Longreads Best of 2017: Food Writing

We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here is the best in food writing.

这是最好的美食写作。

Mayukh SenStaff writer, Vice

Mayukh Sen副编剧

## Can Local Food Help Appalachia Build a Post-Coal Future?

## 当地食品能否帮助阿巴拉契亚建设后煤炭时代的未来？

(Sarah Jones, The Nation)

（莎拉·琼斯，《国家报》）

Jones has been one of my favorite writers to emerge from the shitstorm that is the Trump presidency, so I was quite happy to see The Nation’s Food Issue publish her look at Appalachian food: the baggage it’s so unjustly carried, where it’s headed, and who’s doing the work to steer it in that direction.

琼斯是我最喜欢的从特朗普总统任期内脱颖而出的作家之一，所以我很高兴看到《国家食品问题》发表了她对阿巴拉契亚食品的看法：它如此不公正地承载的包袱，它的发展方向，以及谁正在努力引导它朝这个方向发展。

She interrogates the language of “trash” that has followed the region’s people and what they eat, and she does so beautifully.

她质疑了该地区人民及其饮食中的“垃圾”语言，她做得非常漂亮。

Her voice is clear, engaging, and tempered with compassion.

她的声音清晰、迷人、充满同情心。

The vast majority of food writing is fearfully not much further than center-of-left, which makes Jones’ piece extremely refreshing.

可怕的是，绝大多数美食写作都在左中线附近，这使得琼斯的文章极其令人耳目一新。

It’s a marvelous piece and a reminder that some of the most exciting, relevant food writing will live outside food publications unless they step up their game.

这是一篇精彩的文章，它提醒我们，一些最令人兴奋、最相关的美食文章将不会出现在食品出版物之外，除非他们加大力度。

Silvia KillingsworthEditor of The Awl

西尔维娅·基林斯沃思《锥子》杂志编辑

## Angela Dimayuga Is Here From the Future to Save Us All, (Dayna Evans, Eater)

## 安吉拉·迪马尤加 (Angela Dimayuga) 来自未来来拯救我们所有人（戴娜·埃文斯 (Dayna Evans)，《食者》)

Evans on Angela Dimayuga is such a good double whammy of women who are killing it in their respective fields, not by sucking up to the status quo but by being true to themselves.

埃文斯对安吉拉·迪马尤加（Angela Dimayuga）的评价是对在各自领域中杀戮的女性的双重打击，不是通过迎合现状，而是通过忠于自己。

The headline here is no exaggeration—remember that line from “Broad City” where Ilana says, “statistically, we’re headed toward an age where everyone is going to be, like, caramel and queer”?

这里的标题一点也不夸张——还记得伊拉娜在《大城》中说的那句台词吗？“从统计数据来看，我们正在走向一个每个人都会成为焦糖和酷儿的时代”？

It’s both fact and joke, and it echoes the “luscious-meets-sexy-meets-wacky vibe” that Dimayuga embodies.

这既是事实又是笑话，它呼应了 Dimayuga 所体现的“甜美遇见性感遇见古怪的氛围”。

Evans writes that many of Dimayuga’s colleagues and collaborators think of her as more of an artist than a chef, which is not to diminish her incredible food, but to champion her natural inclination to see everything as interdisciplinary, from food to fashion to race.

埃文斯写道，迪马尤加的许多同事和合作者认为她更像是一位艺术家而不是厨师，这并不是要贬低她令人难以置信的食物，而是支持她将一切视为跨学科的自然倾向，从食物到时尚到种族。

She talks about Mission Chinese as a queer restaurant, which in our current environment of sexual harassment reckonings.

她谈到 Mission Chinese 是一家酷儿餐厅，在我们当前的性骚扰环境中。

is a pretty incredible concept to see flourish.

这是一个非常令人难以置信的蓬勃发展的概念。

Evans nails a profile of a seemingly uncategorizable person by exploring her resistance to categories and generalizations, which makes Evans more than just a writer, but a thinker.

