詞匯量的擴增，從每日精讀英語外刊開始做起。

今日主題：陜西美食文化名片：BiángBiáng面

2022.09.18

The Chinese Noodle Dish Whose Name Doesn’t Exist

①A rhythmic loud sound of something hitting something else echoed through the restaurant-lined street. I turned my head in the direction of the sound to see a chef working in front of his shop.?

②The man was swinging a rope of dough between his hands. He raised the dough and firmly slapped it repeatedly against the countertop. As he continued slapping it, the dough stretched to the length of his wingspan. Holding the centre of the strand, he then split the dough down the middle to form a loop. At last, he tossed it into a waiting pot of bubbling water.?

③My curiosity aroused by this display, I approached the chef to request a serving. Minutes later, a bowl of thick noodles soaked in hot chilli oil and vinegar and sprinkled with spring onions and garlic was brought to me. The noodles were as wide as a belt and nearly as long as one too. Their firm texture offered a satisfying bite. The slapping technique, as it turned out, helped the noodles to absorb the rich flavours of the seasonings.?

④Here in Xi’an, the craft of noodle-pulling is so closely connected with that slapping sound that the distinctive noise ended up inspiring this dish’s curious name: biang biang noodles.?

⑤The “biang” character is onomatopoeic. It mimics the sound of dough hitting a counter. It is also believed to be more complex to write than any other character in the Chinese language, with 58 strokes. I was surprised to discover that the character doesn’t actually exist — at least, not according to official dictionaries. That’s because the character is entirely a folk creation. Upon closer observation of the symbol, I realised that it is also made up of many distinct elements. Together, they paint a picture of Xi’an’s rich history.?

⑥Hiding in biang, for example, is the Chinese character for silk. Xi’an was the starting point of the Silk Road. Along those trade routes, horses not only provided a primary means of transport, but were traded as a commodity. It makes sense, then, that the biang character contains the symbol for horse. On either side of the horse symbol, the Chinese character meaning “l(fā)ong” or “l(fā)ength” also appears. Whether this be interpreted as a reference to the Silk Road or to the noodles themselves, both would seem appropriate.

⑦It’s unclear exactly how the complex character originated. One widely told story credits it to a young scholar from the Qin dynasty who didn’t have enough money for his bowl of biang biang noodles and offered to invent a character instead of payment. Today, there are amusing poems people can recite to help recall all of the complicated character’s numerous strokes.

文章來源：SSP