Chop Suey Nation: A road trip uncovers the lives behind small-town Chinese-Canadian food
From Victoria to Fogo Island and in every province in between, Ann Hui drives across the country to uncover the immigrant history – and vibrant present – of small-town Chinese-Canadian food
从维多利亚州到福戈岛以及其间的每个省份，许鞍华驾车穿越全国，探索小镇中裔加拿大美食的移民历史和充满活力的现在
Photo illustration: Ben Barrett-Forrest/The Globe and Mail/iStock Photo
图片插图：Ben Barrett-Forrest/环球邮报/iStock Photo
This article was published more than 6 years ago.
这篇文章发表于 6 年多前。
Some information may no longer be current.
某些信息可能不再是最新的。
(This is part one of a two-part feature.
（这是由两部分组成的功能的第一部分。
Click here to read part two.
单击此处阅读第二部分。
)
）
About an hour-long ferry ride off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, where the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean crash onto a jutting granite shoreline, is the tiny island of Fogo – a place so remote that conspiracy theorists believe it to be one of the four corners of the Earth.
从纽芬兰东北海岸出发，乘坐大约一个小时的渡轮，大西洋冰冷的海水冲击着突出的花岗岩海岸线，就到了福戈小岛——这个地方如此偏远，以至于阴谋论者认为它是地球的四个角落之一。
And in a small village on this island – where wooden houses and clapboard sheds dot the shore like Monopoly pieces – is Kwang Tung Restaurant, Fogo Island's very own Chinese café.
在这个岛上的一个小村庄里，木屋和隔板棚子像大富翁棋子一样点缀在海岸上，这里有一家广东餐厅，它是福戈岛自己的中式咖啡馆。
I first learned of Kwang Tung after stumbling across it in a food blog post titled " I can't believe there's a Chinese restaurant in Fogo ." Like the author, I was bewildered.
我第一次知道广东是在一篇题为“我不敢相信福戈有一家中餐馆”的美食博客文章中偶然发现的。我和作者一样，也很困惑。
How did the restaurant wind up there?
餐厅是怎么开到那里的？
Why would someone decide to open a Chinese restaurant on Fogo Island?
为什么有人决定在福戈岛开一家中餐馆？
The post included a photo of a plate of food: a deep-fried egg roll, its blistered surface laid atop brown fried rice.
帖子中包括一张一盘食物的照片：一个油炸蛋卷，其起泡的表面放在棕色炒饭上。
There was also a photo of the Kwang Tung menu, an inventory of Chinese-Canadian classics: sweet and sour won tons, moo goo guy pan and a long list of dishes dredged in batter, deep-fried and coated in sweet, sticky, vaguely spicy sauces.
还有一张广东菜单的照片，列出了中加经典菜肴：糖醋馄饨、moo goo Guy pan，以及一长串裹着面糊、油炸的菜肴，涂上甜甜的、粘稠的、略带辣味的酱汁。
"Chinese Canadian food," the writer proclaimed.
“加拿大华人食物”，作者宣称。
"Good in that guilty pleasure kind of way."
“以那种罪恶感的快感来说，很好。”
This was "chop suey" cuisine, which is distinct from "authentic" Chinese food.
这是“杂碎”美食，与“正宗”中餐不同。
The name "chop suey" translates more or less into "assorted mix," and refers to a repertoire of dishes mostly developed in North America in the mid-20th century.
“杂碎”这个名字或多或少可以翻译为“什锦杂菜”，指的是主要在 20 世纪中叶在北美开发的一系列菜肴。
A mix of ideas both East and West and, to my eyes, frozen in time.
东西方思想的融合，在我看来，时间凝固了。
For my family, and every other Chinese family I knew growing up in Vancouver, food was an obsession.
对于我的家人以及我所认识的在温哥华长大的所有其他中国家庭来说，食物是一种痴迷。
I would listen as relatives argued about which dim sum restaurant's har gow wrapper was the thinnest, or whose xiao long bao the juiciest.
我会听亲戚们争论哪家点心店的虾饺皮最薄，或者谁的小笼包最多汁。
Now living in Toronto, I've witnessed first-hand the rapid development of very diverse Chinese cuisines in this city, too.
现在住在多伦多，我也亲眼目睹了这个城市多样化的中国美食的快速发展。
I had assumed the small-town Chinese restaurant was a fading piece of the country's history, a relic of the past.
我原以为小镇上的中餐馆是这个国家历史中逐渐消失的一部分，是过去的遗迹。
But, at least on Fogo Island, that didn't seem to be the case.
但至少在福戈岛，情况似乎并非如此。
I wanted to know more.
我想了解更多。
"They are, in very much a weird way, a Canadian thing," said Lily Cho, a York University professor who has written a book on Chinese restaurants.
“以一种非常奇怪的方式，它们是加拿大人的东西，”约克大学教授莉莉·曹(Lily Cho)说，她写过一本关于中餐馆的书。
Of course there are Chinese-American restaurants in the United States, but the story up here – from the way the restaurants spread across the country along with the railroad, to the invention of dishes like Alberta ginger beef and Thunder Bay Bon Bon ribs – is uniquely Canadian.
当然，美国也有中美餐馆，但这里的故事——从餐馆随着铁路遍布全国，到阿尔伯塔生姜牛肉和桑德湾 Bon Bon 排骨等菜肴的发明——是加拿大独有的。
These restaurants serve many purposes, said Cho.
Cho 说，这些餐厅有多种用途。
They create jobs and opportunities for newcomers and they fill a void for the entire community, often providing services and infrastructure that don't otherwise exist.
它们为新移民创造就业机会和机会，填补整个社区的空白，通常提供原本不存在的服务和基础设施。
For a century and a half, they have been quintessential small-town Canadian institutions.
一个半世纪以来，它们一直是典型的加拿大小镇机构。
The curling-rink location of Ling Lee’s Chinese Cuisine, with a backdrop of a mural depicting historical figures throwing curling stones, helps make it part of the fabric of the community in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Ling Lee's Chinese Cuisine 的冰壶场位置以描绘历史人物投掷冰壶石的壁画为背景，使其成为安省 Thunder Bay 社区结构的一部分。
And, she said, they aren't disappearing.
而且，她说，它们并没有消失。
Newcomers are still arriving in Canada and still moving to small towns to open Chinese restaurants.
新移民仍在抵达加拿大，并仍在前往小镇开设中餐馆。
Just about every town across the country, I learned, has its own Chinese restaurant – according to some estimates, more Chinese restaurants than all fast-food restaurants combined.
据我所知，全国几乎每个城镇都有自己的中餐馆——根据一些估计，中餐馆的数量比所有快餐店的总和还多。
I had so many questions: Why would these restaurant owners take the gamble to leave everything behind for this new place?
我有很多疑问：为什么这些餐馆老板会冒险抛弃一切来到这个新地方？
Why open a Chinese restaurant, and why in a small town?
为什么要开中餐馆，又为什么要在小镇上开？
And why does just about every Canadian town have its own Chinese restaurant?
为什么几乎每个加拿大城镇都有自己的中餐馆？
I was especially intrigued by Kwang Tung: Fogo Island was probably the most isolated place I could imagine – and one of the least diverse.
我对广东特别感兴趣：福戈岛可能是我能想象到的最偏僻的地方，也是最不多样化的地方之一。
I scoured the Internet for more information.
我在互联网上搜索了更多信息。
An image search revealed one last clue.
图像搜索揭示了最后一条线索。
A photographer from Montreal had visited the restaurant a few years ago, capturing an image of a faded white building.
几年前，一位来自蒙特利尔的摄影师曾参观过这家餐厅，拍下了一座褪色的白色建筑的照片。
Above the door hung a Pepsi sign, with the restaurant's name etched in Charlie Chan-style lettering.
门上方挂着百事可乐的招牌，餐厅的名字用陈查理风格的字体刻着。
This photo of owner Huang Feng Zhu posing in front of Kwang Tung Restaurant in Fogo Island, Nfld., inspired the writer’s journey.
这张老板黄凤珠在佛罗里达州福戈岛广东餐厅前摆姿势的照片启发了笔者的旅程。
In front of the restaurant stood a woman with short black hair.
餐厅门口站着一个黑色短发的女人。
She looked to be in her 50s, dressed simply in a T-shirt, dark slacks and grey sneakers.
她看起来50多岁，穿着简单的T恤、深色休闲裤和灰色运动鞋。
Her lips curved upwards.
她的嘴唇向上翘起。
According to the caption, her name was Huang Feng Zhu.
根据标题，她的名字叫黄凤珠。
She ran the restaurant seven days a week, by herself: "She lives upstairs so basically she never leaves."
她每周 7 天独自经营这家餐厅：“她住在楼上，所以基本上从不离开。”
I became determined to find Huang, to understand how she ended up running a Chinese restaurant on Fogo Island.
我决心找到黄，了解她是如何在福戈岛经营一家中餐馆的。
I wanted to know how she wound up there alone.
我想知道她是怎么一个人到那里的。
So I set out a plan: to drive across the country, visiting as many small-town Chinese restaurants as possible.
于是我制定了一个计划：开车穿越全国，去尽可能多的小镇中餐馆。
I'd start on the West Coast, where the earliest wave of Chinese settlers began arriving in 1858.
我将从西海岸开始，第一批中国定居者于 1858 年开始抵达那里。
From there, I would make my way east across a 2 ½-week period, roughly tracing the path of the railway.
从那里，我将向东行进，历时 2.5 周，大致沿着铁路的路径前进。
The last stop would be Fogo Island, where I hoped to visit Huang at the mysterious Kwang Tung Restaurant.
最后一站是福古岛，我希望能去神秘的广东餐厅拜访黄。
The first Chinese workers arrived on Vancouver Island in the mid-19th century.
第一批中国工人于 19 世纪中叶抵达温哥华岛。
As they stepped off their ships from their long journey, Victoria was their first glimpse of this new country and their first step in their search for gold.
当他们从长途旅行中走下船时，维多利亚是他们第一次看到这个新国家，也是他们寻找黄金的第一步。
A few decades later, between 1881 and 1885, thousands more would land here, for the promise of $1 a day, working to build the railway.
