres. In these open-air food courts lined with stalls and formica tables it is possible to taste Singapore’s history. Dolloped unceremoniously on a plate or banana leaf or scooped steaming into a plastic bowl, dishes such as roti prata and Singapore laksa conjure up the Indian and Chinese migrants whose own cuisines, slowly over centuries, mingled with that of the indigenous Malays. And since one can eat one’s fill at a hawker centre for the price of a flat white, it is no surprise that eight in ten Singaporeans visit such establishments at least once a week, according to a survey conducted by the National Environment Agency in 2018. Singapore is so proud of its street food that it hopes UNESCO will include it in its catalogue of humanity’s most precious arts.

hawker 意思是“小贩，沿街叫卖者”，其动词是hawk，指“沿街叫卖”。

monument 指“纪念碑，丰碑”，后常跟介词to

stall 意思是“摊位，货摊”

unceremoniously 意思是“不讲礼仪地，随便地”，unceremonious是形容词，其反义词是ceremonious，意思是“讲究礼仪的”，其名词是ceremony

scoop 意思是“用勺舀”

conjure up 意思是“使……呈现于脑际，使想起”

mingle with 指“与……结合，混合”

fill 在这里用作名词，意思是“吃饱的量”，常与形容词性物主代词连用（one's fill）

flat white 指“馥芮白”，是一种咖啡，这里强调这些摊位的美食非常便宜，仅要一杯咖啡钱就能吃饱。

catalogue 指“目录”

The UN’s heritage inspectors had better tuck in fast. The median age of the chefs is 60. A government report published in 2017 warned that there were “too few [aspiring hawkers] to be able to sustain the hawker trade in the long run”. When old masters die, many take their recipes with them, says K.F. Seetoh, a champion of hawker food. Only Singaporean citizens can work in hawker centres managed by the government, the vast majority. But young Singaporeans have little appetite for toiling in piping-hot stalls for long hours and little pay. “It’s near impossible to get manpower for this trade,” Mr Seetoh wrote in January.

tuck in 意思是“痛快地吃”

median 意思是“中间值的，中间的”

recipe 指“食谱”

toil 意思是“（长时间）苦干，辛勤劳作”，作名词时意思是“苦工，劳累的工作”，类似于 travail