Indonesian food is delicious but little-known
印尼菜很美味，但鲜为人知
Awang kitchen, a modest restaurant on a charmless stretch of Queens Boulevard, will feel familiar to anyone who has spent time in an Indonesian city. The floor is linoleum, the service is graceful and unobtrusive and the food is as good as any offered by a neighbourhood restaurant in Jakarta.
阿旺餐馆是一家小苍蝇馆，位于皇后大道一段不那么繁华的地段上，凡是在印尼城市待过一段时间的人都对这种餐馆倍感亲切。地板是用漆布铺的，服务得体而且不会让人感觉过分殷勤，他家的饭菜味道也相当不错，不比雅加达附近的餐馆差。
There it would be unremarkable, yet in Queens—the most ethnically and linguistically diverse urban area in the world—it stands out, simply by serving food from the world's fourth-most-populous country.
这家餐馆虽不起眼，但在皇后区这个世界上种族和语言最多样化的城市地区，阿旺厨房仅仅依靠世界第四人口大国——印尼的菜肴，就脱颖而出。
Indonesian food is underappreciated in much of the world. Precisely how many Indonesian restaurants exist in America is unclear, but there are probably fewer than 100. London, the equal of New York as an international food city, also has a paucity of Indonesian eateries. The explanation for the shortage offers valuable lessons in politics, economics and prejudice.
世界大多数地方对印尼菜并不感冒。在美国，印尼餐厅的确切数量仍是个未知数，但估计不超过100家。即便是与纽约齐名、同为国际美食之都的伦敦，印尼餐厅也是屈指可数。为何印尼餐厅数量如此稀少？究其背后原因可为我们提供政治、经济和个人偏见方面宝贵的教训。
The gap between the renown and deliciousness of Indonesian cuisine may be the world's greatest. Diverse in ingredients and sophisticated in technique, it blends chilli heat, citrus sourness, sweetness from unrefined sugar and salty funk from dried shrimp, all enhanced by countless native herbs and spices (Europeans battled for centuries over the Spice Islands, as Indonesia's remote Maluku province was once known).
世界上可能没有哪个国家的食物和印尼菜一样，如此美味，却那么籍籍无名。印尼菜佐料丰富，做法讲究，将辣椒的辣味、柑橘的酸味、粗糖的甜味和虾干的咸鲜融为一体，并用大量的本土药草和香料提味（印尼偏远的马鲁古省以前名为“香料群岛”，几个世纪以来一直是欧洲各国必争之地）。
Highlights include rendang, a sort of reverse stew in which beef or chicken is first braised and then, as the liquid evaporates, fried in the remaining fat; countless varieties of soto, or soup; and grilled chicken or fish served with sambal, a condiment based on pounded chillies.
其中的代表菜仁当是一种著名的印尼炖菜，它的做法与其他炖菜恰恰相反，先把牛肉或鸡肉炖煮，待水分蒸发以后，再用余下的油炒制而成；另外还包括无数种索托（也就是汤）以及搭配叁巴酱（一种以捣碎辣椒打底的调料）食用的烤鸡和烤鱼。
These dishes are not unknown everywhere in the West. The Netherlands abounds in Indonesian restaurants for the same reason South Asian cuisine thrives in Britain and north African in France: colonial ties. You can also eat great Indonesian food in Singapore, which suggests another reason cuisines cross borders—borders cross cuisines, and the peoples and cultures that make them.
但是，这些印尼菜也并非在所有西方国家皆如此默默无闻。荷兰有很多印尼餐厅，原因和南亚菜在英国流行、北非菜在法国流行一样，均受殖民历史的影响。在新加坡也可以吃到很棒的印尼菜，边境让美食以及烹饪美食的人民和孕育美食的文化相遇，这也是美食穿越国界的另一个原因。
The size of diaspora communities is a factor. There are over ten times as many Chinese-Americans as Indonesian-Americans, and (not surprisingly) far more Chinese restaurants.
另外，民族的移居人数也是一个因素。美国的华裔人口是印尼裔的十倍有余，那么中餐馆的数量远胜于印尼餐馆也就不意外了。
That, in turn, suggests some good news. Since the fall of Suharto, a dictator who ruled for 31 years, in 1998, Indonesia has seen four peaceful transfers of power. Though its citizens are still poor by Western standards and its security forces sometimes brutal, it is growing richer and freer. The per-head emigration rate is relatively low. In no South-East Asian country do fewer adults express a wish to leave.
但这反过来也反应出一些积极的发展趋势。1998年，统治印尼31年的苏哈托倒台，自此印尼总共实现了四次和平的政权更迭。即便以西方国家的标准来看，印尼国民的生活依然贫穷，安保部队有时过于暴力，但这个国家正变得越来越富裕，越来越自由。印尼的人均移民率相对较低，放眼整个东南亚，印尼的成年人移民意愿是最低的。
As for the cuisine itself, what makes it extraordinary also makes it a tough sell to Westerners used to paying low prices for most Asian food. The immense quantities of herbs, spices and chillies involved are expensive in Europe and America.
就印尼菜本身而言，菜肴本身的出彩之处恰恰也是它在西方难以流行的缘由所在。西方人已习惯大多数亚洲美食均价格低廉的这一现状，而制作印尼菜需要大量药草、香料和辣椒，但这些原料在欧洲和美洲都价格昂贵。
Many diners who would happily shell out $30 for rip-off versions of pasta al pomodoro or poulet rôti balk at spending anything like as much on beef rendang or soto ayam (Indonesian chicken soup, which requires large amounts of fresh turmeric, lime leaves and other herbs). Their loss.
许多食客宁愿花上30美元购买冒牌的意大利番茄酱汁意面或者不正宗的法式烤鸡，也不愿意花同样的价钱享用仁当牛肉或鸡肉索托（一种印尼鸡肉汤，配料包括大量新鲜的姜黄根粉、柠檬叶以及其他药草）。真是亏大了。