2015-02-21
【Aiden in English】
New York City (NYC) is one of the most incredible cities in the world. People jostle around the streets. Every ten to twenty feet, there is a restaurant, and cars honk and beep as they rush to go somewhere. The Chinese Spring Festival also just passed, so going to NYC seems appealing. Mom also decided to share a wonderful day with my friend. Getting stuck in a car from the Philly suburb to NYC with a friend who wasn't afraid to use it for two hours wasn't good. Yet somehow, I made it to Metropark Train Station in Edison, NJ, in one piece. Mom brought Kevin and his mom, Shirley, along on our trip to NYC. Honedidn't think we were doing Kevin a favor. The last time we met, he cared about d" rt, so "excited" may not be the best way to describe his feelings at this time, considering that we planned to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA). He told me that his mom made him study the history of all the places we were going, from the founder to the dirt it was made on. Typical Chinese Parents! At Metropark, we took the NJ Transit to Penn Station @ 34th St. in NYC. To follow the detour schedule during the weekend, Mom led us from the subway C-train to Times Square at 42nd St., then transferred us to the E-train to Rockefeller Center. @ 53rd St., and finally caught up with the No. 6 train to 77th St. In NYC, traveling above ground is chaotic, but underground isn't much better. Luckily, Mom knew every tin-pan alley where we were heading. Finally, we ended up at our selected restaurant- Serafina Fabulous Pizza. Chinese cuisine is excellent for all types of cuisine. But come on, pizza is taking over the world now, so enjoy its greasiness and cheesiness. A hundred years later, people would probably eat pizza for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight snacks. Serafina Fabulous Pizza looked small, but I didn't care how well the service was provided or how fancy the environment was (OK, maybe a little). I was set as long as I got pizza (and maybe a Coke)! When the four of us walked in, the thoughts of delicious pizza vanished. It was one of those superb Italian restaurants that served all the junk you could think of on your pizza. By the name of the restaurant, I should've known. There were paintings on the walls and neat white tablecloths on every table, overlaid with plain paper for kids to draw. Huge bottles of wine were on display. When I said massive, I meant the size and width of a bowling pin. We sat down, and menus were passed out. Since pizza was invented for people who disliked formal, healthy, and complex food, Serafina Fabulous Pizza kept pizza simple. Yet this eatery transformed it into a formal and not-so-pizza pizza. When we ordered, I sat back and let them pick. I didn't see a simple pizza on the oversized page of pizza choices. There wasn't a cheese pizza. As the pizza wasn't, I wasn't surprised at all. By the way, Italian restaurants always make their pizzas thin, so we got three pizzas. We started at Di Fabio with mozzarella cheese, a thin slice of Prosciutto or dry-cured ham, tomato, and baby arugula. That's it. That's my description: pizza should have cheese, not raw, marinated meat, and freshly sliced tomatoes with ground black pepper. But after taking a bite, it didn't taste all that bad. Strike that. A moment later, I ate something sweet, like candy. It took me a second to realize what it was. Once I did, the pizza suddenly seemed much less appetizing (not