Natalie Amezcua, an English teacher from Los Angeles, was not expecting a lot last August when she arrived in Nanjing looking for a taste of home.
来自洛杉矶的英语教师Natalie Amezcua去年8月到达南京寻找家的味道时，并没有期待太多。
Two years of living in Korea had taught her to temper her expectations. If she wanted to enjoy the Mexican dishes she delighted in eating growing up, she was going to have to make them herself.
在韩国生活了两年，她学会了降低自己的期望。 如果她想享受她长大后喜欢吃的墨西哥菜，她必须自己做。
“Because I’m not at home”, Amezcua said, laughing. “That’s just part of living out here. If I don’t bring it or have it mailed to me, my options are limited.”
“因为我不在家，”Amezcua笑着说。 “这只是生活在这里的一部分。 如果我不把它带来或邮寄给我，我的选择就有限了。”
Recently, however, Amezcua has found salvation from an unlikely source: a woman in Suzhou who makes and sells tamales; a Mesoamerican delicacy made with masa (corn dough) and a filling of the tamalera’s (tamale maker’s) choosing.
然而，最近，Amezcua从一个不太可能的来源中找到了救赎：苏州一位制作和销售玉米饼的女人；一种由masa（玉米面团）和塔马莱拉（玉米饼制造商）选择的馅料制成的中美洲美食。
Steamed and wrapped in a banana leaf or corn husk, tamales are traditionally served during celebratory occasions. For Amezcua, the dish is inextricably linked to her memories of family gatherings at her aunt’s house, surrounded by delicious aromas and the laughter of her cousins.
塔马利在庆祝场合被蒸熟并包裹在香蕉叶或玉米壳中。 对Amezcua来说，这道菜与她在姑姑家的家庭聚会的记忆密不可分，周围是美味的香气和她表兄弟的笑声。
“Tamales are my Christmas food”, she beamed. “They’re my comfort food. When I eat them, it feels like home.”
“玉米饼是我的圣诞食物，”她笑得很开心。 “它们是我的舒适食物。 当我吃它们时，感觉就像家一样。”
Sophia Song is happy to provide the service. The 27-year-old Chinese native belongs to a community of individual food proprietors who cater to foreigners throughout China, delivering mostly around Jiangsu Province and as far as Inner Mongolia, to satisfy their culinary needs.
Sophia Song很乐意提供服务。 这位27岁的华人属于一个由个人食品老板组成的社区，他们为中国各地的外国人提供服务，主要在江苏省和内蒙古各地送货，以满足他们的烹饪需求。
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“They look how they’re supposed to look, taste how they’re supposed to taste”, Amezcua said. “I think they’re pretty accurate.”
Amezcua說：「他們看起來應該有的樣子，嚐起來應該有的味道。」 “我认为它们非常准确。”
When China opened up to Western markets in 1979, so too did the country’s appetite for exotic dining, expanding into a multibillion-dollar industry. But along the way, an undercurrent of enthusiasts with perhaps a stronger familiarity with the foreign palate have sought to correct the course where larger chain restaurants have failed.
1979年，当中国向西方市场开放时，中国对异国美食的胃口也随之增长，扩展到一个价值数十亿美元的行业。 但一路走来，暗流中可能更熟悉外国口味的爱好者试图纠正大型连锁餐厅失败的路线。
Faced with a middling selection of Western dining options outside of Beijing and Shanghai, entrepreneurs like Song have taken it upon themselves to serve the country’s foreign population with options that better emulate the culinary offerings as they were originally intended.
面对北京和上海以外的西方餐饮选择的中等选择，像宋这样的企业家自己为该国的外国民众提供更好的模仿最初意图的烹饪产品。
“Eating at restaurants can be a very hollow experience”, said Emma Jardine, 29, an expat from Northern Ireland. “When you first taste it, you get a reminder of home. But then it stops. You’re waiting for this underlying richness of the food that never comes.”
来自北爱尔兰的29岁的外籍人士Emma Jardine说：“在餐馆吃饭可能是一种非常空洞的体验。” “当你第一次品尝它时，你会想起家。 但随后它停止了。 你在等待这种永远不会到来的食物的潜在丰富。”
While chain restaurants like McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks have successfully rebranded in China, they don’t always replicate the tastes foreigners are accustomed to back home.
虽然麦当劳、肯德基和星巴克等連鎖店在中国成功重塑了品牌，但它们并不总是模仿外国人在家乡所習慣的味道。
Even local Western restaurants less concerned with mass appeal struggle to satisfy their foreign clientele. A scarcity of far-flung ingredients, combined with a relative unfamiliarity with the cuisine, results in an underwhelming dining experience for customers with a predisposed expectation as to how a dish should taste.
即使是不太关心大众吸引力的当地西餐厅，也很难满足他们的外国客户。 稀缺的食材，加上对美食的相对不熟悉，对于对菜肴的味道有预感的顾客来说，导致用餐体验令人失望。
“The first time I tried making them was terrible”, said Song, who was introduced to tamales through a Mexican-American man she was dating at the time. “I used cornmeal instead of masa. I didn’t understand the difference. Then I found it on Taobao, and I began perfecting my recipe.”
“我第一次尝试做它们很糟糕，”宋说，她通过一个当时正在约会的墨西哥裔美国人被介绍给玉米饼。 “我用玉米粉代替了马萨。 我不明白区别。 然后我在淘宝上找到了它，我开始完善我的食谱。”
Three years later, Song has yet to taste tamales other than her own. But she has attracted enough interest, advertising in expat groups on Facebook and WeChat, and relying on word of mouth, to turn her business into a viable source of income.