几十年后，即 1881 年至 1885 年间，成千上万的人来到这里，以每天 1 美元的报酬来修建铁路。
An entire infrastructure sprang up around these men, creating Canada's first Chinatown along a four-block stretch of the city's downtown.
围绕这些人，一整套基础设施拔地而起，沿着市中心的四个街区创建了加拿大第一个唐人街。
Some of them opened cafés and shops where labourers could stock up on supplies, have a meal or spend the night before the final leg of their journey to the Cariboo in search of gold, or to find back-breaking work on the railway that would eventually unify this country.
他们中的一些人开设了咖啡馆和商店，工人们可以在那里储备物资、吃饭，或者在前往卡里布寻找黄金的最后一站之前过夜，或者在最终统一这个国家的铁路上找到艰苦的工作。
On a grey, rainy morning in mid-March, I flew from Toronto to Victoria, picked up a tiny rental car and drove straight toward this Chinatown.
三月中旬一个灰蒙蒙、下着雨的早晨，我从多伦多飞往维多利亚，租了一辆小车，径直驶向这个唐人街。
But if I had hoped to gain insight into the experiences of early settlers, I was out of luck.
但如果我希望深入了解早期定居者的经历，那我就没那么幸运了。
Chinatown's labyrinth of brick buildings and narrow alleyways – once crowded with tenements and brothels – is now the site of coffee shops and office space for tech startups.
唐人街迷宫般的砖房和狭窄的小巷曾经挤满了公寓和妓院，现在成了咖啡馆和科技初创公司办公场所的所在地。
By the mid-20th century, many of the city's Chinese had moved to Vancouver and across the country, essentially leaving Victoria as a museum, a Chinatown for tourists with street fixtures decorated in red and gold dragons.
到了20世纪中叶，这座城市的许多华人已经搬到了温哥华和全国各地，基本上把维多利亚变成了一座博物馆，一座供游客参观的唐人街，街道上的装置装饰着红色和金色的龙。
Only a few hints of the original Chinese remain, like the Chinese public school that was built in 1909 after locals complained that the Chinese children enrolled in regular public schools didn't belong.
原来的华人只剩下一些痕迹，比如1909年当地人抱怨在普通公立学校就读的华人孩子不属于这里而建的华人公立学校。
On the second day of my trip, in Vancouver, I sat with history professor Henry Yu in a cafeteria on the lush green University of British Columbia campus.
在温哥华旅行的第二天，我和历史学教授余亨利一起坐在郁郁葱葱的不列颠哥伦比亚大学校园的一家自助餐厅里。
"Nobody goes halfway around the world on a whim," he said.
“没有人会一时兴起绕地球半圈，”他说。
He explained that before anything else, I'd first have to understand Gold Mountain.
他解释说，首先我必须了解金山。
Gum san , or Gold Mountain, was the nickname the first Chinese workers – the gold-rush-seekers and the railway builders – gave to this place.
金山（Gum san），即金山，是第一批中国工人——淘金者和铁路建设者——给这个地方起的绰号。
Up until the mid-20th century almost all of Canada's Chinese immigrants came from the southern Guangdong province, an area clustered around the Pearl River delta and prone to floods, earthquakes and drought.
直到20世纪中叶，几乎所有加拿大华人移民都来自南部广东省，该地区聚集在珠江三角洲周围，容易发生洪水、地震和干旱。
The vast majority came from the same four poverty-stricken counties : Toisan, Hoyping, Yinping and Sunwui.
绝大多数人来自同一个四个贫困县：台山、和平、银平和新会。
What these early settlers had in common was a wealthy relative who had gone abroad.
这些早期定居者的共同点是都有出国的富有亲戚。
Known as the "guests of Gold Mountain," these first adventurers had returned to China with unthinkable luxuries, like Singer sewing machines.
这些被称为“金山客人”的第一批冒险家带着难以想象的奢侈品回到了中国，比如胜家缝纫机。
They built houses for their families and schools where their children could study.
他们为家人建造房屋和孩子们可以学习的学校。
Their younger relatives all heard the same story: that if they left behind their lives in China for Gold Mountain, they, too, could bring back riches.
他们的年轻亲戚都听到了同一个故事：如果他们离开中国前往金山，他们也可以带回财富。
The young men watched their heroes with stars in their eyes, said Yu.
于说，年轻人看着他们的英雄，眼睛里闪烁着星星。
"They thought to themselves: 'I want to be that guy.
“他们心想：‘我想成为那样的人。
Wherever he went, I want to go."
他去哪儿，我就想去哪儿。”
What many people still don't understand, Yu said, is that Gold Mountain wasn't simply a place.
于说，许多人仍然不明白，金山不仅仅是一个地方。
The Chinese called the mountains surrounding the Fraser Valley Gold Mountain.
中国人称弗雷泽河谷周围的山脉为金山。
But they also called the golden wheat fields of the Prairies and the lush green forests of Northern Ontario Gold Mountain.
但他们也将大草原的金色麦田和安大略省北部郁郁葱葱的绿色森林称为金山。
The United States was Gold Mountain, too.
美国也是金山。
So was Australia.
澳大利亚也是如此。
To them, Gold Mountain was the whole idea – a life cycle where young men from poor families could go abroad and strike it rich enough to change their family's destiny.
对他们来说，金山就是整个想法——一个来自贫困家庭的年轻人可以出国致富并改变家庭命运的生命周期。
But that required an initial cash investment, which was generally borrowed from a relative who had already made it in Gold Mountain.
但这需要初始现金投资，这些资金通常是从已经在金山成功的亲戚那里借来的。
The loan would normally take a few years to pay off, especially because of anti-Chinese laws that prevented these early immigrants from working in all but a few businesses: laundries, convenience stores or restaurants.
这笔贷款通常需要几年时间才能还清，特别是因为反华法律禁止这些早期移民在除洗衣店、便利店或餐馆等少数几家企业之外的所有行业工作。
Early cafés were Chinese only by virtue of their owners – the menus generally listed Western dishes, like hot turkey sandwiches and fried veal cutlets.
早期的咖啡馆之所以是中国人，只是因为它们的主人——菜单上通常列出的是西式菜肴，比如热火鸡三明治和炸小牛肉片。
Once the loans were paid off, these men were free to set up their own business.
还清贷款后，这些人就可以自由地创办自己的企业。
To avoid competition, they would often start it in the next town or railway stop over.
为了避免竞争，他们通常会在下一个城镇或铁路停靠站开始。
Slowly and gradually, these restaurants multiplied, appearing first in major cities, and then spreading outward, like spiderwebs.
慢慢地，这些餐馆逐渐增多，首先出现在大城市，然后像蜘蛛网一样向外扩散。
Anywhere the railway stopped – through the Rockies, the Prairies, out east – the restaurants would also travel, until they were all across the country.
铁路停靠的任何地方——穿过落基山脉、大草原、东部——餐馆也会开往全国各地，直到遍布全国。
As I drove around Vancouver, I saw few signs of the original Chinese cafés.
当我开车绕着温哥华转时，我几乎看不到原来的中国咖啡馆的踪迹。
Chinese food in the city today reflects the many waves of immigrants that have come since.
今天这座城市的中餐反映了此后的许多移民浪潮。
My own parents moved from Hong Kong and Guangdong to Canada in the 1970s.
我的父母在 20 世纪 70 年代从香港和广东搬到了加拿大。
They weren't alone.
他们并不孤单。
After Canada liberalized its immigration policy in the late 1960s, massive numbers of Hong Kongers and Taiwanese came to Vancouver, among them highly skilled, mostly Cantonese-trained chefs.
加拿大在 20 世纪 60 年代末放宽移民政策后，大量香港人和台湾人来到温哥华，其中包括技术精湛、大多受过粤语培训的厨师。
Recently, the Chinese food has gotten even better.
最近，中国菜变得更好了。
Newcomers from all over mainland China have brought with them wealth – as evidenced by gilded seafood restaurants serving $100-a-plate fried rice – and a rich diversity of regional cuisines.
来自中国大陆各地的新移民带来了财富——供应一盘 100 美元炒饭的镀金海鲜餐厅就证明了这一点——以及丰富多样的地方美食。
Driving past Richmond, the Vancouver suburb where many recent immigrants have settled, I passed crowded strip malls selling everything from mala Sichuanese, Shanghai crab dumplings, to fragrant Hainanese chicken rice.
开车经过许多新移民定居的温哥华郊区里士满时，我经过拥挤的商业街，出售各种东西，从麻辣烫、上海蟹饺到香喷喷的海南鸡饭。
I wondered what this dizzying mix had in common with Huang, her fried egg rolls and her little restaurant in Fogo.
我想知道这种令人眼花缭乱的组合与黄、她的煎蛋卷和她在福戈的小餐馆有什么共同点。
At every step, I was putting together more pieces of her puzzle.
每一步，我都在拼凑她的拼图的更多碎片。
The name of her restaurant, Kwang Tung, was just another way to spell Guangdong.
她的餐馆的名字“Kwang Tung”只是“Guangdong”的另一种拼法。
Canton, Kwang Tung, Guangdong – they all refer to the same southern province from where the Gold Mountain men had originally come.
广州、广东、广东——它们都指的是金山人最初来自的同一个南方省份。
It was likely, I thought, that Huang had already been here for some time.
我想，黄可能已经来这里有一段时间了。
I remembered Yu's last words before he dashed off.
我想起了于冲走前的最后一句话。
"What connects it all is family," he said.
“将这一切联系在一起的是家庭，”他说。
Chinese newcomers rarely still refer to this place as Gold Mountain, he said.
他说，中国新移民很少仍称这个地方为金山。
But their motivation for coming here – and for immigrants from all over the world since – is often still the same: a promise of a better future for the next generation.
但他们来到这里的动机——以及此后来自世界各地的移民——往往仍然是一样的：承诺为下一代创造更美好的未来。
"The restaurants are just the vehicles.
“餐馆只是交通工具。
It's all about the families."
这都是关于家庭的。”
Pioneering restaurant owner Bing Foon Choy and his wife, Poy Fong Choy.
