老外在中国：我最爱的北京披萨店

When it comes to cultural exchanges, including culinary ones, I am firmly in favor of staying true to tradition.
在文化交流中，包括烹饪方面，我坚决支持忠于传统。

And so, in the name of honoring authenticity, I recently participated in a delightful roundtable discussion in Beijing with three Chinese friends, a meeting that helped advance East-West cultural relations in a most delicious way.
所以，最近我以尊重正统为名义，与三位中国朋友在北京进行了一次愉快的“圆桌会议”，以最为滋滋有味的方式推动东西方文化关系的发展。

Our roundtable exchange was actually conducted at a square table, but our discussion focused on something definitely round: a pair of pizzas baked to perfection — and perfectly authentic.
说是“圆桌会议”，实际上是在一个方桌上进行的，但我们的讨论却围绕着圆的东西：两个披萨，火候恰到好处——而且绝对正宗。

That welcome genuineness was why I invited my friends, two of whom had never tasted pizza before, to Casa Gusto, my favorite Beijing pizzeria.
正是出于这份对正宗的热情，我邀请了之前从未吃过披萨的朋友到我最喜欢的北京披萨店Casa Gusto。

I had stumbled across this deceptively simple pizza house, just upstairs from the Yonganli subway station on Line 1, several months ago during one of my many trips to the multistory (and growing) Silk Street mall — a wonderland of silk, shoes, clothing and jewelry.
我经常逛北京秀水街市场，这里分好几层（还在扩建），是汇聚了丝绸、鞋子、衣服和珠宝的好地方。几个月前，在我前往秀水街市场途中，无意间发现了这家看似简陋的披萨店，它就在地铁1号线永安里站的楼上。

I had passed by many times, assuming that the restaurant, which caters to the mall’s many foreign visitors, would, like many pizza places in Beijing, be far from authentic and disappoint in the usual ways (a lack of sauce or flavorless sauce and a dearth of gooey cheese, for starters). How wrong I was.
我之前路过这家店好几次，但是一直认为这里同北京很多披萨店一样，只是为迎合前来市场的外国游客，实际上同正宗的披萨相去甚远，令人失望，那些披萨店的开胃菜没有酱料或酱料没滋没味，也缺少粘稠的奶酪。但是我错了。

I finally stopped in for a beer one evening with Western friends. While waiting for our frothy brews, served ice-cold in skyscraper-size beer glasses on that warm summer evening, we caught a whiff of a pepperoni pizza at a nearby table. It was, as the late Lou Reed once sang, “the beginning of a great adventure”.
有天晚上，我和几个来自西方国家的朋友去Casa Gusto喝了杯啤酒。那个微热的夏日夜晚，我们正在那儿等着喝冒着泡的超大杯冰啤酒时，闻到了邻桌的意大利辣香肠披萨的香气。不错，正如已故歌手娄•里德所唱：“一场伟大冒险的开始。”

In my many years, I’ve tasted a bazillion excellent pies of countless varieties, including the ones my mom made from scratch, slathered with her savory homemade sauce. I’ve visited boisterous pizza houses from Chicago, Illinois, to Itu, Brazil, including the once-popular Shakey’s Pizza, where banjo players and automated pianos pounded out tunes to enhance the kiddy-centric experience.
多年来，我品尝过无数种美味可口的馅饼，包括我妈妈亲手做的那种，上面涂满了她自制的美味酱汁儿。我光顾过生意非常火爆的披萨店，从芝加哥、伊利诺斯州一直到巴西的伊图，包括曾风靡一时的喜客比萨店。喜客比萨店里有班卓琴演奏者和自动钢琴弹奏歌曲，提供以孩子为中心的用餐体验。

Casa Gusto boasts no such gimmicks or gewgaws — no stuffed crust, no arcade games, just wonderfully baked, no-frills pizzas topped with fresh ingredients and friendly service.
Casa Gusto披萨店并没有这些噱头——没有芝心披萨皮，也没有游戏机。有的只是友好的服务，烘焙得恰到好处、没有花样、材料新鲜的披萨。

Look beyond that, though, and you’ll see the authenticity that is the restaurant’s real secret to success. The top of each pizza, every time, bears the tell-tale sign of truly proper baking: Leopard-like spots of brown demonstrate that the bubbly cheese has been toasted just right, and this has a profound effect on the texture and flavor of the cheese — perhaps the most crucial ingredient.
但是，透过这些，你会发现这家餐厅成功的真正秘诀是它的原汁原味。每张披萨表面都有表明烘焙恰到好处的标志：豹子般的棕色斑点说明起泡奶酪烤得正好，这对奶酪的质地和味道有很大影响，而奶酪可能是披萨最重要的成分。

There’s more. The delectable crust is thin but never burned, and crisp yet chewy (no small achievement). The sauce has just the right touch of Italian spices, and the cheese and toppings extend to nearly the edges of the pizza, with the toppings, ranging from Canadian bacon to jalapeno peppers, spread evenly.
还有呢，美味的披萨外皮薄而不焦，酥脆而有嚼劲，能做到这样实属不易。酱汁中加入了刚刚好的意大利香料，奶酪和配料几乎蔓延到了披萨的边缘，加拿大培根、墨西哥胡椒等各种馅料均匀分布在披萨上。

And, a joy to behold, at each table are two containers of grated parmesan cheese and a shaker of oregano.
而且每张桌子上都放着两盒磨碎的帕尔玛奶酪和一罐牛至叶，这实在是一种愉快的享受。

The way that the Chinese owners and staff have mastered the art of the excellent pizza shows how fully the pizzeria has embraced the culture of a far-flung land, down to the last detail.
Casa Gusto的中国老板和员工已经掌握了美味的披萨艺术，这说明他们是多么细致地揣摩来自一个遥远国度的文化。

It turns out the authenticity is no accident. When Casa Gusto opened in 2009, its fortunes rested on a pizza oven imported, impressively, from Italy. The sturdy steel behemoth looks nothing like the traditional domed ovens, but it bakes like magic and is highly efficient and dependable: Prepared pizzas are fed one-by-one onto a moving belt, which takes each pie for a seven-minute basking that leaves them toasty gorgeous, red-hot and intensely aromatic.
事实证明，这家店的原汁原味并非偶然。2009年Casa Gusto开业时，它靠的是一个从意大利进口来的披萨烤箱，这着实令人钦佩。这个坚固的钢铁巨兽看起来与传统的圆顶烤炉完全不同，但它拥有烘焙的魔法，而且高效又可靠：准备好的披萨面饼一个接一个放到传送带上，在传送带上烤七分钟，这样披萨就会烘烤得恰到好处，热乎乎的，香味浓郁。

There’s an element of people-to-people exchange as well. For its first year of operation, the pizzeria employed an Italian who made the pizzas according to tradition and trained his Chinese friends to do likewise.
人与人之间的交流也是一个因素。开业的第一年，这家披萨店便雇佣了一位意大利人，这位意大利人按照传统方式制作披萨，并将手艺教授给他的中国朋友们。

The lessons were obviously taken to heart. No wonder, then, that the pizza at my favorite hangout is more than a slice above the others. It’s a whole pie better.
中国员工显然将这些教导牢记于心。难怪我最爱的比萨店的披萨比其他店的好吃得不只是一点点。因为整张披萨都更好吃！

翻译：陈美君（实习）
编审：董静 丹妮
音频编辑：焦洁
来源：CHINA DAILY 微信公众号：

About the author & broadcaster

James Healy is from the United States and has been a copy editor at China Daily since 2014. He is an advanced student of Chen style tai chi and enjoys Chinese culture, food and carvings.