我為美食狂：羊角甜甜圈的誘惑

OK. You’ve probably never tasted this， but you may have heard of it， the cronut， that deep-fried cross between a donut and a croissant. 1）Pastry chef Dominique Ansel invented it in May at his small bakery in New York City. And since then， it’s taken off. 2）Scalpers are selling them at a huge markup， and imitators around the world are trying to tap in on the success.

Reporter： Dominique Ansel only makes about 300 cronuts a day. Some customers camp out overnight to get their hands on one. And some leave disappointed. The cronut always sells out. Still on a recent hot morning， the sidewalks of New York City hosted hopeful and 3）intrepid customers from far and wide.

Lee Hatch （Customer）： We actually heard it on the radio in Sydney， Australia.

Amir Borenstein （Customer）： From my wife， actually. She saw it on German TV. And then we are by chance here in a hotel nearby， and we saw the line， and then we decided to queue up.

Jeff Leplante （Customer）： I’m on vacation from 4）Montreal. I read about it， so I want to try it.

Hatch： This is our third attempt of lining up here. And we thought， well， we’re on holiday. So we’re here for a month， so we’ll give it a go if it’s the last thing we do before we go home.

Reporter： So what is this thing？

Dominique Ansel： Something that has a donut shape. It’s flaky like a croissant， that’s why it’s called a cronut. It’s like somewhere between a croissant and a donut.

Reporter： That’s the mastermind behind it， Dominique Ansel， chef-owner of the Dominique Ansel Bakery.

Ansel： I worked on the 5）recipe for about two months before coming up with a recipe that could fry up easily with a dough that could like be filled with cream and glaze and still have nice consistency and not being too 6）chewy or too soft.

Reporter： Obviously， a winning formula. It sounds good. But a lot of pastries are good. There’s got to be more to the cronut craze. I asked Irma Zandl about it. She’s an expert on consumer behavior and trends.

Irma Zandl： There’s parts of the brain that become super active when a fad idea is heard. And people want to pass it on.

Reporter： Allison Carruth is author of the new book Global Appetites： American Power and the Literature in Food. She says you can trace food trends back to the renaissance when chocolate and 7）spices took off. In a way， it’s not complicated. We like things that taste good.

Allison Cartuth： We need to indulge. There’s a kind of fundamental and even primal impulse in the human brain for food to also be pleasurable and to be communal and shared and delicious.

Reporter： But a big difference between the renaissance and today， technology.

Zandl： One of the things that we’ve seen with the advent of all these blogs and social media is that people’s desire to be tapped in and to be perceived to be somebody who’s in the know is much greater.

Reporter： The food blog Grub Street wrote about the cronut when Dominique Ansel first made just a couple dozen. He says that same day， they told him traffic went up 300 percent with more than 140，000 links to their website. And it was then Ansel knew he had a hit. And those long lines？ Turns out it’s all part of it.

Megan Byrd （Customer）： It’s all about the experience. You have to come wait in line， get excited. You can smell the sugar coming out of the bakery.

Reporter： That’s Megan Byrd. But for those who can’t make it to New York City and smell that sugar， imitations have sprung up all over. Ansel has trademarked the name cronut， but in Washington， D.C.， you can buy a doissant. In Vancouver， a frissant， and in the Philippines， Dunkin’ Donuts has introduced the donut croissant. A Dunkin’ Donut spokesman says they don’t have any plans to sell it in the United States at this time. But is the media glare and all the copycats overkill setting up the cronut for a collapse？

Carruth： We can only sustain so long one product， one brand， one entrepreneur having the spotlight. And so I would be surprised if a year from now there are still 10，000 tweets a month about the cronut.

Reporter： Dominique Ansel says he’s not interested in mass-producing the cronut or 8）jacking up the price. For now， he’s still charging the original $5 per cronut and limiting customers to just two. It’s Ann Duckett’s reward for her two-hour wait.

Ann Duckett （Customer）： It’s a little on the small side. Nice color. The blackberry looks pretty. I’m going to take a bite. Mm. Totally worth it. Totally worth it.

好吧。可能你以前從未嘗過(guò)這個(gè)，但你也許已經(jīng)聽說(shuō)過(guò)——“羊角甜甜圈”，即甜甜圈和羊角包的油炸混合版。它自五月份問(wèn)世于紐約市的甜點(diǎn)大廚多米尼克·安塞爾的小面包房里。從那伊始便一發(fā)不可收拾。炒家們翻數(shù)倍價(jià)格炒賣，而世界各地的效仿者們都試圖分一杯羹。

記者：多米尼克·安塞爾每天只做約三百個(gè)羊角甜甜圈。有些顧客為了能夠弄到一個(gè)竟在店外露營(yíng)過(guò)夜。而有些人只能失望而歸。羊角甜甜圈總是銷售一空。而最近在一個(gè)炎熱的清晨，紐約市的人行道上擠滿了來(lái)自四面八方的滿懷希望且勇敢無(wú)畏的顧客。

李·赫奇（顧客）：我們其實(shí)是從澳洲悉尼市的廣播里聽說(shuō)的。

埃米爾·鮑倫斯坦（顧客）：其實(shí)我是從我妻子那兒聽說(shuō)的。她是在德國(guó)電視節(jié)目上看到羊角甜甜圈的。然后我們碰巧住在附近的一個(gè)旅館里，又看到了這條長(zhǎng)隊(duì)，于是我們決定排隊(duì)等等。

杰夫·萊普朗特（顧客）：我是從蒙特利爾過(guò)來(lái)度假的。我讀過(guò)關(guān)于它的報(bào)道，所以想要嘗一嘗。

赫奇：這是我第三次嘗試在這里排隊(duì)了。而且我們覺得，嗯，我們正在度假。既然我們要在這里待上一個(gè)月，要問(wèn)我們回去前想做的最后一件事，那自然是要來(lái)碰碰運(yùn)氣了。