开创性的餐厅老板 Bing Foon Choy 和他的妻子 Poy Fong Choy。
The next leg of my trip was the long drive out of Vancouver and into Alberta.
我旅行的下一站是离开温哥华并进入艾伯塔省的长途车程。
For days, the mountains had gawked down at me, like giants at a parade.
几天来，群山一直凝视着我，就像游行中的巨人一样。
Now, as I inched further east, the mountains gave way to massive plains and wide, open road.
现在，当我向东一点一点移动时，山脉被大片平原和宽阔开阔的道路所取代。
The sky felt bigger.
感觉天空更大了。
Bluer.
更蓝。
This was where, in the latter half of the 19th century, the Canadian government offered cheap and free land to European, American and eastern Canadian settlers, in an attempt to encourage mass settlement: Promising a better life to those willing to take on a rugged space with harsh climates and long, lonely winters.
19 世纪下半叶，加拿大政府向欧洲、美国和加拿大东部的定居者提供廉价、免费的土地，试图鼓励大规模定居：向那些愿意在气候恶劣和漫长孤独的冬季生活的崎岖地区承诺更好的生活。
As I drove, I wondered about these settlers and what they had in common with Huang.
当我开车时，我想知道这些定居者以及他们与黄有什么共同点。
I wondered what feelings they all shared about leaving behind their homes to come to this new, hostile place.
我想知道他们对于离开家园来到这个充满敌意的新地方有何感受。
Was it desperation?
是绝望吗？
Ambition?
志向？
Hope?
希望？
About a 40-minute drive west of Edmonton, beyond the industrial sprawl of the city and amid long stretches of farmland, is the 15,000-person town of Stony Plain, Alta.
阿尔塔州斯托尼普莱恩 (Stony Plain) 小镇位于埃德蒙顿以西约 40 分钟车程处，位于城市的工业区之外，坐落在大片农田之中。
On most weekends, you can find William Choy cooking in the kitchen at Bing's #1 Restaurant.
大多数周末，您都可以在 Bing's #1 餐厅的厨房里看到 William Choy 做饭。
It shouldn't be unusual that Choy works in the kitchen.
Choy 在厨房工作并不罕见。
After all, the mild-mannered, bespectacled 42-year-old owns the restaurant and grew up in it, too.
毕竟，这位举止温和、戴着眼镜的 42 岁男子是这家餐厅的老板，也是在里面长大的。
As a child, he watched as his grandfather Bing Choy, who opened the place in 1970, worked in the same crowded kitchen.
当他还是个孩子的时候，他就看到他的祖父 Bing Choy（他于 1970 年开设了这家店）也在同一个拥挤的厨房里工作。
And by the time his own father Fon Choy took over, Choy himself was old enough to help out – wiping down the red formica tables, topping up cups with coffee, and whatever else needed doing.
当他自己的父亲 Fon Choy 接手时，Choy 自己已经足够大了，可以帮忙——擦红色福米卡桌子，给杯子加咖啡，以及其他需要做的事情。
But what makes it unusual is Choy's part-time job: He's also the mayor of the town.
但让它与众不同的是 Choy 的兼职工作：他也是该镇的市长。
Like most of the Gold Mountain men, Bing Choy left his wife and children behind when he came to Canada in the mid-1960s.
和大多数金山人一样，Bing Choy 在 20 世纪 60 年代中期来到加拿大时抛下了妻子和孩子。
That's in part because it was cheaper for the families to stay in China, but also because of restrictions on immigration.
部分原因是这些家庭留在中国更便宜，但也因为移民限制。
To protect jobs for non-Chinese Canadians, the government imposed a head tax in the late 19th century on Chinese entering the country.
为了保护非华裔加拿大人的就业，政府在 19 世纪末对进入该国的华人征收人头税。
This was followed in 1923 by the Chinese Immigration Act, which closed off Chinese immigration almost entirely until 1947.
随后 1923 年颁布了《华人移民法》，该法案几乎完全禁止华人移民，直到 1947 年。
This legalized discrimination set the tone for anti-Chinese sentiments across the country – including in cities like Vancouver and Toronto, where Chinese restaurant owners were subject to police harassment, as well as violence and vandalism.
这种合法化的歧视为全国各地的反华情绪定下了基调——包括温哥华和多伦多等城市，那里的中餐馆老板受到警察的骚扰、暴力和破坏。
It wasn't until 1967 that Chinese were allowed to enter this country based on the same criteria as others.
直到1967年，中国人才被允许按照与其他国家相同的标准进入这个国家。
The rest of the Choy family came over in 1980, including six-year-old William, the future mayor.
Choy 家族的其他成员于 1980 年加入，其中包括未来市长、六岁的威廉。
Many of his childhood memories revolve around the restaurant.
他童年的许多记忆都围绕着这家餐厅。
He raced home from school at midday to help out with the lunch rush, and did his homework in the basement storage room.
中午他从学校跑回家帮忙赶午餐，并在地下室储藏室做作业。
"Free time" on weekends was spent helping out at the restaurant, too.
周末的“空闲时间”也用来在餐厅帮忙。
It was only natural, then, that after graduating university with a teaching degree in an economic downturn, he returned to the restaurant.
因此，在经济不景气的情况下，他从大学毕业并获得教学学位后，回到餐馆就很自然了。
In 1997, he officially took over, though his parents continue to help out.
1997年，他正式接任，尽管他的父母继续提供帮助。
Choy calls Bing's the "community living room," and driving from town to town showed that it's not alone in serving this purpose.
Choy 将 Bing 称为“社区客厅”，从一个城镇开车到另一个城镇表明，Bing 并不是唯一一家致力于实现这一目标的公司。
In Vulcan, Alta.
位于阿尔塔省瓦肯市。
– an 1,800-person town decked out in Star Trek paraphernalia – Lin Qin's restaurant, Amy's, is where seniors' groups gather for lunch.
– 一个拥有 1,800 人的小镇，装饰着《星际迷航》的用具 – 林钦的餐厅 Amy’s 是老年人团体聚集吃午餐的地方。
And in Grenfell, Sask., Moon's Cafe is owned by 46-year-old recent immigrant Moon Wei who, like Huang in Fogo, runs the restaurant alone.
在萨斯喀彻温省格伦费尔，Moon's Cafe 的老板是 46 岁的新移民 Moon Wei，他和福戈的 Huang 一样，独自经营这家餐厅。
Moon's is where elderly men spend their afternoons, nursing cups of coffee while leafing through newspapers.
穆恩家是老年男子度过下午时光的地方，他们一边喝着咖啡，一边翻阅报纸。
A few years ago, Linda Tzang, a curator at the Royal Alberta Museum, put together an exhibition on how small-town Chinese restaurants have historically served as Canada's mail-sorting facilities, child-care centres and even fire stations.
几年前，阿尔伯塔皇家博物馆馆长琳达·曾（Linda Tzang）举办了一场展览，展示小镇中餐馆历史上如何充当加拿大的邮件分拣设施、儿童保育中心甚至消防站。
"It was just whatever they could do to keep their businesses afloat," she said.
“他们只是想尽一切办法来维持生意，”她说。
She even came across one Alberta town where the restaurant was so crucial to the community that when the owners retired, locals recruited a new family from China to take over.
她甚至遇到了艾伯塔省的一个小镇，那里的餐厅对社区至关重要，以至于当老板退休后，当地人从中国招募了一个新家庭来接手。
Many of Canada's small-town Chinese restaurant owners spoke to me about loneliness, and feeling alienated.
许多加拿大小镇的中餐馆老板向我谈到了孤独和疏远感。
But for the Choy family, living in a small town made things easier, he said.
但他说，对于 Choy 一家来说，住在小镇让事情变得更容易。
Regulars would offer English lessons and other help to his parents.
常客会为他的父母提供英语课程和其他帮助。
They'd point to their coffee cups as they were drinking, mouthing slowly the words: "Coffee.
他们一边喝一边指着咖啡杯，慢慢地说：“咖啡。
Cup."
杯子。”
"You're not lost in the whole mass of things," Choy said.
“你不会迷失在所有的事情中，”蔡说。
"They're more willing to give a hand." Choy and his siblings now all have houses and families of their own.
“他们更愿意伸出援手。”崔和他的兄弟姐妹现在都拥有了自己的房子和家庭。
"I'm the mayor of the community we grew up in," says Choy.
“我是我们长大的社区的市长，”蔡说。
"Things like that couldn't happen in China, right?"
“这样的事情不可能发生在中国，对吗？”
Since Choy was first elected in 2012, he has worked both jobs, running back and forth, often pulling off a grease-splattered apron midday to attend a town meeting.
自2012年首次当选以来，Choy就兼任两份工作，来来回回，经常在中午脱下沾满油脂的围裙去参加镇上的会议。
"This is my business, where we came from," Choy told me in his kitchen, as he fried a large platter of rice.
“这是我的事，我们来自哪里，”崔在他的厨房里告诉我，他正在炒一大盘米饭。
He covered his wok with a lid, then shuffled out to the dining room.
他盖上锅盖，然后拖着脚步走向餐厅。
Hanging on the back wall were four black-and-white photographs: pictures of the Guangdong village where Choy was born.
后墙上挂着四张黑白照片：蔡出生的广东村庄的照片。
Behind him in the kitchen, his mother Jean beamed.
在他身后的厨房里，他的母亲让微笑着。
I asked if this is what she had imagined for her son.
我问这是否是她对儿子的想象。
"No," the 65-year-old said in the Toisan dialect.
“不，”这位 65 岁的老人用台山方言说道。
Running for mayor was entirely his idea – entirely outside of her comprehension, and the life she knew growing up in a village in Guangdong.
竞选市长完全是他的主意——完全超出了她的理解范围，也超出了她在广东农村长大的生活。
"How could I even have imagined it?" Ms. Choy said, grinning her gap-toothed grin.
“我怎么能想到呢？”蔡女士说道，露齿而笑。
"How could I have imagined it?"
“我怎么能想到呢？”
Despite signs to the contrary, this restaurant in Glendon, Alta., is called Thai Woks N’ go.
