中国人心系中式早餐
The culinary colonisation of the globe may now have us all eating the same old margherita pizzas and arrabiata pastas. But there is one last bastion of gastronomic independence: breakfast. The things we can bear to put in our stomachs right after rising are often the most culturally authentic things about us. And nowhere is that truer than in China.烹饪方式在全球的殖民式推广，或许让我们现在全都吃着一样的传统玛格丽特比萨和香辣番茄意大利面。但还有最后一座堡垒在坚守着烹饪方式独立：早餐。我们能忍受一起床就吃下肚的东西，从文化角度而言往往是最真实地反映我们是谁的东西。而中国比其他任何地方都更符合这句论断。
Nobody loves things western more than the Chinese, but when the sun comes up on any Chinese city the east dominates the breakfast trade. Like their ancestors before them, even the most westernised Shanghainese queue up before bamboo towers of steamed buns, spitting woks of crispy bottomed dumplings and steaming vats of rice gruel, to eat food that proudly declares its Chineseness.
没有哪个民族比中国人更喜爱西方的东西，但在中国任何一座城市，当太阳升起的时候，早点生意绝对是“东风压倒西风”。哪怕是最西化的上海人，也会像他们的祖辈一样，在码得高高的一笼笼包子，一锅锅滋滋作响的锅贴，和一桶桶热气腾腾的米粥前排队等候，以享用这些自豪地宣告自己中国身份的食物作早餐。
They’ve got nothing against a good cornflake here or there, just for variety, or even an Egg McMuffin on the run, but a soup-filled bun made with dollops of pork fat — the much-loved Shanghai shengjian mantou — goes straight to the heart of mainlanders like no cornflake ever could. And of course, all that fat, salt and carbohydrate goes straight to the heart muscle too. But reason not the nutrients: at its best, breakfast is not just food, it is more like love.
中国人对偶尔吃一顿可口的玉米片早餐也不排斥，但只是为了换换口味，赶时间的时候他们甚至会匆匆忙忙抓一个吉士蛋麦满分当早餐，可是只有饱含汤汁的生煎馒头（上海人的最爱）才能直抵中国人的心房，那是任何玉米片永远到不了的地方。当然啦，那里面饱含的脂肪、盐和碳水化合物也会直抵心肌。但别拿健康说事了，最好的早餐不仅是食物，它更像是一种“爱”。
One young millennial queueing at the neighbourhood “baozi” or steamed bun stall in Shanghai’s former French concession, said he was there for a bit of a bun “chaser” to the bowl of Cheerios he had consumed at home. East meets west in this young man, who says he’s just as happy to draw from either menu for his first meal of the day. But when it comes to taste? China wins hands down.
一个“千禧”世代的年轻人，正在上海前法租界居民区的包子铺排队买包子。这位年轻人说自己在家已经吃了一碗脆谷乐(Cheerios)，来这儿想再吃点包子，补充点“硬货”。东西两种文化在这个年轻人身上交汇，他说作为一天之中的头一餐，中式和西式早餐都能让他吃得很开心。但论及味道，中餐毫不费力地赢了。
Wu Genfa, a baozi shopper old enough to be his grandfather, is having none of this fusion approach. “I don’t like foreign breakfast,” he says unapologetically. “We’ve been eating Chinese food for decades and if we suddenly change to foreign food, our stomach can’t get used to it,” he says.
队伍里一位年纪足以当那位年轻人祖父的食客，则完全无法接受中西混搭的吃法。他的名字叫吴根发。“我不喜欢外国的早餐。”他理直气壮地说，“我们已经吃了几十年中国食物，如果突然改吃外国食物，我们的胃习惯不了。”
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