埃文斯通过探索她对分类和概括的抵制，描绘了一个看似无法分类的人的形象，这使埃文斯不仅仅是一个作家，而且是一个思想家。

A good profile will give you a sense of what someone is like; a great profile will show you why.

良好的个人资料可以让您了解某人的性格；出色的个人资料会告诉您原因。

Laura MarshLiterary editor, The New Republic

劳拉·马什《新共和》文学编辑

## Christ in the Garden of Endless Breadsticks (Helen Rosner, Eater)

## 无尽面包棒花园中的基督（海伦·罗斯纳，《食者》）

I love all the writing Eater has been publishing about the lives of chain restaurants, places designed to be the same all over (or carefully calibrated by a central committee to flick at local tastes) that still end up being the sites for personal experiences.

我喜欢 Eater 发表的所有关于连锁餐厅生活的文章，这些地方的设计都是一样的（或者由中央委员会仔细校准以适应当地口味），但最终仍然是个人体验的场所。

But Helen’s Rosner’s essay on Olive Garden is particularly great.

但海伦·罗斯纳关于橄榄园的文章尤其精彩。

It reminds me of George Orwell’s description of his perfect pub in his essay “The Moon Under Water.” Rosner has an ideal “personal Olive Garden,” but she’s also a student of Olive Gardens, and therefore of America.

这让我想起乔治·奥威尔在他的文章《水下的月亮》中对他完美酒吧的描述。罗斯纳有一个理想的“个人橄榄园”，但她也是橄榄园的学生，因此也是美国的学生。

And what is not to love about an essay about cheap Italian food that begins with a long lede about Gauguin?

一篇关于廉价意大利食品的文章，开头是一篇关于高更的长篇文章，有什么理由不让人喜欢呢？

Jason DiamondAuthor of Searching for John Hughes Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know about Life I Learned from Watching ’80s Movies and the founder of Vol. 1 Brooklyn

贾森·戴蒙德（Searching for John Hughes Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life I Learned from Watching 80s Movies）一书的作者，也是《寻找约翰·休斯》（Searching for John Hughes）或《我从观看 80 年代电影中学到的关于生活的一切》（Searching for John Hughes Or Everything I Thought I Needed to Know About Life I Learned from Watching 80s Movies）一书的作者，也是《Vol. 1》的创始人。 1 布鲁克林

## An Elegy for Dallas Strip Mall Restaurants (Mallika Rao, Food & Wine)

## 达拉斯大道购物中心餐厅的挽歌（Mallika Rao，美食与美酒）

America takes more than it gives.

美国索取的多于给予的。

The Indian restaurants Rao used to go to, the ones located in overlooked strip malls on the outskirts of big Texas cities, serve as an example of this.

拉奥经常去的印度餐馆就是一个例子，这些餐馆位于得克萨斯州大城市郊区被忽视的商业街里。

Once a tie to her community and culture, they either became fetishized by culinary explorers or are forgotten by the younger generation who are, “opening restaurants using Texas flavors and American marketing — no sudden phulkas or honor payments,” like the Indian restaurants she grew up sneaking into.

它们曾经与她的社区和文化息息相关，要么被烹饪探索者所迷恋，要么被年轻一代所遗忘，他们“用德克萨斯风味和美国营销方式开设餐厅——没有突然的普卡或荣誉付款”，就像她从小到大偷偷去的印度餐馆一样。

Those were the places where, “To eat was to fantasize, as if watching a movie about teens in India; we tapped the live heart of a country where we looked like everyone else, where we could be part of instead of standing outside.”

在这些地方，“吃饭就是幻想，就像看一部关于印度青少年的电影一样；我们挖掘了这个国家的活力，在那里我们看起来和其他人一样，我们可以成为其中的一部分，而不是站在外面。”

## Learning to Love Dill, Russia’s Ubiquitous Herb (Talia Lavin, The New Yorker)

## 学会爱莳萝，俄罗斯随处可见的药草（Talia Lavin，《纽约客》）

The way some people get excited when they smell freshly baked cookies or pies is how I get when there’s some vegetable or herb others might consider stinky floating in the air.