尽管有相反的迹象，这家位于阿尔伯塔格伦登的餐厅被称为 Thai Woks N’ go。
It's not just the Chinese who came looking for Gold Mountain.
前来寻找金山的不仅仅是中国人。
It's a journey many continue to make today.
这是许多人今天仍在继续的旅程。
The past few decades have seen tens of thousands of young men and women – many of them immigrants from Somalia, Jamaica and the Middle East – flock to the Prairie oil sands seeking black gold.
在过去的几十年里，成千上万的年轻男女——其中许多是来自索马里、牙买加和中东的移民——涌入草原油砂寻找黑金。
Using pumps and shovels to extract the liquid from deep beneath the earth, they hope to fund their own version of a better life, their own Gold Mountain.
他们希望利用泵和铲子从地下深处提取液体，为自己的美好生活、自己的金山提供资金。
But just as gold in the Cariboo didn't last, fortunes here have also changed.
但正如卡里布的黄金不长久一样，这里的命运也发生了变化。
As common as the sight of oil rigs and cattle ranches along the highway, was the sight of pickup trucks carrying mattresses and furniture, entire lives, as young men head east and out of the prairies.
与高速公路沿线的石油钻井平台和养牛场一样常见的是，年轻男子向东驶出草原，载着床垫和家具的皮卡，一生一世。
As I walked into the empty dining room of Thai Woks N'go in Glendon, Alta., a Buddha-faced boy lay napping in a sunny spot across two dining chairs.
当我走进阿尔伯塔省格伦登的 Thai Woks N'go 空荡荡的餐厅时，一个佛脸男孩躺在两张餐椅上，在阳光明媚的地方打盹。
At the sound of the door opening, he leaped up, eyes wide.
听到开门的声音，他猛地跳了起来，眼睛睁得大大的。
"Customer!" he shouted.
“顾客！”他喊道。
Lan Huynh, the boy's mother, said her restaurant used to be busy.
男孩的母亲兰黄 (Lan Huynh) 说，她的餐厅以前很忙。
Local oil workers were making $60 an hour (to her, an unimaginable sum) and a steady stream of customers would come in, ordering the "Chinese pierogis." Glendon has a large Ukranian population, and a sculpture across the street from the restaurant is labelled the "world's largest pierogi" – Lan serves a Chinese version, similar to regular Chinese dumplings, stuffed with meat and vegetables and deep-fried until crispy.
当地石油工人每小时挣 60 美元（对她来说，这是一个难以想象的数字），源源不断的顾客会进来订购“中国饺子”。格伦登有大量乌克兰人，餐厅街对面的一座雕塑被贴上“世界上最大的饺子”的标签——兰提供中国版本的饺子，类似于普通的中国饺子，里面塞满了肉和蔬菜，炸至酥脆。
She also serves Ukrainian ones, light and fluffy, with fried sausage, onions and sour cream.
她还提供乌克兰菜，清淡蓬松，配有炸香肠、洋葱和酸奶油。
Now many workers have been laid off.
现在很多工人都被解雇了。
The restaurant depends on the 480 people who live here year-round, most of them also feeling the oil shock.
这家餐厅依赖常年居住在这里的 480 名居民，他们中的大多数人也感受到了石油危机。
Even with business slowing down, Lan isn't convinced moving is the solution.
即使业务放缓，兰也不相信搬家是解决方案。
She believes, as do many others I spoke with, that small towns are better places for raising children.
和我交谈过的许多其他人一样，她相信小城镇是抚养孩子的更好地方。
Plus, she said, the restaurant industry in cities like Edmonton is too competitive and the cost of living too high.
另外，她说，埃德蒙顿等城市的餐饮业竞争太激烈，生活成本太高。
In Drumheller, Alta., Peter Li told me that business has dropped by about 30 per cent at Diana, his restaurant with red-vinyl booths and decorated with dragons hanging from the ceiling.
在阿尔伯塔州德兰赫勒，彼得·李 (Peter Li) 告诉我，戴安娜 (Diana) 餐厅的生意下降了约 30%，他的餐厅设有红色乙烯基摊位，天花板上悬挂着龙。
In the same period, food costs have risen.
同一时期，食品成本上涨。
"A case of broccoli is $90," he says.
“一箱西兰花要 90 美元，”他说。
"Before, it was $30."
“以前是30美元。”
Rising food prices are one reason why business is down at many chop suey restaurants in Canada.
食品价格上涨是加拿大许多杂碎餐馆生意下滑的原因之一。
One of the most popular items at Diana is uniquely Chinese-Canadian: Ginger beef.
戴安娜最受欢迎的菜品之一是加拿大华人独有的菜品：姜汁牛肉。
The dish, first created in Calgary in the 1970s, was a loose interpretation of a northern Chinese beef dish with tangerine and chilis, but sweetened and mellowed to suit Western palates.
这道菜于 20 世纪 70 年代在卡尔加里首次创制，是对中国北方牛肉菜肴的松散诠释，配有橘子和辣椒，但又甜又醇厚，以适应西方人的口味。
Despite its name, it has almost no ginger in it.
尽管它的名字如此，但它里面几乎不含姜。
"The Alberta palate was so behind that they didn't recognize sweet chili sauce," explained Tzang, the museum curator.
“艾伯塔省的味觉太落后了，他们认不出甜辣酱，”博物馆馆长曾解释道。
"They started asking for beef with 'that ginger stuff.'"
“他们开始要求牛肉加‘姜汁’。”
Li is a trained chef who has worked in some of the biggest restaurants around Beijing, but when he first arrived in Drumheller he had to learn a new repertoire of chop-suey dishes: "Egg foo young," and "lemon chicken." Compared to the food Li trained to cook – delicate Cantonese dishes, or the fiery spice mix of mapo tofu – this food is much simpler to make.
李是一位训练有素的厨师，曾在北京周边一些最大的餐厅工作过，但当他第一次到达德兰赫勒时，他必须学习一套新的炒杂碎菜肴：“鸡蛋福年轻”和“柠檬鸡”。与李受训烹饪的食物相比——精致的粤菜，或辛辣的麻婆豆腐——这种食物的制作要简单得多。
"For me, it's very easy," he said.
“对我来说，这很容易，”他说。
He's tried a few times to cook here the way he'd cooked back home, but "the people here didn't really like it." Sitting at the front counter was a jar of Lao Gan Ma chili oil – often referred to as "angry lady sauce," owing to the stern expression of the woman on the label.
他曾多次尝试按照他在家里做饭的方式在这里做饭，但“这里的人不太喜欢它。”柜台前放着一罐老干妈辣椒油——由于标签上那位女士表情严肃，因此通常被称为“愤怒女士酱”。
Li looked longingly at the jar of sauce, made of dried red chilis and numbing peppercorns steeped in oil.
李满怀渴望地看着那罐酱汁，里面是用干红辣椒和麻花椒泡在油里做成的。
Here, it was just for display.
在这里，只是为了展示。
Li has just returned from a trip back to China, where many of his former colleagues have been promoted to prestigious kitchens.
李刚刚从中国回来，他的许多前同事都被提升到著名的厨房。
He sighed.
他叹了口气。
"Before, I think Canada is pretty good, right?
“以前我觉得加拿大也不错吧？
But it's hard to make money here," he said.
但在这里赚钱很难，”他说。
Alberta isn't the only province that's struggled from oil shock, and economic downturn.
艾伯塔省并不是唯一一个遭受石油危机和经济衰退困扰的省份。
So too, has Newfoundland – where I was headed in search of Huang.
纽芬兰也是如此——我要去那里寻找黄。
Like the men in their pickup trucks, why hadn't Huang driven to another town, to the possibility of an easier life?
就像那些开着皮卡车的人一样，黄为什么不开车去另一个城镇，过上更轻松的生活呢？
Translated loosely, chop suey means assorted bits and pieces.
粗略地翻译，杂碎的意思是各种零碎的东西。
And it's the perfect dish to encapsulate how Chinese-Canadian food became a staple of small-town life
这道完美的菜肴概括了加拿大中餐如何成为小镇生活的主食
The Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay, Ont., is one of three in that city with a Chinese restaurant inside.
位于安省桑德贝的亚瑟港冰壶俱乐部是该市三个设有中餐馆的俱乐部之一。
(This is part two of a two-part series.
（这是由两部分组成的系列的第二部分。
Click here to begin with part one.
单击此处开始第一部分。
)
）
Just a few minutes after 11 a.m.
上午 11 点刚过几分钟。
on a rainy Wednesday, the lights at the Port Arthur Curling Club in Thunder Bay turned on with a click.
在一个下雨的周三，桑德贝的亚瑟港冰壶俱乐部的灯光“咔哒”一声亮了起来。
Two men dressed in fleece vests and pants shuffled onto the ice to line up their rocks.
两名穿着羊毛背心和裤子的男子拖着脚步走上冰面，排列岩石。
The day was just starting at the curling club, but in the second-floor area overlooking the rink, Norina Karschti and her staff had already been at work for hours.
冰壶俱乐部的一天刚刚开始，但在俯瞰溜冰场的二楼区域，诺丽娜·卡尔施蒂和她的工作人员已经工作了几个小时。
It was almost lunchtime at Ling Lee's Chinese Cuisine, her restaurant inside the club.
快到俱乐部里的李玲中餐厅的午餐时间了。
In the kitchen, a cook grabbed fistfuls of cooked noodles from a plastic container and dropped them into a hot wok covered with oil.
在厨房里，一名厨师从塑料容器中抓起一把煮熟的面条，然后将它们放入铺满油的热锅中。
With a practised hand, he used a metal spatula to separate the noodles, pulling sections straight up into the air, ensuring every golden stranded was kissed by the hot wok.
他熟练地用金属抹刀将面条分开，将面条直接拉到空中，确保每一根金色的面条都被热锅亲吻。
He added a few spoonfuls of MSG powder, then soy sauce.
他加了几勺味精粉，然后加了酱油。
In the dining room, regular customers grew impatient as the clock ticked closer to opening time.
随着时间临近营业时间，餐厅里的老顾客们变得不耐烦了。
They shuffled their feet.
