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My Obsessive Quest for a Thrilling Beef Noodle Soup
寻遍纽约，只为一碗令人心动的牛肉拉面
A few months ago, I fell down a rabbit hole. Actually, it was a noodle hole.
几个月前，我掉进了一个兔子洞。其实是一个拉面洞。（注：兔子洞是《爱丽丝梦游仙境》的典故，比喻奇妙、缤纷的世界。）
It all started with an Instagram photo: a bowl of steaming beef broth as clear as a polished window, with a tight coil of noodles, a crimson puddle of chile oil, thin shingles of beef and radish, and cilantro leaves peeking through the broth.
一切始于一张Instagram图片：一碗热气腾腾的牛肉汤，清澈如擦亮的窗玻璃，一团筋道的面条，一汪鲜红的辣椒油，薄薄的牛肉片和萝卜片，以及从汤里探出头的香菜叶。
The whole thing was so cartoonishly pristine it seemed ripped from an anime series.
整张图片像动画片一般纯净，仿佛是直接从动漫中撕下来的。
That image touched off an obsession in the way only an alluring picture of noodles you randomly scroll past on the internet can.
这张图片让我着了迷，有时你在网上偶然刷到一张诱人的面条图片，这种图片就会让你莫名着迷。
I had never even tasted the dish — called Lanzhou lamian, or Lanzhou beef noodle soup — yet it had all the makings of my new favorite food.
我从未吃过这种食物——它叫兰州拉面，或兰州牛肉面——但它具备成为我的美食新宠的所有要素。
I went into research-paper mode, and learned that this wasn’t just any regional dish.
我进入了论文研究模式，了解到这不仅仅是一道普通的地区特色菜。
Several historians told me about Ma Baozi, a Hui Muslim from Lanzhou, a city in northwestern China, who in 1915 began selling a translucent beef soup with hand-pulled noodles; it proved a staple business for Hui Muslims, and later became hugely popular throughout the country as inexpensive, filling breakfast food.
几位历史学家讲述了马保子的故事，他是一位来自中国西北城市兰州的回族穆斯林，1915年，他开始卖一种汤底清澈的手工拉面，这成为了回族穆斯林的主要营生，后来这种实惠且饱腹的早餐在全国各地广受欢迎。
I watched mesmerizing videos of chefs pounding and stretching noodles by hand at a school in Lanzhou, where people travel from across the world to master the craft of noodle pulling.
我观看了异常吸引人的拉面视频，厨师们在兰州的一所学校里手工捶打和拉伸面条，人们从世界各地来到这里学习拉面技艺。
And then I ate 16 bowls of noodles.
然后我吃了十六碗拉面。
Lanzhou is not exactly a tourist destination, and its beef noodles are not as widely known outside China as dishes like mapo tofu or dan dan noodles.
兰州并不算是旅游城市，兰州牛肉面在中国以外的知名度也不如麻婆豆腐或担担面那样高。
But in recent decades, the dish has begun to go the way of pad Thai.
但在最近几十年里，这道菜开始走上了和泰式炒河粉一样的道路。
Local government officials in China have promoted it — subsidizing Lanzhou noodle restaurants and touting the city’s noodle schools — to stimulate tourism and economic development, said Christopher St. Cavish, a food writer in Shanghai.
旅居上海的美食作家克里斯托弗·圣卡维什说，中国地方政府推广了兰州拉面，为兰州拉面馆提供补贴，并大力宣传兰州的拉面学校，目的是刺激旅游业和经济发展。
Everyone I spoke to had a differing opinion about the ideal version.
我采访过的每个人对理想版本的拉面都有不同的看法。
“Balanced and very aromatic, yet not overly exciting,” said Wei Guo, who grew up in Lanzhou and runs the Chinese food blog Red House Spice.
“味道平衡且香气浓郁，但不要太过辛辣，”魏国说，他在兰州长大，现在运营中国美食博客“红屋香料”。
Lucas Sin, a chef in Shanghai told me, “You should be able to really taste the skill of the chef, and the way the noodles are being pulled.”
上海厨师卢卡斯·辛告诉我：“要能够真正尝到厨师的手艺，以及面条是怎么拉出来的。”
And Carolyn Phillips, a food historian and cookbook author who specializes in Chinese cuisine, said the soup “should be flavored subtly but uniquely with spices and herbs.”
专门研究中国菜的美食历史学家兼食谱作者卡罗琳·菲利普斯说，汤底“应该用香料和草药调味，味道要微妙而独特”。
I kept all that in mind as I flitted across this frigid city and slurped bowl after bowl, my frosty cheeks thawing in the steam of each broth.
我穿梭在寒冷的纽约，心中牢记这些话，一碗接一碗地喝汤，冻冰了的脸颊在每碗汤的热气中逐渐回暖。
Here are the three restaurants whose distinctive soups most jolted my senses awake — and the reasons you might visit them.
以下三家餐厅的独特汤底最能唤醒我的感官，我也写下了你可能会去光顾的理由。
For Technique and Tradition
光顾理由：技艺和传统
1915 Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles
1915兰州手工拉面
It was the noodle show that brought me into this brightly lit box of a restaurant in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan.
让我走进曼哈顿基普斯湾社区的这家灯火通明、店面方正的餐厅的是拉面秀。
Cooks behind a glass pane pounded logs of shiny dough against a table, then massaged and twisted it like taffy, using their index fingers to separate the dough into long strands, as if playing a complex game of cat’s cradle.
玻璃窗后的厨师们将光亮的面团砸在桌子上，然后像做太妃糖一样揉搓、扭转面团，用食指将面团分成长条，仿佛在玩一种复杂的翻花绳游戏。
This dough contains wheat flour, water and a special ingredient: peng hui, an alkaline powder that provides extra elasticity and bite.
面团包含小麦面粉、水，还有一种特殊成分：蓬灰，这种碱性粉末能让面条格外筋道弹牙。
These glossy, glutinous noodles bounced as I tugged them out of the bowl, fighting back as I ate them.
我把这些光滑、粘糯的面条从碗里夹出来时，它们弹跳着，仿佛在抵抗被我吃掉。
The menu lets you choose the thickness of your noodles — my favorites were as thin and flat as garlic chives.
菜单可以让你选择面条的粗细，我最喜欢的是像韭叶一样又细又扁的那种面条。