有些人在闻到新鲜出炉的饼干或馅饼的味道时会感到兴奋，就像我在空气中漂浮着其他人可能认为发臭的蔬菜或香草时的感受一样。

Garlic in the oven, onions frying, but especially dill; I love dill.

烤箱里的大蒜，煎洋葱，尤其是莳萝；我喜欢莳萝。

I love pickles, I love a few sprigs on top of a bowl of chicken soup, and I love potato chips flavored with it.

我喜欢泡菜，我喜欢在一碗鸡汤上放几根小枝，我喜欢用它调味的薯片。

Talia Lavin paid my favorite herb tribute leading up to the Jewish High Holidays earlier this year, and I’ve been trying to get people to read it if they haven’t ever since.

塔莉亚·拉文 (Talia Lavin) 在今年早些时候的犹太节日前向我最喜欢的香草致敬，从那以后我一直在努力让人们阅读这本书，如果他们还没有读过的话。

Stretching from Eastern Europe to New York City, it’s about dill as much as it is about connecting to the past.

从东欧延伸到纽约市，它既与莳萝有关，也与过去联系在一起。

After visiting the birthplace of the Ba’al Shem Tov, then the small Ukrainian village her grandfather came from.

参观了 Ba’al Shem Tov 的出生地后，参观了她祖父来自的乌克兰小村庄。

” For the long, rutted road back, I bought a goose-meat loaf shot through with dill, and too much salt.”

“在漫长而崎岖的返程路上，我买了一份加了莳萝和太多盐的鹅肉面包。”

Emily GouldAuthor of Friendship and the forthcoming Perfect Tunes

艾米丽·古尔德《友谊》和即将推出的《完美曲调》的作者

## My No Good, Very Bad Dinner Party (Sadie Stein, The New York Times Magazine)

## 我的不好、非常糟糕的晚宴（Sadie Stein，纽约时报杂志）

Every single detail in this story about a dinner party gone awry is too perfectly absurd to be believed, yet too good to be invented.

这个关于一场晚宴出了岔子的故事中的每一个细节都太荒谬得令人难以置信，但又太好了以至于不能被发明。

It builds with amazing, appalling momentum towards its conclusion, which left me breathless and teary-eyed with laughter on the Metro North, which troubled my fellow commuters.

它以惊人的、令人震惊的势头走向结局，让我在北地铁上气喘吁吁、泪流满面，这让我的通勤同伴们感到困扰。

It made me think of Laurie Colwin’s famous catalog of kitchen disasters, but it’s also its own thing, a classic to be admired and emulated.

这让我想起了劳里·科尔温（Laurie Colwin）著名的厨房灾难目录，但它也有自己的特色，是值得钦佩和效仿的经典。

I will revisit it every time I cringe while remembering an overplanned social endeavor of my own youth because this story is worse.

每当我想起自己年轻时计划过度的社会努力时，我就会重新审视它，因为这个故事更糟糕。

God, it’s so much worse than anything.

天哪，这比任何事都糟糕得多。

Irina DumitrescuProfessor of English Medieval Studies at the University of Bonn, whose work has appeared in Best Food Writing and Best American Essays

伊琳娜·杜米特雷斯库 (Irina Dumitrescu) 波恩大学英语中世纪研究教授，其作品曾出现在《最佳美食写作》和《最佳美国散文》中

## Why We Fell for Clean Eating (Bee Wilson, The Guardian)

## 为什么我们热衷于清洁饮食（Bee Wilson，《卫报》）

I’ll admit to a special fondness for manifestos, rationalist disenchantments, and topplings of golden calves.

我承认我特别喜欢宣言、理性主义的幻灭和金牛犊的倒塌。

Wilson’s exploration of “clean eating,” the latest in a long line of semi-religious food fads, quietly but devastatingly exposes the flaws in the movement.