他们拖着脚。
One, an elderly woman with a cane, sighed.
其中一位拄着拐杖的老妇人叹了口气。
If a Chinese restaurant inside a curling club seems unusual, it's not – at least in Thunder Bay.
如果说冰壶俱乐部内的一家中餐馆看起来很不寻常，那么事实并非如此——至少在桑德贝是这样。
All three of the curling clubs in the city have Chinese restaurants.
该市的三个冰壶俱乐部均设有中餐馆。
Ling Lee's was opened as an experiment in the early 1970s, the throwing together of two wildly different pursuits in a display of entrepreneurialism by the curling-club owners and the eponymous Lee.
Ling Lee's 于 20 世纪 70 年代初作为一项实验开业，冰壶俱乐部老板和同名的 Lee 将两种截然不同的追求结合在一起，展现了企业家精神。
The idea took off.
这个想法起飞了。
I arrived in Thunder Bay on the 10th day of a cross-country trip tracing the history of Canada's small-town Chinese restaurants: My planned last stop was Fogo Island, Nfld., where I hoped to meet Huang Feng Zhu, the owner of a place called Kwang Tung.
我在穿越加拿大探寻加拿大小镇中餐馆历史的跨国旅行的第十天到达桑德贝：我计划的最后一站是佛罗里达州的福戈岛，我希望在那里见到黄凤柱，他是一家叫广东的餐馆的老板。
And though Thunder Bay isn't quite a "small town," I knew I had to visit Ling Lee's after stumbling across it on Yelp, categorized as "Chinese, Ethnic Food, Skating Rinks."
虽然桑德贝并不是一个“小镇”，但在 Yelp 上偶然发现 Ling Lee’s 后，我知道我必须去参观它，它被分类为“中国、民族美食、溜冰场”。
Many older customers in Thunder Bay still remember Ling Lee, Karschti's late father who founded the restaurant in 1973.
Thunder Bay 的许多老顾客仍然记得 Karschti 已故的父亲 Ling Lee，他于 1973 年创办了这家餐厅。
Lee came to Canada in the 1950s as a teenager, following his father who arrived first and initially settled in Saskatoon.
十几岁的李在 20 世纪 50 年代跟随他的父亲来到加拿大，最初定居在萨斯卡通。
Like most of the men who wound up in Chinese restaurants, Lee did not have kitchen experience, but the work was one of his few options.
和大多数在中餐馆工作的男人一样，李没有厨房经验，但这份工作是他为数不多的选择之一。
So he improvised.
于是他即兴发挥。
He watched the other cooks around him, copying their quick movements.
他看着周围的其他厨师，模仿他们快速的动作。
He saw how they conjured up memories of foods and flavours from back home and approximated them with what was available in this new place.
他看到他们如何唤起对家乡食物和风味的记忆，并用这个新地方提供的东西来近似它们。
And, like them, he became a realist.
而且，像他们一样，他成为了一个现实主义者。
He knew his business would depend on winning over Western palates.
他知道他的生意取决于赢得西方的口味。
So, he aimed for flavours he thought would appeal to them.
因此，他瞄准了他认为能吸引他们的口味。
(Chinese immigrants weren't the only ones to "Westernize" their cuisines: Italian-American dishes, such as spaghetti with meatballs, or "Japanese" California rolls have similarly evolved into North American classics.)
（中国移民并不是唯一“西化”其美食的群体：意式美式菜肴，例如肉丸意大利面或“日本”加州卷，也同样演变成北美经典菜肴。）
Thus was born "chop suey," which translates loosely into "assorted bits and pieces." In other words, whatever is on hand.
因此诞生了“chop suey”，它可以大致翻译为“什锦零碎”。换句话说，无论手头有什么。
The consistent element of chop suey is bean sprouts.
杂碎的一贯成分是豆芽。
"It's the only thing [cooks] could reliably have wherever they were," said Linda Tzang, a curator at the Royal Alberta Museum.
“这是[厨师]无论身在何处都可以可靠拥有的唯一东西，”阿尔伯塔皇家博物馆馆长琳达·曾 (Linda Tzang) 说。
"You have a source of water, you have a bucket and you're growing bean sprouts."
“你有水源，有水桶，然后就可以种豆芽了。”
Tzang, who curated an exhibition on Chinese restaurants in the Prairies in 2013, says that many newcomers who ended up in remote towns didn't have access to the same ingredients reliably throughout the year.
曾于 2013 年策划了一场关于大草原中餐馆的展览，他说，许多最终来到偏远城镇的新移民全年都无法可靠地获得相同的食材。
This explains the popularity of dishes such as fried rice, which could be thrown together with chicken, beef or whatever happened to be in the refrigerator.
这解释了炒饭等菜肴的受欢迎，炒饭可以与鸡肉、牛肉或冰箱里的任何东西放在一起。
Instead of stir-frying or braising meats – as is common in Cantonese cuisine – cooks such as Lee dropped them into the deep-fryer.
李等厨师没有像粤菜中常见的那样炒或炖肉类，而是将它们放入油炸锅中。
And whereas Cantonese food is distinct for its delicate flavours, the chop-suey chefs coated their dishes with cornstarch-heavy sauces that were often cloyingly sweet, sour or savoury – their own interpretation of "gravy," a Western concept.
粤菜因其精致的口味而与众不同，而炒杂碎的厨师则在菜肴上涂上富含玉米淀粉的酱汁，这些酱汁通常是甜的、酸的或咸的——他们自己对“肉汁”这一西方概念的诠释。
In Thunder Bay, and at Ling Lee's, the specialty is Bon Bon ribs: pork ribs dredged in five-spice powder and MSG, deep-fried to form a crispy brown crust then spritzed with lemon.
Thunder Bay 和 Ling Lee's 的特色菜是 Bon Bon 排骨：将排骨撒上五香料粉和味精，油炸成酥脆的棕色外皮，然后撒上柠檬。
A few years ago, food historian Ian Mosby traced the origin of Western aversion to monosodium glutamate, or MSG, to a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in the mid-20th century.
几年前，食品历史学家伊恩·莫斯比 (Ian Mosby) 将西方人对谷氨酸钠 (MSG) 的厌恶根源追溯到 20 世纪中叶写给《新英格兰医学杂志》的一封信。
That letter, from a medical researcher, outlined a list of symptoms he’d experienced: numbness at the back of the neck, weakness and heart palpitations.
这封来自一位医学研究人员的信概述了他所经历的一系列症状：颈后麻木、虚弱和心悸。
The researcher posited a number of potential causes, including MSG.
研究人员提出了许多潜在的原因，其中包括味精。
The idea took off, especially after being labelled “Chinese restaurant syndrome.”
这个想法开始流行，尤其是在被贴上“中餐馆综合症”标签之后。
Today, the idea that MSG causes widespread discomfort has been largely dispelled by science.
如今，科学已经基本消除了味精引起广泛不适的观点。
Health Canada’s website states that MSG is “generally” not a health hazard and that “the safety of MSG has been reviewed by regulatory authorities and scientists worldwide, including Health Canada.”
加拿大卫生部的网站指出，味精“一般”不会危害健康，并且“味精的安全性已经过包括加拿大卫生部在内的世界各地监管机构和科学家的审查。”
But many people continue to believe in Chinese restaurant syndrome, even though, as Mosby pointed out, many other foods containing MSG are not subject to the same criticism, including Doritos, Parmesan cheese and even baby food.
但许多人仍然相信中餐馆综合症，尽管正如莫斯比指出的那样，许多其他含有味精的食品并没有受到同样的批评，包括多力多滋、帕尔马干酪，甚至婴儿食品。
“It sort of fit with longstanding racism towards Chinese immigrants,” Mr. Mosby says of the so-called syndrome.
“这有点符合长期以来针对中国移民的种族主义，”莫斯比先生谈到所谓的综合症时说道。
“It became a way to faintly articulate it without being overtly racist.”
“它成为一种隐约表达它的方式，但又不会带有明显的种族主义色彩。”
In my trip across the country, I saw countless small-town Chinese restaurants with “No MSG” signs displayed in their windows, apparently essential to attracting business.
在我的全国旅行中，我看到无数的小镇中餐馆的窗户上挂着“禁止味精”的标志，这显然是为了吸引生意。
Yet well-known chefs in big cities have signalled a change of heart on the subject.
然而，大城市的知名厨师已经表示在这个问题上改变了主意。
A few years ago, Momofuku owner David Chang gave a talk at the hugely influential MAD food symposium in defence of MSG .
几年前，百福店老板 David Chang 在影响力巨大的 MAD 食品研讨会上发表演讲，为味精辩护。
Danny Bowien, the popular chef behind Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, places salt shakers filled with the stuff in his restaurants.
旧金山 Mission Chinese Food 的大厨丹尼·鲍伊恩 (Danny Bowien) 在他的餐厅里放置了装满这些东西的盐瓶。
And restaurateur Jen Agg of Black Hoof fame has spoken widely about the use of MSG in Rhum Corner, her Haitian restaurant and cocktail bar in Toronto.
以 Black Hoof 闻名的餐厅老板 Jen Agg 广泛谈论了她在多伦多的海地餐厅和鸡尾酒吧 Rhum Corner 中使用味精的情况。
That's just one of many local specialties across the country and indeed, the continent.
这只是全国各地乃至整个非洲大陆的众多当地特产之一。
Tzang told me that in Peterborough, Ont., "deep-fried won tons" are just the skin, like a chip.
曾告诉我，在安省彼得伯勒，“炸馄饨”只是皮，就像薯条一样。
Around Ottawa, "chow mein" – which literally means "fried noodles" – is sometimes just a plate of bean sprouts.
在渥太华，“炒面”（字面意思是“炒面”）有时只是一盘豆芽。
And when I made it to Deer Lake, Nfld,.
当我到达新泽西州鹿湖时。
I would see an all-caps sign on the door of the Canton Restaurant, warnings tourists that the " chow mein on our menu is cabbage ." Owner Richard Yu explained that early Chinese cooks figured out how to thinly slice cabbage into "noodles."