三年後，除了她自己的塔馬利之外，宋還沒有嘗過玉米餅。 但她已经吸引了足够的兴趣，在Facebook和微信上的外籍人士群组中做广告，并依靠口碑，将她的业务变成了一个可行的收入来源。
“It’s not a complicated recipe. But it’s a lot of work”, said Song, who enlists the help of an ayi during peak winter months. “She thinks it’s interesting because she had never seen that food before, but I don’t think she likes it that much.”
「這不是一個複雜的食譜。 但这工作量很大，”宋说，他在冬季高峰期寻求帮助。 “她觉得这很有趣，因为她以前从未见过这种食物，但我认为她不太喜欢它。”
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The foreign community is inclined to disagree. Viewed within the context of sterilised behemoths such as Blue Frog and Element Fresh, these individuals are easy enough to ignore. But to their customers, they hold outsize significance.
外國社群傾向於不同意。 在Blue Frog和Element Fresh等消毒大物的背景下来看，这些个体很容易被忽视。 但对他们的客户来说，它们具有巨大的意义。
“There’s a guy for everything”, Amezcua said. From English breakfast sausages to pastries to cruelty-free beauty products, the availability of these items offers peace of mind in a country that can be difficult for outsiders to navigate.
Amezcua说：“什么都有一个人。” 从英式早餐香肠到糕点再到无公害美容产品，这些物品的可用性让一个局外人难以驾驭的国家感到安心。
“I used to have a list of things I needed from home that if anyone ended up visiting, I’d ask them to bring it for me”, Amezcua continued. “But I can get it all here now. I don’t have that list anymore.”
Amezcua继续说：“我曾经有一份从家里需要的东西清单，如果有人最终来拜访，我会让他们给我带来。” “但我现在可以在这里得到这一切。 我不再有那份清單了。」
These individual food proprietors embody the thrilling sense of possibility that defines life as an expat living in China. For many foreigners, the barrier of entry to pursue entrepreneurial endeavours feels lower abroad than back home. With relative ease and without a formal business background, an involved hobby can quickly blossom into a money-making venture.
这些个人食品老板体现了一种令人兴奋的可能性感，这种感将生活定义为生活在中国的外籍人士。 对许多外国人来说，在国外追求创业的门槛比国内要低。 相对轻松，没有正式的商业背景，参与的爱好可以迅速发展成为赚钱的冒险。
“In China, business is really kind of fluid”, said Felix Campbell, 31, an expat in Nanjing who prepares and distributes meat products under the WeChat moniker, “Home Cooked Meat Co.” “It feels more open, more possible. You can kind of go with the flow and do what you want, at least to an extent.”
31岁的南京外籍人士Felix Campbell说：“在中国，生意真的很流动。”他以微信綽号“家常肉公司”准备和分销肉类产品。 “感觉更开放，更有可能。 你可以随波逐流，做你想做的事，至少在某种程度上是这样。”
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Campbell’s rise follows a familiar trajectory; frustration over second-rate offerings inspires an enterprising desire to remedy the problem. Friends and coworkers respond positively to the solution; word of mouth builds to the point that other businesses take notice.
坎贝尔的崛起遵循了熟悉的轨迹；对二流产品的挫败感激发了解决问题的进取欲望。 朋友和同事对解决方案做出积极回应；口口相传，以至于其他企业都注意到了。
In April, Campbell went into business with the restaurant Real Bread Café, a popular lunch spot among Nanjing’s expat community. For Campbell, the partnership is a notable step toward legitimising the viability of his business.
4月，Campbell在Real Bread Café餐厅开展业务，这是南京外籍人士社区中受欢迎的午餐地点。 对坎贝尔来说，这种伙伴关系是实现其业务可行性的显著一步。
“If they’re reaching out, that’s a good sign”, Campbell said. “It’s great that I have friends who support me and pass my name along.”
坎贝尔说：“如果他们伸出援手，那是个好兆头。” “很高兴我有朋友支持我并传递我的名字。”
While Campbell has established himself as a trusted source for sausages, burgers and meatballs in Nanjing, he was quick to mention that he works at a modest scale. Nonetheless, he acknowledged, the appetite for his business is there.
虽然坎贝尔已经确立了自己作为南京香肠、汉堡和肉丸的可靠来源的地位，但他很快提到，他的工作规模不大。 尽管如此，他承认，他的生意是有欲望的。
“Food gets boring here very quickly”, Jardine said. “Anything you know you like, once you realise it’s available to you, you just get on it.”
Jardine说：“这里的食物很快就变得无聊了。” “任何你知道你喜欢的东西，一旦你意识到它可供你使用，你就会接受它。”
“You got to snap it up as fast as you can”, Amezcua added.
Amezcua补充说：“你必须尽快抓住它。”
For Campbell himself, he’s doing his best to take everything in his stride. The rate at which his business has grown is something he’s still processing.
对于坎贝尔本人来说，他正在尽力以大步接受一切。 他的业务增长速度是他仍在处理的。
“It’s so weird to think that I’m doing this”, Campbell said. “Even now, after all of these years, just being in China still feels odd. And now I’m a small business owner?”
坎贝尔说：“想到我在做这件事，这太奇怪了。” “即使是现在，经过这些年，仅仅在中国仍然感觉很奇怪。 现在我是一名小企业主了？”
He smiled.
他笑了。
“But it feels great,” he said. “I’m having a lot of fun with it.”
“但感觉很好，”他说。 “我玩得很开心。”
