经济学人488:城市觅食 炫目的沙拉

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　　城市觅食

　　Salad daze²

　　炫目的沙拉

　　Hipsters are foraging for greens in urban parks

　　潮人在都市公园采集绿色蔬菜

　　SHOPPING for salad in supermarkets is too easy. A bag of ready-washed baby greens costs only 3 at Walmart, and takes no time to lift from the shelf. So a new breed of foodie spends hours foraging for plants in city parks and vacant lots. For what can compare with the joy of ripping up the roots of a mallow plant and eating the mucus they produce when boiled? Many wild American plants are edible³ but unavailable in supermarkets: dandelion, pig weed, bull thistle, skunk⁴ vine. But not everyone recognises them. Enter the foraging gurus, who teach hipsters how to pluck on the wild side.

　　到超市买蔬菜沙拉轻而易举。沃尔玛一袋洗净的绿叶蔬菜仅需3美元，从货架上取下不费吹灰之力。但是新一族的美食家们更愿意花费数小时在都市公园或空地采集野菜。还有什么事能比连根拔起锦葵煮了吃更让人感到高兴的呢？美国许多野生植物可食用，比如蒲公英、藜属、矛叶蓟及爬藤等，但是在超市是买不到的。然而，不是所有人都认得出这些野菜。加入菜蔬大师的队伍，他们会教潮人怎样在野外拔野菜。

　　城市觅食.jpg“Green Deane” Jordan charges 30 for a foraging excursion in Orlando, Florida; demand exceeds supply, he says. New foraging apps, websites and books are making it easier than ever to score free food. But this only part of the story.

　　“绿色迪恩”约旦像每位参与奥兰多及弗罗里达采蔬远足的人收取30美元费用，他称，供不应求。新出的采疏应用、网站及书书籍让得到免费食物比以往更为容易。但是这仅是采疏的一小部分。

　　Foraging fits the anti-corporate faith of many hipsters. People are “yearning for something that's real”, says Frank Grindrod, who teaches foraging in Massachusetts. Urban parks typically offer more plant varieties than similarly sized wilderness⁵ areas. And city greenery holds more calories per acre than wildlands that are picked over by deer, says Steve “Wildman” Brill, who sells a 26-language “Wild Edibles” app and gives foraging tours in New York city parks.

　　采疏符合众多潮人反公司信仰。在马赛诸塞州教采疏的Frank Grindrod说道“人们渴望找到真正真实的事物。”比起同等面积的野外，都市公园往往有更多品种的野蔬。史蒂夫称，平均每英亩的城市绿地绿色野菜比野外更多，因为野外的野蔬被鹿群食用。他运营一个26语种的食用野蔬应用，在纽约提供都市公园采蔬游。

　　Wild food tastes better than you might expect, enthusiasts⁶ say. Cattail roots, roasted until caramelised, have a pleasant chestnut⁷ flavour. The mucus of the mallow plant can substitute for egg whites to enrich meringues.

　　野蔬狂热者称野生蔬菜比你想象的更为可口。烤过的香蒲直至烤出焦糖会有一种怡人的栗子口味。锦葵的汤汁能取代蛋白补充人体所需的调和蛋白。

　　Roughly 18% of Americans forage⁸ at least once a year, up from 13% in 1999, says Marla Emery, a geographer⁹ at the US Forest Service. ForageSF, a San Francisco firm, serves 100 dinners with foraged¹⁰ ingredients such as beached kelp and fennel pollen¹¹. Iso Rabins, the founder¹², had hoped to employ staff foragers but found that the laudable attributes of folks willing to forage full-time¹³ did not include promptness in returning calls or punctuality. He now uses freelances instead.

　　现在大约18%的美国人一年至少来一次采蔬，从1999年13%的美国人这么做，玛勒·埃梅里，美国森林服务中心的地理学家说道。圣弗朗西斯科ForageSF公司为顾客提供价值100美元的野生餐饮，包括采集的野蔬及搁浅的海藻与茴香粉做的菜。创始人Iso Rabins希望雇佣采摘员工，但是他发现愿意全职采摘野菜的人尽管有许多值得称赞的品质，但是他们不能及时回复电话。现在他转而聘用自由采摘者。

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