我会在广东餐厅的门上看到一个全大写的标志，警告游客“我们菜单上的炒面是卷心菜”。店主理查德·余（Richard Yu）解释说，早期的中国厨师想出了如何将卷心菜切成薄片“面条”。
South of the border, Tzang said, American Chinese food also has local quirks.
曾说，在边境以南，美式中餐也有当地的特色。
In New England, they serve chow mein sandwiches.
在新英格兰，他们供应炒面三明治。
In South Dakota, little pieces of chicken – such as McDonald's McNuggets – are deep-fried, then topped with a cashew sauce.
在南达科他州，将小块鸡肉（例如麦当劳的麦乐鸡）油炸，然后在上面淋上腰果酱。
In St. Louis, Mo., egg foo young is topped with pickle and tomato slices, and sandwiched between pieces of bread, then dubbed a "St. Paul sandwich."
在密苏里州圣路易斯，芙蓉蛋上面撒上泡菜和番茄片，夹在面包片之间，被称为“圣保罗三明治”。
Of the dozens of Chinese-restaurant owners I would speak with across the country, Karschti was the only one to describe outright racism – of being called "Chink," and bullied in school.
在我在全国各地采访过的数十位中餐馆老板中，卡尔施蒂是唯一一位描述了公然种族主义的人——被称为“中国佬”，并在学校受到欺凌。
"When I look back at it now, I think, 'Oh geez, how did I survive that?'" she said.
“当我现在回想起来时，我想，‘天哪，我是怎么熬过来的？’”她说。
Yet her father's Thunder Bay restaurant became extremely popular and he began teaching cooking classes and even hosted a cooking show on a local cable-TV station.
然而，她父亲的桑德贝餐厅变得非常受欢迎，他开始教授烹饪课程，甚至在当地有线电视台主持烹饪节目。
Karschti has run Ling Lee's on her own since Lee's death five years ago.
自从五年前李去世后，卡什蒂就独自经营着李的餐厅。
When she was growing up, a few other Chinese kids in town also had parents who ran restaurants.
在她成长的过程中，镇上其他一些中国孩子的父母也经营餐馆。
Those kids have grown up and moved on; Karschti is the only one who stayed in the business.
那些孩子已经长大并继续前进； Karschti 是唯一留在公司的人。
"I'm going to continue on," she said.
“我会继续前进，”她说。
"Keep going in his honour."
“为了他的荣誉，继续前进。”
At exactly 11:30 a.m., a waitress with short dark hair walked over to the buffet line, reaching under the sneeze guard to switch each of the lights on with a click.
上午 11 点 30 分整，一位留着黑色短发的女服务员走到自助餐排队处，把手伸到喷嚏防护罩下面，咔哒一声打开了每盏灯。
The buffet was open.
自助餐是开放的。
But she didn't have to tell the customers.
但她不必告诉顾客。
Some were already waiting, plates in hand.
有些人已经拿着盘子在等着了。
The fried macaroni Ann Hui ordered from Restaurant Lachute Holiday in Lachute, Que.
Ann Hui 在魁北克省 Lachute 的 Lachute Holiday 餐厅订购的炸通心粉。
From Thunder Bay, I made the long drive through Northern Ontario, past remote communities of rusty, abandoned trailers and shuttered motel buildings.
从桑德贝出发，我长途驾车穿过安大略省北部，经过一些偏远社区，那里有生锈的废弃拖车和关闭的汽车旅馆大楼。
The next day, I continued east into Quebec, to a town near Montreal called Lachute.
第二天，我继续向东进入魁北克，到达蒙特利尔附近一个叫拉楚特的小镇。
A few years ago, it came dead-last in a MoneySense magazine ranking of 200 Canadian towns in which to live, largely because of a lagging population and relatively low incomes.
几年前，它在 MoneySense 杂志对加拿大 200 个适宜居住城镇的排名中名列最后，主要是因为人口滞后和收入相对较低。
There, I met Zhang Guang Xiu, the owner of Restaurant Lachute Holiday, who had on his menu a dish I'd never come across before: "fried macaroni."
在那里，我遇到了拉楚特假日餐厅的老板张光秀，他的菜单上有一道我以前从未见过的菜：“炸通心粉”。
"It's like stir-fried noodles, but macaroni," Zhang explained to me in Cantonese.
“这就像炒面，但是通心粉，”张用粤语向我解释道。
He said the beef version was particularly popular, so I ordered it to go.
他说牛肉版特别受欢迎，所以我点了一份。
As I waited for my food, Zhang explained how he wound up in Lachute.
当我等待食物时，张解释了他是如何来到拉楚特的。
He came to Canada from Guangdong in 1990, and has spent all of his time here working in Chinese restaurants around Montreal, supporting his wife and three kids.
1990年，他从广东来到加拿大，一直在蒙特利尔附近的中餐馆打工，养活妻子和三个孩子。
It took him 26 years – until last year – to save up the hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy this restaurant.
他花了26年时间——直到去年——才攒下数十万美元买下这家餐厅。
Within the first month, he knew it wouldn't be profitable.
在第一个月内，他就知道这不会盈利。
When Fred Wong left China in 1922 he was so poor he couldn’t afford shoes.
1922 年，当 Fred Wong 离开中国时，他穷得买不起鞋子。
By the time of his 1998 death, he left behind a small empire for his family: several gift shops, apartment buildings, and his flagship restaurant, Restaurant Wong in Old Quebec.
1998 年去世时，他为家人留下了一个小帝国：几家礼品店、公寓楼和他位于魁北克老城的旗舰餐厅 Restaurant Wong。
But business hasn’t always been easy.
但做生意并不总是一帆风顺。
In the 1990s, the popularity of “buffet” or “smorgasbord” Chinese restaurants came at the expense of a la carte restaurants like Mr. Wong’s.
20世纪90年代，“自助餐”或“自助餐”中餐馆的流行是以黄先生的点菜餐厅为代价的。
“People didn’t want to pay for food.
“人们不想为食物付钱。
They didn’t see the point in paying even $10 for a plate when they could have all-you-can-eat for $13,” said Steven Wong, Mr. Wong’s grandson who now runs the restaurant.
“他们不认为花 10 美元买一盘菜有什么意义，因为他们可以花 13 美元吃到饱。”黄先生的孙子、现在经营这家餐厅的史蒂文·黄 (Steven Wong) 说。
Even these days, the younger Wong says, the restaurant struggles to find a balance between catering to tourists and the city’s dwindling Chinese population.
年轻的黄说，即使是现在，这家餐厅仍在努力在迎合游客和该市不断减少的中国人口之间找到平衡。
Still, he’s determined to keep the business running.
尽管如此，他还是决心让公司继续运营。
“My grandfather, he had nothing when he came to Canada,” he said.
“我的祖父来到加拿大时一无所有，”他说。
“I don’t want everything that he’d worked for just to disappear.”
“我不希望他为之奋斗的一切都消失。”
By the third month, he put the place up for sale.
到了第三个月，他就把这个地方挂牌出售。
"I wasn't able to pay myself," he said in a quiet voice.
“我付不起自己的钱，”他轻声说道。
It's now been nine months, with no offers.
现在已经九个月了，还没有收到任何offer。
Ideally, Zhang would like to go back to Guangdong, where the friends he grew up with are flourishing in the new Chinese economy.
最理想的是，张很想回到广东，那里和他一起长大的朋友们在新中国经济中蓬勃发展。
But his children are still in school.
但他的孩子们仍在上学。
He'll have to wait at least 10 years before he can move back to China.
他至少要等10年才能搬回中国。
As I began to walk toward the door, he left me with a parting warning: "Whatever you do, don't open a restaurant." He shook his head.
当我开始向门口走去时，他给我留下了临别警告：“无论你做什么，都不要开餐馆。”他摇摇头。
"You can't make money opening a restaurant."
“开餐馆是赚不到钱的。”
I got back into the car and opened the takeout container of fried macaroni.
我回到车上，打开炸通心粉的外卖盒。
Unlike most of the other restaurants I'd visited so far, Zhang's had given me chopsticks, and not just a plastic fork.
与我迄今为止去过的大多数其他餐厅不同，张餐厅给了我筷子，而不仅仅是塑料叉子。
The pasta was overcooked.
意大利面煮得太熟了。
But the dish had wok hay , or "breath of the wok" – a prized, elusive quality, the mark of searing high heat and a well-seasoned wok.
但这道菜有炒锅干草，或“炒锅的气息”——一种珍贵的、难以捉摸的品质，是灼热高温和调味良好的炒锅的标志。
It tasted like the food of my childhood, of the pan-fried rice noodles with beef and onion my own mother would buy from Hon's restaurant in Vancouver's Chinatown or Penny on East Hastings.
它尝起来就像我小时候吃的食物，是我妈妈从温哥华唐人街的 Hon's 餐厅或东黑斯廷斯的 Penny 买的牛肉和洋葱炒米粉。
It was good, enjoyable in the same way that chop-suey cuisine is for those who grew up with chicken balls and sweet-and-sour pork.
这很好吃，很享受，就像炒杂碎菜适合那些吃着鸡肉丸和糖醋肉长大的人一样。
Saigon’s Garden, in Nackawic, N.B., is closed on Mondays so its owner can gather with fellow Chinese restaurant operators and learn more about the cuisine.
位于新不伦瑞克州纳卡威克的西贡花园每周一关闭，以便店主可以与其他中餐馆经营者聚会并了解有关美食的更多信息。
As I bounced along from British Columbia to central Canada, I'd gradually come to understand how, as chop-suey restaurants spread across this country, so too did the repertoire of dishes.
当我从不列颠哥伦比亚省一路颠簸到加拿大中部时，我逐渐了解到，随着炒杂碎餐馆遍布全国，菜肴的种类也随之增多。
As families migrated, opening new cafés across the country and continent, workers took with them the recipes they'd learned at previous jobs, which is partly why the standards of chop-suey Chinese remain so consistent across North America.
随着家庭迁移，在全国和大陆各地开设新的咖啡馆，工人们带走了他们在以前工作中学到的食谱，这就是为什么中式杂碎的标准在整个北美保持如此一致的部分原因。
Or, as I had seen in Boissevain, Man., recipes were bought and sold as part of the business.
