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疫情中走红的纽约唐人街烧饼店
How a Queens Shaobing Stall Survives a Pandemic

来源:纽约时报    2021-02-23 05:25



        As several restaurants in Flushing, Queens, one of the largest Chinatowns in New York City, shut down amid the pandemic, Yukun Shaobing quietly opened inside a nondescript mini-mall last September — a seemingly inauspicious start.        在纽约最大唐人街之一的皇后区法拉盛,多家餐馆在大流行中关门。去年9月,钰锟烧饼在一个不起眼的小型购物中心内悄悄开业——看上去像一个不吉利的开头。
        Still, the cramped food stall of about 100 square feet, with no English-language name or advertising, has become a hit in a neighborhood beleaguered by Covid-19 and high rents.        这个狭小的食品摊位约100平方英尺,没有英文名或广告,却在受到新冠病毒和高租金困扰的社区中大受欢迎。
        The key to that success is an extensive menu of warm and flaky Shandong-style shaobing, baked flatbreads stuffed with savory and sweet fillings that have locals, some of the most exacting critics of Chinese fare, coming back for more.        成功的关键是种类繁多、热乎酥脆的山东风味烧饼——夹着咸甜味馅料的烤面饼。当地人——其中不乏对中餐极其挑剔的人——都成了它的回头客。
        In a space scarcely big enough for the two of them, Ruokun Yu and her business partner, Chunmei Tong, prepare classic shaobing containing pork and shrimp, cumin lamb and peppered beef, as well as westernized favorites like New Orleans chicken — their version of a sweet-and-savory flavor popularized by KFC in China.        在一个勉强够站两个人的空间里,于若昆(音)和她的生意伙伴佟春梅(音)准备传统的烧饼,烧饼里夹着猪肉和虾、孜然羊肉和胡椒牛肉,还有像新奥尔良鸡肉这样的西化美食——源自肯德基在中国推广的那种甜咸味菜品。
        One of the women helms the register while the other stuffs heaping spoons of filling into handmade dough, then bakes them in a tiny oven. Everything is made from scratch.        一个人负责收银,另一个人将一大勺馅料塞入手工制作的面饼,然后放入一个小烤箱中烘烤。一切都是手工做出来的。
        The shop’s approach is emblematic of what it takes to survive in what was already an unsparing restaurant business before Covid-19: grueling hours, tight margins and a do-it-yourself ethos that converts passers-by into regulars.        这家店的营业方式和在新冠病毒以前本就艰难的餐馆生意的生存方式一样:累人的工作时间,紧缩的利润,以及让路人变成常客的亲力亲为的理念。
        The virus has flattened businesses citywide, but its effects have often been more insidious on minority-owned shops. Harassment and violence against people of East Asian descent has been on the rise since the pandemic began, and Chinese restaurants, many of them owned by immigrants, have been particularly hit hard by racism, losing customers and suffering vandalism.        病毒使整个城市的商业陷入瘫痪,但对少数族裔拥有的商店的影响往往更为隐蔽。自大流行开始以来,针对东亚裔的骚扰和暴力行为一直在上升,其中中餐馆——许多为移民所有——尤其受到种族主义的伤害,导致顾客流失并遭到恶意破坏。
        That this shaobing stall has relied mostly on patrons of Chinese descent speaks to the changing buying power of communities like Flushing. You will find Yukun Shaobing only on food delivery apps that cater to Chinese-speaking customers, like Fantuan. On the counter is a poster with a QR code for the messaging app WeChat, popular among Chinese speakers.        这个烧饼摊位主要依靠华裔客人的支持,这说明法拉盛这样的社区的购买力正在发生变化。你只能在面向中文用户的诸如饭团外卖之类的送餐应用上找到钰锟烧饼。柜台上有一张带微信二维码的海报,微信在中文用户中很受欢迎。
        “It’s all by word of mouth,” said Ms. Yu. Every Chinese region has something similar, she said in Mandarin, referring to their menu of 17 shaobing varieties. “We cater to them all.”        于若昆说:“都是靠口口相传。”她用普通话说,每个中国地区都有些类似的东西,她指的是她们的17种烧饼口味。“我们面向所有人。”
        The partners pay $3,000 a month for the stall, and, because space is tight, another $200 to a neighboring business for the use of its prep area. The stall is inside the Landmark Quest Mall, across Roosevelt Avenue from the more popular New World Mall food court.        这对生意伙伴每个月要为摊位支付3000美元,并且由于空间紧张,还需要向邻店再支付200美元以使用它的厨房。她们的摊位位于罗斯福大街较受欢迎的新世界美食广场对面的地王大厦内。
        The two women work seven days a week and, on a good day, can sell about 200 to 300 shaobing, for $3 to $5 a piece. They also sell two sizes of lamb soup, a common pairing, for $4 or $8. Frozen bags of homemade dumplings are available, Ms. Yu said, because they were bored one night at home.        两个人每周工作七天,生意好的时候可以卖出200到300个烧饼,每个烧饼三到五美元不等。她们还出售两种规格的羊肉汤,通常和烧饼搭配,价格为四美元或八美元。于若昆说,还有冷冻袋装的自己包的饺子,是有天晚上在家闲着没事做的。