that it had looked particularly delicious to begin with). Kevin looked at me and nodded. He knew what it was, too. Under the slice of Prosciutto, the eggplant tasted so bad that I had to excuse myself from the table. When I returned, I moved to the left of the pizza, which was missing the eggplant. It was the same thing, just without the sweetness of the musky vegetable. Anything would be better without vegetables. Di Sofia had the bresaola, air-dried and salted beef, fontina cheese, mozzarella, and baby arugula for the next pizza. It was good, considering the pizza was much simpler than the Di Fabio. The tangy bresaola gave a spring to each bite, and my appetite slowly returned. I wasn't sure if I would ever get over that taste of eggplant on pizza. Just thinking about it made me queasy. Mom split the last pizza while I was crunching on the crust. The final pizza, Di Vittorio, was simply topped with tomato sauce, basil, and blobs of Italian burrata with fresh cheese. Yet, as simple as it was, it didn't have the same greasy and cheesy effect as Domino's, Mystic Pizza, or small local shops. The tomato made it so sour that the mozzarella cheese barely stood out. It was like chewing something flavorless. The mozzarella cheese only gave a feeling in my mouth. Simple equals delicious. This is my new philosophy. Pizza should stay simple, and that’s why people like it so much. 【紅霞譯】
紐約“新紫衫樹之地”當屬世界上最刺激最好玩的城市之一，到處車水馬龍熱鬧非凡，整個街道三步一小吃店五步一大餐館，馬路上汽車喇叭聲此起彼伏，人們爭先恐後使勁朝前奔。春節剛過，進城感受都市生活仍不失為一種過年的享受，正因如此，媽媽決定約好朋友一起北上。
從費城“兄弟之愛”郊區到紐約市需要兩個鐘頭車程，趕路的滋味並不好受，尤其身邊還有這麼一位網球在握並隨時扔球出手的朋友相伴。出乎意料地，我竟然大難不死，與媽媽、好友藝博還有其母親曉麗阿姨安全抵達新澤西“草”州都市公園火車站。坦率地說，此行給藝博帶來不少麻煩，記得上次我倆見面時他可是什麼都不在乎，因此要想調動他對此行的積極性談何容易，更何況我們去的是大都會藝術博物館。他告訴我說，來前他媽媽已要求他把今天所到之處全面研究一番，道地的中國父母呵！
我們搭乘新州捷運，自都市公園火車站上車至34街賓夕法尼亞“山林”站下車，先走出火車站再鑽進地鐵站。根據紐約周末地鐵運行時刻表，媽媽帶我們坐C車經42街時代廣場後換E車去53街洛克菲勒“黑麥田”中心，最後轉六號地鐵抵達77街。紐約就是這樣，地上川流不息，地下人潮湧動，好在媽媽對大街小巷瞭如指掌，我們才能如期來到事先選定的塞拉菲娜“六翼天使”美味披薩“一口”店。中國膳食絕對無可厚非，不過在當今披薩日益滲透到世界各個角落的情況下，咱何不順應形勢藉機好好飽餐一頓，說不定百年過後，人們早中晚三餐吃了上頓接下頓，甚至連筵席宵夜全部都是披薩。
塞拉菲娜美味披薩店面不大，但非常溫馨。我並不在意服務有多棒環境有多美（應該說有點就成），只要有披薩吃（也許再來瓶可樂），我心滿意足！當我們一行四人走進餐廳，所有美味披薩奇幻異想統統蕩然無存，這樣一家高級意大利餐廳提供的基本上都是跟披薩有關的垃圾食物，一看到店名字樣本身，我早該意識到這點。店內牆壁上懸掛着繪畫，潔白的餐桌布上鋪有一張跟桌面大小相匹配的白紙，可供小孩子們畫畫。大個酒瓶裝飾入眼，我所說的大非同一般，跟保齡球瓶大小寬窄差不多。待我們各就各位，菜單即刻遞了上來，既然披薩專為那些憎惡正式、健康、繁瑣套餐的人創造而來，塞拉菲娜美味披薩店正好貫徹了簡單為上的生活宗旨，並巧妙地將披薩轉型為不似披薩勝似披薩。點餐時，我索性退居二線，由其他人勇挑大梁，因為從所謂浩瀚的菜單上，我一點看不出簡單二字，沒有任何披薩只用一種奶酪，所以當披薩送上桌後，我毫無驚訝之意。順便提一下，正宗意大利餐廳總是把披薩做的很薄，我們共點了三個充飢。
第一個叫法比奧“種豆者”披薩，麵餅表面加有水牛奶酪、切成薄片的醃火腿干、西紅柿、嫩芝麻菜，按照我的理解，披薩有奶酪足矣，不必把醃製的生肉與新鮮番茄和絞碎的黑胡椒末摻和在一起，但剛嘗過一口，覺得味道不錯，別介意先前妄加評論。沒過多久，我吃到什麼東西甜得像糖果，找緣由並不費力，可食慾立馬大減（至少不像剛開始吃的時候感覺良好），藝博衝着我點了點頭，咱英雄所見略同。醃火腿干下面茄子的甜味實在難吃，我藉口去洗手間起身離開；等再度返回座位後，我拿了左邊一片不帶茄子的披薩，除了沒有粘了吧唧的蔬菜之外，這片跟上片沒什麼不同。說白了，只要沒有蔬菜，披薩都很好吃。 接下來第二個是索菲亞“智慧”披薩，由牛肉乾、芳提娜乾酪、水牛奶酪、嫩芝麻菜等原材料組成，跟上面法比奧披薩相比，索菲亞披薩做法更簡單。牛肉乾香味撲鼻，猶如久旱逢甘霖，重新吊起我的胃口，現在連我自己都搞不清究竟能否忘掉剛才吃到的茄子，反正現在一想起來茄子就覺得噁心。在我慢慢啃麵餅脆邊時，媽媽把剩餘的打掃乾淨。 最後一個維托里奧“勝利者”披薩，除了番茄醬、羅勒葉、布拉塔新鮮奶酪之外，簡單的不能再簡單，因為簡單而鮮少像多米諾“領主”披薩、神奇披薩以及當地小吃店的披薩口感油膩，同時西紅柿酸味重，壓過水牛奶酪，結果嚼起水牛奶酪並不覺得是在吃水牛奶酪。 簡單可口，代表了本人的理念。比薩應該保持這種風格，而這正是人們喜歡的原因。
Today in History(歷史上的今天): 2015 Shun Lee West, NYC(初中一年級·紐約順利西店中餐廳) 2015 Silk Road Ensemble w/ Yo-Yo Ma(初一·馬友友絲綢之路民樂隊) 2015 MMA w/ 5,000 Years of Art(初一·五千年世界藝術的紐約大都會館) 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC(初一·紐約大都會藝術博物館) 2011 My Favorite Things about School(二年級·記我喜愛的校日) 學前班·童心綻放(2009 Childlike Enthusiasm)
 Serafina Fabulous Pizza (塞拉菲娜美味披薩店)
 Di Fabio & Di Sofia
(法比奧披薩與索菲亞披薩 02-21-2015)  Di Vittorio (維托里奧披薩)
Crosslinks(相關博文): USA(出遊美國) 6th Grade(初中一年級) |