或者，正如我在马萨诸塞州布瓦斯万所看到的那样，食谱的买卖是业务的一部分。
There, Li Su Fen of Choy's Restaurant had explained that when she and her husband bought the place, the previous owners spent a month teaching them the ins and outs – everything from how to fill out the bill slips to lessons on cooking every single item on the menu.
在那里，蔡氏餐厅的李素芬解释说，当她和丈夫买下这家店时，前任老板花了一个月的时间教他们细节——从如何填写账单到如何烹饪菜单上的每一项菜品。
Eventually, I arrived in picturesque Nackawic, N.B., a 1,000-person town set along the banks of the Saint John River, where 22-year-old Gen Le told me about his Monday-night meetings.
最终，我到达了风景如画的新布拉州纳卡威克，这是一个位于圣约翰河沿岸、拥有 1,000 人的小镇，22 岁的勒将军在那里向我讲述了他周一晚上的会议。
Every Monday, Le explained, his restaurant Saigon's Garden is closed, so he spends the evening hanging out with a group of friends.
Le 解释说，每周一，他的西贡花园餐厅都会关门，所以他晚上会和一群朋友一起出去玩。
But this isn't a group of any ordinary friends.
但这不是一群普通的朋友。
These are the Chinese restaurant owners in most of the nearby New Brunswick towns – Woodstock, Florenceville and Saint-Quentin.
这些人是附近新不伦瑞克省大部分城镇——伍德斯托克、弗洛伦斯维尔和圣康坦——的中餐馆老板。
At these gatherings, they unwind, trade stories and also teach each other how to cook.
在这些聚会上，他们放松身心，交流故事，还互相教彼此如何烹饪。
Like most of the Gold Mountain men who first started these restaurants, many of the owners (including Le's parents, who moved from Vietnam to Montreal in 1980) came to the Chinese-restaurant business not as trained cooks but as new immigrants needing jobs.
和大多数最初开办这些餐馆的金山人一样，许多老板（包括 1980 年从越南搬到蒙特利尔的 Le 的父母）并不是作为受过训练的厨师而是作为需要工作的新移民进入中餐馆行业的。
So they used the meetings to learn the trade.
因此他们利用会议来学习这一行业。
For Le, these meetings are especially valuable, since he didn't even grow up around Chinese food.
对于乐来说，这些会面尤其有价值，因为他甚至不是在中国菜的陪伴下长大的。
Le's family is ethnically Vietnamese – hence the restaurant's name.
Le 的家族是越南人，这家餐厅因此得名。
"Nobody knows what Vietnamese is," he said.
“没有人知道越南语是什么，”他说。
Besides, he added, while sitting in the dining room of his restaurant, "this food isn't like, real Chinese food." He said this a little too loudly, causing customers at a nearby table to glance over.
此外，他坐在餐厅的餐厅里补充道，“这食物不像真正的中国菜。”他说得有点太大声了，引得旁边一桌的顾客都看了过来。
"It's what people like.
“这就是人们喜欢的。
So it's what we make."
所以这就是我们做的。”
In 2006, his parents moved from Montreal to Nackawic to take over the restaurant from a friend.
2006年，他的父母从蒙特利尔搬到纳卡威克，从朋友手中接管了这家餐厅。
But as Le's parents have gotten older, they can no longer tolerate the gruelling work.
但随着乐的父母年事已高，他们再也无法忍受繁重的工作。
So now, he runs Saigon's Garden with his older sister.
所以现在，他和姐姐一起经营西贡花园。
He's also a full-time accounting student at nearby New Brunswick Community College.
他还是附近新不伦瑞克社区学院的全日制会计学生。
"My mom doesn't want me to be here forever," he said matter-of-factly.
“我妈妈不希望我永远留在这里，”他实事求是地说。
"But we need the restaurant to support them."
“但我们需要餐厅来支持他们。”
As I neared the East Coast, getting closer to Fogo Island, I began to worry about the fact that I had not called in advance.
当我接近东海岸，离福戈岛越来越近时，我开始担心自己没有提前打电话。
It was the same approach I had used for most of the restaurants so far: It was easier to explain the purpose of my visit in person.
到目前为止，我在大多数餐厅都采用了同样的方法：更容易亲自解释我来访的目的。
But not calling ahead came with its own risks: What if Huang was off sick?
但不提前打电话也有风险：如果黄生病请假怎么办？
What if I had come all this way just to find the restaurant closed?
如果我千里迢迢来到这里只是发现餐厅关门了怎么办？
Little did I know I was about to face a more pressing problem: I had arrived on the Atlantic coast just in time for an April snowstorm.
我几乎不知道我即将面临一个更紧迫的问题：我到达大西洋海岸时正值四月的暴风雪。
As soon as I crossed into Nova Scotia, it began to snow.
我一进入新斯科舍省，就开始下雪了。
The drive to Cape Breton Island, which should have taken four hours, took eight.
前往布雷顿角岛的车程本应需要四个小时，但实际上花了八个小时。
And by the time I arrived in Sydney that night, I learned that the ferry to Newfoundland had been delayed because of the storm.
那天晚上我到达悉尼时，我得知前往纽芬兰的渡轮因为暴风雨而延误了。
I'd now be on the overnight ferry.
我现在就在过夜的渡轮上。
I began to worry that I might not reach Fogo after all.
我开始担心我最终可能无法到达福戈。
Even once I arrived in Gander, I realized, there was no guarantee the ferry to Fogo Island – known for frequent shutdowns – would run in this weather.
我意识到，即使到达甘德后，也不能保证前往以频繁停运而闻名的福戈岛的渡轮在这种天气下还能运行。
I had planned this trip around Fogo Island, carefully designing a route that would leave Kwang Tung Restaurant as the final destination.
我计划了这次福古岛之旅，精心设计了一条以广东餐厅为最终目的地的路线。
I was still haunted by the photo of Huang, of the idea of this woman living alone on this remote island, and hated the idea of not being able to meet her.
我仍然被黄的照片所困扰，想起这个女人独自生活在这个偏远岛屿上的想法，并且讨厌无法见到她的想法。
Sure enough, the ferry to Fogo was not operating the next day.
果然，第二天前往福戈的渡轮停运了。
I would have to fly as one of only three passengers in a 20-seat Twin Otter aircraft the provincial government had chartered as a replacement.
我必须作为仅有的三名乘客之一乘坐省政府包租的 20 座双水獭飞机作为替代飞机。
For the short 20-minute flight, looking down on the frozen Newfoundland coast and the dark, gloomy Atlantic, this seemed like it might have been a fortuitous turn of events.
在短短 20 分钟的飞行中，俯瞰着冰冻的纽芬兰海岸和黑暗阴郁的大西洋，这似乎是一个偶然的事件。
But as soon as I landed at the Fogo airport – a generous description for a one-room, shipping-container-like building in the middle of what felt like frozen tundra – I realized I had a problem.
但当我降落在福戈机场时——这是一个慷慨的描述，是一座位于冰冻苔原中间、只有一个房间、像集装箱一样的建筑——我意识到我遇到了问题。
Flying instead of taking the ferry had left me without a car.
由于乘坐飞机而不是乘坐渡轮，我没有车。
Nowhere in sight was there a bus, rental car or taxi to take me the roughly 10-minute drive to the community of Fogo.
看不到任何公共汽车、租车或出租车可以带我开车大约 10 分钟到达福戈社区。
The one number I did have for a taxi service turned out to have been out of service since 2013.
我曾经拥有的一个出租车服务号码自 2013 年起就不再使用了。
Everywhere around me were frozen fields and trees.
我周围到处都是冰冻的田野和树木。
Walking to the Fogo community would be a stupid idea.
步行去福戈社区是个愚蠢的主意。
It was cold.
天气很冷。
I was stranded.
我被困住了。
I turned to the man standing behind me inside the one-room terminal.
我转向站在单间航站楼内我身后的那个人。
Did he know anyone I might be able to hire to drive me around for the day?
他认识我可以雇用的人来开车送我一天吗？
He furrowed his brow, and thought for a second.
他皱起眉头，沉思片刻。
Then he asked a small group behind him.
然后他向身后的一小群人问道。
Within seconds, a man's voice piped up.
几秒钟后，一个男人的声音响起。
"You can take our car," said an older man with greying hair as he walked toward me, holding up his keys.
“你可以开我们的车。”一位头发花白的老人举起钥匙向我走来，说道。
His wife stood behind him.
他的妻子站在他身后。
I was in disbelief.
我简直不敢相信。
Was he serious?
他是认真的吗？
Could I pay him?
我可以付钱给他吗？
Wasn't he afraid I would steal his car?
他就不怕我偷他的车吗？
He just laughed, and shook his head.
他只是笑了笑，摇了摇头。
"You wouldn't have anywhere to go with it," he said.
“你不会有任何地方可去，”他说。
I drove up Route 333, past untouched snow and ponds frozen over into thick sheets of ice, into the tiny community of Fogo with its saltbox houses.
我沿着 333 号公路行驶，经过未受破坏的积雪和结成厚厚冰层的池塘，进入福戈小社区及其盐箱房屋。
Just like in the photograph, there was Kwang Tung, with its faded Pepsi sign.
就像照片中一样，那里是广东，百事可乐的标志已经褪色。
I pulled open the door to find a room filled with tables covered in red tablecloths and clear vinyl.
我拉开门，发现一个房间里摆满了桌子，桌子上铺着红色桌布和透明乙烯基。
It was quiet, devoid of customers, but as I walked further in, I could hear from the kitchen the sound of a wok hissing and a metal spatula clanging against steel.
店里很安静，没有顾客，但当我再往里走时，我能听到厨房里传来炒锅的嘶嘶声和金属抹刀与钢铁的碰撞声。
The dim kitchen was separated from the dining room with just a folding accordion door.
昏暗的厨房与餐厅仅用一扇折叠门隔开。
Inside was a middle-aged woman with short black hair, dressed in a red sweater and a pink crocheted vest.
里面是一名黑色短发的中年妇女，穿着红色毛衣和粉色钩编背心。
It was Huang.