        Business in neighborhood restaurants has flagged during the two-month suspension of indoor dining in the city, which has curtailed tourism and reduced local foot traffic along the avenue. To avoid the high costs of a wholesale distributor, the partners shop for ingredients daily at a local Jmart, a popular supermarket for East Asian produce.        在纽约暂停室内用餐的两个月期间,附近餐馆的生意衰退,这减少了旅游业以及当地大街上的流量。为避免批发分销商的高成本,两人每天在当地一家受欢迎的东亚产品超市Jmart购买原料。
        Ms. Yu, 41, and Ms. Tong, 50, first-time business owners, live together in Flushing, where they split a single bedroom for $1,000 a month. They’ve worked in a number of Flushing restaurant kitchens, preparing mostly northern-style baked goods and dough, said Ms. Yu, who in 2016 immigrated to New York from Qingdao, China, in search of work. Ms. Tong arrived in 2018 from Liaoning province. When restaurants closed amid the lockdown, the roommates pooled their savings and answered an advertisement to lease the tiny food stall.        41岁的于若昆和50岁的佟春梅是首次开店,她们共同生活在法拉盛,在那里她们以每月1000美元的价格合租了一间卧室。2016年从中国青岛移民纽约找工作的于若昆说,她们曾在法拉盛的许多餐厅厨房工作,主要制作北方风格的烤饼和面食。佟春梅于2018年从辽宁省抵达纽约。餐馆在封锁期间关门时,两个室友看到这个小小的食品摊位的出租广告,于是拿出各自的积蓄把它租了下来。
        Despite the pandemic, they’ve been lucky in some ways. Barbie Li, the broker at B Square Realty in downtown Flushing, said a number of businesses were wiped out in recent months, allowing rents to fall for new tenants, if only temporarily. Before Covid, Ms. Li said, similar stalls rented for $4,000 a month or more.        虽然有大流行,她们在某些方面还是很幸运的。法拉盛市区B Square Realty的经纪人芭比·李(Barbie Li,音)说,最近几个月,许多店铺被淘汰,从而使新房客的租金下降,尽管这只是暂时的。芭比·李说,在新冠之前,类似的摊位租金为每月4000美元或更高。
        The pandemic has helped smaller, takeout-friendly restaurants that can adapt to delivery service, Ms. Li said, in some cases improving their business because of reduced competition. And news travels fast — she knows the shaobing stall well; her favorite filling is spicy squid.        芭比·李说,大流行帮助了规模较小、方便外带的餐馆启用送餐服务,在某些情况下,由于竞争减少,生意变得好起来。而且消息传得很快——她对这个烧饼摊很熟悉;她最喜欢的馅是辣鱿鱼。
        On a January afternoon, customers arrived at the mini-mall to order from Joe’s Steam Rice Rolls, a popular Cantonese-style noodle spot that has the most prominent space in the building. But several wandered to the shaobing stall, where a mostly Chinese clientele browsed the menu.        1月的一个下午,客人们来到这个小型购物中心的石磨肠粉王(Joe’s Steam Rice Rolls)买肠粉,这种广受欢迎的粤式肠粉摊位在这个大楼拥有最显眼的位置。但是有几个人徘徊在烧饼摊位,那里大多是华人食客在浏览菜单。
        “I was waiting for Joe’s, and some lady bought 20 in one go — so I had to try it,” said Winnie Huang, a repeat customer who was on a takeout food crawl. She said that she and her mother, both of Taiwanese descent, hadn’t seen this variety of shaobing in Flushing for more than a decade.        “我一直在等肠粉,有位女士一口气买了20个烧饼——所以我必须试一下,”正在逛外卖食物摊位的回头客温妮·黄(Winnie Huang,音)说。她说,她和她的母亲都是台湾裔,已经有十多年没有在法拉盛看到这种烧饼了。
        “It’s rare to find in Flushing,” said Ryan Chen, who drove from Long Island to pick up a cake, but was also on the lookout for good takeaway options.        “在法拉盛中很少见到,”瑞恩·陈(Ryan Chen,音)说,他从长岛来取蛋糕,但也在寻找不错的外卖选择。
        A recent wave of restaurants in Flushing and other Chinatowns in the city have tended toward spicy Sichuan dishes, or hot pot. Several customers said Northern-style street foods, like shaobing, have become less common. Ms. Yu said she plans to expand into a larger space soon, to take on the increased demand.        最近在法拉盛和纽约其他唐人街的餐馆趋向于辛辣川菜或火锅的潮流。几位顾客说,北方风味的街头食品,如烧饼,已经变得不那么普遍了。于若昆说,她计划很快将扩充更大的空间,以满足不断增长的需求。
        A masked woman walked up to the counter in a rush, and asked, “Any cumin lamb?”        一位戴着口罩的女子匆匆走到柜台前,问道:“还有孜然羊肉的吗?”
        “Give us 15 minutes,” Ms. Yu said.        于若昆说:“给我们15分钟。”
        The woman said she’d be back.        那位女士说她待会过来。
                
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