Keeping it real in Beijing, one pizza at a time 让人垂涎三尺的北京披萨店

When it comes to cultural exchanges, including culinary ones, I am firmly in favor of staying true to tradition.
在文化交流中，包括烹饪方面，我坚决支持忠于传统。
And so, in the name of honoring authenticity, I recently participated in a delightful round table discussion in Beijing with three Chinese friends, a meeting that helped advance East-West cultural relations in a most delicious way.
所以，最近我以尊重正宗传统为名义，与三位中国朋友在北京进行了一次愉快的“圆桌会议”，以最为滋滋有味的方式推动东西方文化关系的发展。
Our round table exchange was actually conducted at a square table, but our discussion focused on something definitely round: a pair of pizzas baked to perfection — and perfectly authentic.
说是“圆桌会议”，实际上是在一个方桌上进行的，但我们所讨论的话题确实集中在圆的东西上：两个披萨，火候恰到好处——而且绝对正宗。
That welcome genuineness was why I invited my friends, two of whom had never tasted pizza before, to Casa Gusto, my favorite Beijing pizzeria.
正是出于这份对正宗的热情，我邀请了之前从未吃过披萨的朋友到我最喜欢的北京披萨店Casa Gusto去吃饭。
I had stumbled across this deceptively simple pizza house, just upstairs from the Yonganli subway station on Line 1, several months ago during one of my many trips to the multistory (and growing) Silk Street mall — a wonderland of silk, shoes, clothing and jewelry.
我经常到北京秀水街市场游逛，这个市场分好几层，目前正在扩建，是汇聚了丝绸、鞋子、衣服和珠宝的仙境之地。几个月前，在我前往秀水街市场途中，无意中发现了这家看似简单的披萨店，就在地铁1号线永安里站的楼上。
I had passed by many times, assuming that the restaurant, which caters to the mall’s many foreign visitors, would, like many pizza places in Beijing, be far from authentic and disappoint in the usual ways (a lack of sauce or flavorless sauce and a dearth of gooey cheese, for starters). How wrong I was.
我之前路过这家店好几次，但是一直认为这家餐厅同北京很多披萨店一样,只是为迎合前来市场的外国游客,实际上同正宗的披萨相去甚远，往往令人大失所望，他们没给披萨配酱，也没有提供用于开胃的粘稠奶酪。但是我错了。
I finally stopped in for a beer one evening with Western friends. While waiting for our frothy brews, served ice-cold in skyscraper-size beer glasses on that warm summer evening, we caught a whiff of a pepperoni pizza at a nearby table. It was, as the late Lou Reed once sang, “the beginning of a great adventure”.
直到有天晚上，我和几个来自西方国家的朋友去喝了杯啤酒。微热的空气弥漫着夏日的夜晚，我们在那儿等着喝冒泡啤酒，冰凉的啤酒装在像一座座摩天大楼似的啤酒杯里，这时，邻桌的意大利辣香肠披萨飘香而来。不错，正如已故歌手娄?里德所唱：“一个伟大冒险的开始。”
In my many years, I’ve tasted a bazillion excellent pies of countless varieties, including the ones my mom made from scratch, slathered with her savory homemade sauce. I’ve visited boisterous pizza houses from Chicago, Illinois, to Itu, Brazil, including the once-popular Shakey’s Pizza, where banjo players and automated pianos pounded out tunes to enhance the kiddy-centric experience.
多年来，我品尝过一大堆数不清的美味可口的馅饼，包括我妈妈自己亲手做的那种，上面涂满了她自制的美味酱汁儿。我吃过生意非常火爆的披萨店，从芝加哥、伊利诺斯州一直到巴西的伊图，包括曾风靡一时的喜客比萨店。喜客比萨店里有班卓琴演奏者和自动钢琴弹奏歌曲，以此提供以孩子为中心的用餐体验。
Casa Gusto boasts no such gimmicks or gewgaws — no stuffed crust, no arcade games, just wonderfully baked, no-frills pizzas topped with fresh ingredients and friendly service.
Casa Gusto披萨店并没有制造这些噱头——没有芝心披萨皮，也没有商场电子游戏。有的只是友好的服务和烘焙得恰到好处但又简单地放些新鲜佐料的披萨。
Look beyond that, though, and you’ll see the authenticity that is the restaurant’s real secret to success. The top of each pizza, every time, bears the tell-tale sign of truly proper baking: Leopard like spots of brown demonstrate that the bubbly cheese has been toasted just right, and this has a profound effect on the texture and flavor of the cheese — perhaps the most crucial ingredient.
但是，透过这些，你会发现这家餐厅成功的真正秘诀是它的原汁原味。每一次享用披萨你都可以发现，在每一个披萨上面，都有表明烘焙恰到好处的标志:豹子般的棕色斑点说明起泡奶酪烤得正好，烘烤的程度对起泡奶酪的质地和味道有很大影响，而奶酪可能是披萨最重要的成分。
There’s more. The delectable crust is thin but never burned, and crisp yet chewy (no small achievement). The sauce has just the right touch of Italian spices, and the cheese and toppings extend to nearly the edges of the pizza, with the toppings, ranging from Canadian bacon to jalapeno peppers, spread evenly.
还有呢，美味的披萨外皮薄而不焦，酥脆而有嚼劲，能做到这样实属不易。酱汁中加入了意大利香料，分量刚刚好，不多也不少，奶酪和配料几乎蔓延到了披萨的边缘，配料有加拿大的培根也有墨西哥的胡椒，均匀分布在披萨上。
And, a joy to behold, at each table are two containers of grated parmesan cheese and a shaker of oregano.
每张桌子上都放着两盒磨碎的帕尔玛奶酪和一罐牛至叶（oregano），实在是让人喜出望外。
The way that the Chinese owners and staff have mastered the art of the excellent pizza shows how fully the pizzeria has embraced the culture of a far-flung land, down to the last detail.
这家披萨店的中国老板和员工将披萨艺术掌握得如鱼得水，显示出这家披萨店是多么巨细靡遗地融入了来自一个遥远国度的文化。
It turns out the authenticity is no accident. When Casa Gusto opened in 2009, its fortunes rested on a pizza oven imported, impressively, from Italy. The sturdy steel behemoth looks nothing like the traditional domed ovens, but it bakes like magic and is highly efficient and dependable: Prepared pizzas are fed one-by-one onto a moving belt, which takes each pie for a seven-minute basking that leaves them toasty gorgeous, red-hot and intensely aromatic.
回归原汁原味并非偶然。2009年Casa Gusto开业时，它竟将自身财运托付于一个从意大利进口来的披萨烤箱，着实令人惊讶。这个坚固的钢铁巨兽看起来与传统的圆顶烤炉大相径庭，但它工作起来就像有魔法似的，而且高效率高质量：准备好的披萨面饼一个接一个放到传送带上，在传送带上晒个七分钟，这样披萨就会烘烤得恰到好处，热得通红，香味浓郁。
There’s an element of people-to-people exchange as well. For its first year of operation, the pizzeria employed an Italian who made the pizzas according to tradition and trained his Chinese friends to do likewise.
人与人之间的交流也是一个因素。开业的第一年，这家披萨店便雇佣了一位意大利人，这位意大利人按照传统方式制作披萨，将这一传统的披萨制作工艺传授给他的中国朋友们。
The lessons were obviously taken to heart. No wonder, then, that the pizza at my favorite hangout is more than a slice above the others. It’s a whole pie better.
中国员工显然将这些教导牢记于心。这就是为什么我最喜欢的那家店的比萨比其他店的比萨好吃得不只是一点点。因为整个披萨都更好吃！