原来是黄啊
With her back turned to me and the range hood roaring in the background, she worked to tame a mess of fried egg noodles in a wok, her gold earrings swaying as she wielded the spatula back and forth.
她背对着我，背景是抽油烟机的轰鸣声，她在锅里煮着一团乱七八糟的煎鸡蛋面，来回挥动抹刀时，她的金耳环在晃动。
When I spoke to her, initially in English, she looked confused, thumbing my business card in her palm nervously.
当我最初用英语与她交谈时，她看起来很困惑，紧张地把我的名片放在手掌上。
But then I introduced myself in Cantonese and her face relaxed.
但当我用粤语自我介绍时，她的表情放松了。
Her Cantonese had an accent, which I recognized as coming from the Toisan county in Guangdong.
她的粤语有口音，我听出是广东台山县的口音。
Though she's lived in Canada 26 years, she said, she speaks only a little English – just enough to understand customers' orders.
她说，虽然她在加拿大生活了 26 年，但她只会说一点英语——足以理解顾客的订单。
"They just say what they want to eat, I give them their food and then they leave," she said.
“他们只是说想吃什么，我给他们食物，然后他们就离开，”她说。
She stirred a pot of red sauce on the stove as she spoke.
她一边说着，一边搅拌着炉子上的一锅红酱。
Every so often, she wandered over to a table in the centre of the room, taking sips from a can of root beer.
她时不时地走到房间中央的一张桌子旁，喝一罐根汁汽水。
She grabbed some vegetables from the refrigerator, and threw them in the hot wok.
她从冰箱里抓起一些蔬菜，扔进热锅里。
She didn't come to Fogo alone, she said.
她说，她并不是一个人来到福戈的。
Things just turned out this way.
事情就变成这样了。
In 1990, she, her husband and two daughters came from Toisan to work at Kwang Tung for her brother-in-law.
1990年，她与丈夫和两个女儿从台山来到广东为姐夫打工。
At first, they all lived here together.
起初，他们都一起住在这里。
But then the chance came up to take over their very own restaurant, on the other side of the water in Twillingate.
但后来有机会接管他们自己的餐厅，位于水对岸的特威林盖特。
So they moved there.
所以他们搬到了那里。
A few years after that, her brother-in-law was ready to give up Kwang Tung, so they decided to run both restaurants.
几年后，她的姐夫准备放弃广东，所以他们决定经营两家餐厅。
By then, they'd had a third child, a son – their very own "Fogo boy," as they nicknamed him.
那时，他们已经有了第三个孩子，一个儿子——他们自己的“福戈男孩”，他们给他起了个绰号。
Two restaurants meant two incomes, and a better future for these three children.
两家餐馆意味着两份收入，对这三个孩子来说意味着更好的未来。
So what if it meant living apart?
那么如果这意味着分居呢？
She and the children moved to Fogo, and her husband stayed in Twillingate.
她和孩子们搬到了福戈，她的丈夫留在了特威林盖特。
For 15 years, they've lived like this, apart.
15年来，他们就这样分开生活。
"How many times each week do you see your husband?" I asked.
“你每周见你丈夫几次？”我问。
Her eyes widened, and she laughed.
她睁大了眼睛，笑了起来。
"One week?
“一周？
You should ask me how many times I see him in one year.
你应该问我一年见他多少次。
About 10." Visits mean closing one of the restaurants, which neither likes to do.
大约10个。”拜访意味着关闭其中一家餐厅，而这两者都不喜欢这样做。
"Now, the kids are grown up, and they've all left.
“现在，孩子们都长大了，都离开了。
It's just me who is left here now." The oldest daughter works in Halifax and recently gave birth to Huang's first grandchild.
现在只剩下我一个人留在这里了。”大女儿在哈利法克斯工作，最近生下了黄的第一个孙子。
The second daughter is a physical therapist in Toronto and the youngest just finished university in St. John's.
二女儿是多伦多的物理治疗师，最小的女儿刚刚在圣约翰大学毕业。
I asked if she was lonely and she gave it some thought.
我问她是否孤独，她想了想。
"Mmm, for someone like me, whose standards are not very high, the lifestyle here is quite steady," she said.
“嗯，对于我这种标准不是很高的人来说，这里的生活还是比较稳定的。”她说道。
Besides, she added, she doesn't like crowds.
此外，她补充说，她不喜欢人群。
"Maybe the lifestyle here is right for my personality." She had two friends on the island, a couple.
“也许这里的生活方式适合我的性格。”她在岛上有两个朋友，一对夫妇。
The man sometimes gave her rides to the store, or fixed things around the restaurant, while his girlfriend occasionally waited tables.
这名男子有时会载她去商店，或者修理餐厅周围的东西，而他的女朋友偶尔会去服务员。
As we spoke, the phone in the kitchen kept ringing.
说话间，厨房里的电话一直响个不停。
"Hello, restaurant," Huang would say into the receiver.
“你好，餐厅，”黄会对着听筒说。
Each time, she had a short conversation, then returned.
每次，她都会进行简短的交谈，然后返回。
The third or fourth time, she paused for a moment.
第三次、第四次的时候，她停顿了一下。
We'd been speaking for well over an hour and she had something she wanted to share.
我们已经聊了一个多小时，她有一些话想分享。
"It's my 55th birthday today," she said, smiling shyly.
“今天是我 55 岁生日，”她害羞地微笑着说道。
That's why the phone kept ringing – relatives calling from abroad to wish her a happy birthday.
这就是为什么电话一直响——亲戚从国外打来祝她生日快乐。
I asked if she had plans to celebrate and she said no. I asked if there would be cake, and she just laughed, as if the thought never occurred to her.
我问她是否打算庆祝，她说没有。我问是否有蛋糕，她只是笑了，好像她从来没有想过这个想法。
Like any other day, she said, she'd work.
她说，就像其他日子一样，她要工作。
In 15 years, the restaurant has only been closed five times: Once when she was sick and the other times to visit her children.
15年来，这家餐厅只关过五次：一次是她生病时，另一次是她探望孩子时。
Otherwise, it's open 365 days a year.
否则，它一年 365 天都开放。
Like any other day, she'd close around midnight, prepare her own dinner, watch some television and go to bed.
像其他日子一样，她会在午夜左右关门，准备自己的晚餐，看电视然后上床睡觉。
Her husband had planned to visit for her birthday, but couldn't when the weather meant a cancelled ferry.
她的丈夫原计划去拜访她庆祝生日，但由于天气原因导致渡轮取消而未能成行。
She did have a free-range chicken that he had brought on a previous visit.
她确实有一只他上次来时带来的散养鸡。
She'd been saving it in her freezer for a month now, but perhaps she would have it that night.
她已经把它放在冰箱里一个月了，但也许那天晚上她就能拿到它。
A treat.
一种享受。
Huang knows that others might look at her sacrifices, and her simple life, as unusual.
黄知道其他人可能会认为她的牺牲和她简单的生活不同寻常。
"Am I crazy?" she asked, then laughed.
“我疯了吗？”她问道，然后笑了起来。
But she can't imagine any other way.
但她无法想象任何其他的方式。
As she spoke, she gestured with her hands – hardened from years of cooking, callused so that her children's wouldn't have to be.
当她说话时，她用双手做了个手势——由于多年的烹饪而变得坚硬，长满了老茧，这样她孩子们的手就不会这样了。
Now that their kids are grown, she and her husband are starting to plan for their future.
现在孩子已经长大了，她和丈夫开始规划自己的未来。
There's talk of him moving back to Fogo, or even the two of them away from Newfoundland, closer to their kids.
有传言说他要搬回福戈，甚至他们两人都要离开纽芬兰，离他们的孩子更近。
"They don't like me being here by myself," she said.
“他们不喜欢我一个人在这里，”她说。
"They say I'm getting older, and if anything happens, nobody will know."
“他们说我年纪大了，如果发生什么事情，没有人会知道。”
Huang led me to the apartment behind the kitchen.
黄领我到厨房后面的公寓。
The living room where the family used to gather is now filled with storage from the restaurant – spare light bulbs and stacks of Styrofoam takeout containers.
过去一家人聚集的客厅现在堆满了餐厅的储藏室——备用灯泡和成堆的聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料外卖容器。
She wanted to show me photos of the kids: one daughter's graduation photo, the other smiling in a dress at a formal.
她想给我看孩子们的照片：一个女儿的毕业照，另一个女儿穿着裙子在礼服上微笑。
There were no photos of herself or her husband.
没有她自己或她丈夫的照片。
As she held up her children's photos, pointing proudly at their smiling faces, she could have been any of the restaurant owners I had met, any of the families who had shared their stories on my 18-day journey.
当她举起孩子们的照片，自豪地指着他们的笑脸时，她可能是我见过的任何一家餐馆老板，也可能是在我 18 天的旅程中分享他们故事的任何一个家庭。
Near the beginning of my trip, University of British Columbia professor Henry Yu had told me this would be the case.
在我的旅行开始时，不列颠哥伦比亚大学教授亨利于告诉我情况会是这样。
"It's all about the families," he said.
“这都是关于家庭的，”他说。
He had been right.
他是对的。
I had come all this way to meet Huang, wanting to hear the story behind this mysterious restaurant on this mysterious island.
我千里迢迢来见黄老师，就是想听听这个神秘岛上的神秘餐厅背后的故事。
I had come to Fogo knowing she lived alone, in the most isolated way I could possibly imagine.
我来到福戈时知道她独自一人生活，这是我能想象到的最与世隔绝的方式。
I had expected to hear tales of unimaginable loneliness.
我原以为会听到难以想象的孤独故事。
But as she spoke about her son's graduation, her daughters' accomplishments and her visit to see her grandchild, she lit up.
但当她谈到儿子的毕业典礼、女儿们的成就以及去看望孙子时，她的脸上露出了笑容。
She was smiling, tilting her head back and laughing.
她微笑着，把头向后仰，大笑起来。
Her heart was full, and she was happy.
她的心很充实，她很幸福。
She was the happiest woman I had ever seen.
她是我见过的最幸福的女人。