威尔逊对“清洁饮食”的探索是一长串半宗教食品时尚中的最新成果，悄然但毁灭性地暴露了这场运动的缺陷。

Often lithe blondes with an instinct for self-promotion and disdain for evidence-based science, clean eating gurus vilify processed food, meat, dairy, carbohydrates, refined sugar, caffeine, even tomatoes and eggplants.

干净饮食大师往往是轻柔的金发女郎，有着自我推销的本能和对循证科学的蔑视，他们诽谤加工食品、肉类、乳制品、碳水化合物、精制糖、咖啡因，甚至西红柿和茄子。

(If you can’t fathom regretting that appetizer of baba ghanoush, someone is ready to teach you how for a price.) At stake is not only one’s girth, or the management of allergies and sensitivities, but morality itself.

（如果你无法理解巴巴加努什开胃菜的遗憾，有人愿意付费教你如何做。）这不仅关系到一个人的腰围，或者控制过敏和敏感性，还关系到道德本身。

“We are so unmoored,” writes Wilson, “that we will put our faith in any master who promises that we, too, can become pure and good.” At best, this puritanical diet leads to snide remarks at the gym; at worst, it develops into anorexia and orthorexia.

威尔逊写道：“我们是如此的无依无靠，以至于我们会相信任何承诺我们也能变得纯洁和善良的大师。”这种清教徒式的饮食充其量只会在健身房里招来冷嘲热讽。在最坏的情况下，它会发展成厌食症和厌食症。

Still, Wilson is fair-minded about the confusion anyone struggling with poor health and an expanding waistline might feel in the face of today’s food choices.

尽管如此，威尔逊对于任何因健康状况不佳和腰围不断扩大而苦苦挣扎的人在面对当今的食物选择时可能会感到的困惑持公正的态度。

She shows how closely what we put into our mouths is bound up with our identities and unspoken aspirations, and how easily self-proclaimed experts can play on our insecurities and doubts.

她向我们展示了我们所说的一切与我们的身份和未言明的愿望是多么紧密地联系在一起，以及自称为专家的人是多么容易利用我们的不安全感和怀疑。

The promise of purity, ascetic perfection, and an ethereal glow sounds medieval, but it is the result of a very modern marketing strategy.

纯洁、禁欲的完美和空灵的光芒的承诺听起来很中世纪，但它是非常现代的营销策略的结果。

Catherine CusickAudience Development Editor, Longreads

凯瑟琳·库西克（Catherine Cusick）长读读者发展编辑

## The Curious Case of the Disappearing Nuts (Peter Vigneron, Outside)

## 坚果失踪奇事（Peter Vigneron，《外面》）

Vigneron combines the best of both worlds — food writing and crime — to tell the incredible tale of one serious nut job.

Vigneron 结合了美食写作和犯罪这两个领域的优点，讲述了一个严肃的疯子工作的令人难以置信的故事。

Law enforcement officials, private eyes, trucking industry insiders, and cargo-theft fraud investigators find themselves needing to amp up their game upon discovering that “the bad guys [have] learned that food is a great ­category.” Now the baddies have managed to pull off an incredible, almost totally untraceable series of massive nut heists in California, in which entire tractor-trailers disappear and millions of dollars’ worth of nuts go missing.

执法官员、私家侦探、货运行业内部人士和货物盗窃欺诈调查人员在发现“坏人已经了解到食品是一个很棒的类别”后，发现自己需要加大力度。现在，坏人在加利福尼亚州成功实施了一系列令人难以置信、几乎完全无法追踪的大规模坚果抢劫案，整辆拖拉机拖车消失了，价值数百万美元的坚果也失踪了。

Vigneron follows the impossibly cinematic trail behind all these logistical feats back to one set of truly nutty culprits: a criminal group linked to a Russian organized-crime network.

维涅隆沿着所有这些后勤壮举背后不可思议的电影线索，找到了一组真正疯狂的罪魁祸首：一个与俄罗斯有组织犯罪网络有联系的犯罪集团。