記者：那么這個(gè)東西是什么？

多米尼克·安塞爾：某個(gè)有著甜甜圈外型的東西。它吃起來(lái)脆脆的像羊角包，這就是為什么它叫羊角甜甜圈的原因。它就是介于羊角包和甜甜圈之間的東西。

記者：這就是我們的幕后大師，多米尼克·安塞爾，也就是多米尼克·安塞爾面包房的大廚兼店主。

安塞爾：我花了大約兩個(gè)月來(lái)研究這個(gè)食譜，然后才想出像這樣的方法，能將混合了奶油和蛋漿的面團(tuán)輕易地油炸成型，且仍然能夠保持恰到好處的韌度，不會(huì)太難嚼或太松軟。

記者：很顯然，這個(gè)方法大獲全勝。它聽起來(lái)不錯(cuò)。不過(guò)許多油酥點(diǎn)心味道都不錯(cuò)?？隙ㄟ€有別的什么原因推動(dòng)這種“羊角甜甜圈熱”。我來(lái)問(wèn)問(wèn)厄瑪·贊德爾這個(gè)問(wèn)題。她是一位研究客戶行為和潮流的專家。

厄瑪·贊德爾：當(dāng)聽說(shuō)某個(gè)潮流風(fēng)尚時(shí)，大腦的某些部分就會(huì)變得極其活躍。而人們想要將其四散開來(lái)。

記者：艾莉森·卡魯斯是新書《全球的胃口：美國(guó)能量與食物中的文學(xué)》的作者。她說(shuō)，你能夠追溯食物的潮流直到文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期，那時(shí)候巧克力和香料突然大行其道。在某種程度上，這并不復(fù)雜。我們喜歡美味的東西。

艾莉森·卡魯斯：我們需要縱情享受。在人腦中對(duì)于食物有著某種基本甚至是原始的沖動(dòng)，希望其令人愉快，渴望與人共用和分享，且美味可口。

記者：但文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期和現(xiàn)在的一個(gè)巨大不同便是——科技。

贊德爾：我們從所有這些博客和社交媒體的出現(xiàn)中，可以看到的一點(diǎn)便是，人們對(duì)于出謀劃策且被人視為行家里手的欲望比以前更強(qiáng)烈了。

記者：在多米尼克·安塞爾第一次剛做出兩打羊角甜甜圈時(shí)，美食博客“格拉布街”就已經(jīng)為其撰文了。他說(shuō)就在那一天，流量增加了百分之三百，因?yàn)橛谐^(guò)14萬(wàn)個(gè)鏈接指向他們的網(wǎng)站。而就是在那個(gè)時(shí)候，安塞爾知道他會(huì)名聲大噪了。而門外排的那些長(zhǎng)隊(duì)？那不過(guò)是名聲的一部分罷了。

梅根·伯德（顧客）：這全都是為了親身體驗(yàn)一把。你必須來(lái)排長(zhǎng)隊(duì)，興奮不已。你可以聞到面包店里飄出的甜香。

記者：那是梅根·伯德。但對(duì)于那些無(wú)法來(lái)到紐約市一聞甜香的人，效仿者已經(jīng)遍布天下了。安塞爾已經(jīng)為“羊角甜甜圈”注冊(cè)了商標(biāo)，但在華盛頓特區(qū)，你可以買到“甜甜羊角包”。在溫哥華，有“炸羊角包”，而在菲律賓，唐恩都樂(lè)連鎖店已經(jīng)引進(jìn)了“甜甜圈羊角包”。唐恩都樂(lè)連鎖店的一位發(fā)言人聲稱，他們現(xiàn)在還沒有任何在美國(guó)銷售的計(jì)劃。但媒體的密切關(guān)注和所有這些模仿者的過(guò)分行徑是否正讓羊角甜甜圈走向崩潰呢？

卡魯斯：我們?nèi)萑桃环N產(chǎn)品，一個(gè)品牌，一個(gè)企業(yè)家接受公眾關(guān)注的時(shí)間就只有這么長(zhǎng)。因此，如果一年之后每個(gè)月還有上萬(wàn)條推特微博關(guān)注這種羊角甜甜圈，我會(huì)感到非常吃驚的。

記者：多米尼克·安塞爾說(shuō)，他對(duì)于大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)羊角甜甜圈或抬高其價(jià)格毫無(wú)興趣。到目前為止，他依然堅(jiān)持每個(gè)羊角甜甜圈五美元的售價(jià)，且限制每個(gè)客人只能買兩個(gè)。這是安·達(dá)克特等了兩個(gè)小時(shí)的獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。

安·達(dá)克特（顧客）：它看上去偏小。顏色很好看。黑莓看起來(lái)很漂亮。我要咬上一口試試了。嗯。絕對(duì)物有所值。絕對(duì)物有所值。

小資料

趕超科技更新速度的甜點(diǎn)們

你認(rèn)為“cronut”是唯一的跨界甜點(diǎn)新星嗎？那你就錯(cuò)了！最新爆料，在大洋彼岸的英國(guó)倫敦，來(lái)自于美國(guó)的大廚Bea Vo也不甘落后，先后發(fā)明出了“duffin”=“donut”+“muffin”，松餅面包內(nèi)填充新鮮果醬和黃油；以及“townie”=“brownie”+“tartlet”，蛋撻皮填上巧克力布朗尼，全都備受吃貨們的追捧?？磥?lái)美食這種事，沒有做不到，只有想不到，還真是創(chuàng)意最重要！說(shuō)到這里，小編不由得感嘆，這甜點(diǎn)比蘋果手機(jī)更新?lián)Q代來(lái)得還要快啊！