早安，你今天 Q 了嗎？
一起來認識台灣美食的獨特口感
🇹🇼 In Italy, ‘Al Dente’ Is Prized. In Taiwan, It’s All About Food That’s ‘Q.’
台灣美食為什麼那麼「Q」？
🍭 NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — As dusk falls at Lehua Night Market, the fluorescent lights flicker on and the hungry customers start trickling in, anxious for a taste of the local delicacies that give this island its reputation as one of Asia’s finest culinary capitals. Neatly arranged pyramids of plump fish balls. Bowls brimming with tapioca balls bathed in lightly sweetened syrup. Sizzling oyster omelets, hot off the griddle. Deep-fried sweet potato puffs, still dripping with oil.
台灣新北市——隨著夜幕降臨樂華夜市，燈光亮起，飢腸轆轆的客人們三三兩兩來到這裡，急於品嚐讓這個島嶼享有亞洲最佳美食之城的當地美食。整齊排成小山的飽滿魚丸。一碗碗涼圓，淋著略帶甜味的糖漿。剛從鐵板上下來，滋滋作響的蚵仔煎。還滴著熱油的炸地瓜球。
-fluorescent: 發出螢光的
-trickle in: 三三兩兩地抵達
-reputation: 名聲
-culinary: 烹飪的
-griddle: 鐵板、煎鍋
-deep-fried: 油炸的
🍡 Take a bite of any of these dishes and you’ll discover a unique texture. But how exactly do you describe that perfectly calibrated “mouth feel” so sought after by local cooks and eaters alike?
Slippery? Chewy? Globby? Not exactly the most flattering adjectives in the culinary world.
Luckily, the Taiwanese have a word for this texture. Well, actually, it’s not a word, it’s a letter — one that even non-Chinese speakers can pronounce.
It’s “Q.”
隨便嘗一口這些小吃，你都會發現它們別具風味。但你該如何形容那種經過精心調配，令當地廚師和食客們趨之若鶩的「口感」呢？
滑溜？有嚼勁？黏稠？這些可算不上是美食界最好聽的形容。
幸運的是，台灣人有一個詞來形容這種口感。其實，這稱不上是個詞語，而是一個字母——就連不講中文的人也能說出它。
那就是「Q」。
-texture: 口感、質地、韻味
-calibrate: 校準、調整、調配
-be sought after: 趨之若鶩
-chewy: 有嚼勁的
🥤 “It’s difficult to explain what Q means exactly,” said Liu Yen-ling, a manager at Chun Shui Tang, a popular teahouse chain that claims to have invented tapioca milk tea in Taiwan. “Basically it means springy, soft, elastic.”
Q texture is to Taiwanese what umami is to Japanese and al dente is to Italians — that is, cherished and essential. Around Taiwan, the letter Q can often be glimpsed amid a jumble of Chinese characters on shop signs and food packages and in convenience stores and advertisements.
「很難解釋Q到底是什麼意思，」人氣連鎖茶飲品牌、號稱台灣珍珠奶茶發明者的春水堂的經理劉葉玲說。「基本上，它是彈牙、軟糯的意思。」
「Q」的口感之於台灣人，就等於「umami」（鮮）之於日本人，「al dente」（有嚼勁）之於義大利人——備受珍視，也必不可少。在台灣各地，可以在店鋪招牌和便利店、廣告的食物包裝中的一堆中文字裡瞥見「Q」這個字母。
-tapioca milk tea: 珍珠奶茶
-springy: 有彈性的、彈牙的
-umami: 鮮味
-al dente: 彈牙、有嚼勁
-glimpse: 瞥見
你知道用「Q」形容食物是台灣獨創嗎？
加入每日國際選讀計畫，發揚台灣 QQ 美食
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