A: This Lunar New Year, many restaurants will either be closed or will have limited seating capacity, and will have been booked up early. Where will we go for the New Year’s Eve meal?
B: Yeah, nerves are a bit frayed over the pandemic. We should avoid going anywhere that is going to be too packed. Let’s just eat at home.
A: That’s easier said than done. What do you want to eat? Who’s going to cook?
Photo: Wang Chieh, Liberty Times 照片:自由時報記者王捷
B: You have no idea how convenient it is to order Lunar New Year meals. If we’re too late to order online, we can buy it in many supermarkets.
A: Ah, of course. The “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” I ate at my cousin’s last year was fantastic. I later found out it came from a packet of frozen food.
B: I’ve always wanted to know where that dish got its name from.
A: It’s because it has expensive ingredients such as abalone, sea cucumber and scallops, is difficult to prepare and is to die for, so that even vegetarian Buddhist disciples would be tempted to eat it.
A: 今年過年好多餐廳不是沒開,就是座位有限,早就被訂滿了!我們年夜飯要去哪裡吃啊?
B: 對呀,最近疫情緊繃,我們還是避免去人多擁擠的地方。年夜飯在家吃好了。
A: 說的簡單,那要吃什麼?誰煮?
B: 你不知道現在訂年菜多方便哪?如果現在上網訂來不及,很多超市都可以買得到。
A: 啊對,我去年在我表哥家吃的「佛跳牆」超讚的,後來才知道原來那是冷凍包煮的。
B: 我一直很想知道為什麼這道菜叫做「佛跳牆」。
A: 就是說它有鮑魚、海參、干貝這些名貴食材,烹調過程講究,味道太棒了,連吃素的佛門弟子都被吸引而來了。
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times/台北時報林俐凱)
English 英文:
Chinese 中文:
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