文/肯德拉·皮埃尔-路易斯 译/乔虹

Consider the mushroom.Whether it’s a squat button or a broad portobello1portobello 一种蘑菇，西餐中常见。学名为双孢蘑菇，可称为波托贝洛蘑菇、霸王菇、褐蘑菇等。, many people would rather skip a meal than chow down on spongy fungi.Others may like mushrooms just fine,but recoil at the slippery innards of a fresh tomato.

想一想蘑菇。无论是矮胖的小草菇，还是肥厚的褐蘑菇，许多人宁舍一顿饭，也不愿吃这种海绵般的真菌。有的人可能挺喜欢蘑菇，但不敢尝试新鲜番茄滑溜溜的内瓤。

2What these foods share is that a hater’s dislike is rooted in texture.“What I noticed and also learned by talking to chefs is that most complaints about food are about texture,” says Ole Mouritsen,a professor of gastrophysics2gastrophysics 美食物理学。指将物理理论和试验方法应用于食物、烹饪和饮食方面的学问。该词由gastronomy（美食学，烹饪法）和physics（物理）缩合而成。at the University of Copenhagen.People may grumble that a dish has too little or too much salt, he notes, but that’s generally where discussions of taste end.It’s more typical for diners to bemoan that a piece of meat isn’t as tender as they’d hoped,or that their fries are soggy instead of crisp.

2这些食物的共同点是：厌恶者的反感源自其质地。哥本哈根大学的美食物理学教授奥勒·莫里特森说：“根据我自己的观察，以及同主厨们的交谈，大多数关于食物的抱怨其实都跟食物质地有关。”他指出，人们可能会抱怨一道菜太淡或太咸，但通常关于味道的讨论也就到此为止了。更有代表性的是，食客们会抱怨一块肉不像希望的那样嫩，或是薯条受潮变得软趴趴，不松脆了。

3Other culinary traditions have long embraced variations in texture, from the sticky to the slimy.Italians cook pasta al dente so it retains a bit of firmness when bitten.In Taiwanese cuisine, diners applaud a springiness known as Q or QQ—the bouncy chew of savory fish balls and the tapioca pearls in bubble tea.

3其他的烹饪传统长期以来一直尝试不同质地的食材带来的各种口感，从黏腻到黏滑不一而足。意大利人将意面做得很有嚼劲，这样咬起来会有紧实感。在中国台湾的美食中，食客们喜爱一种被称为Q 或QQ 的弹性口感，比如美味鱼丸和奶茶中木薯珍珠的弹牙感。

4According to one 2008 paper inThe Journal of Texture Studies, English has only slightly more than 130 words to describe the way foods feel in our mouths.Japanese has more than 400 such terms, most of which are onomatopoeic.There’s hoku-hoku, or the starchy, dense sensation one gets when biting into a steamed sweet potato, and fuwa-fuwa for the structure of light,fluffy treats like marshmallows.English has far fewer descriptors, and most—like crackle, crack, crisp, crunch, and snap—refer to the sensation of biting into something firm.

4根据2008 年发表在《质构研究》上的一篇论文，英语中描述食物口感的单词只有130 挂零。而日语中有400 多个这样的词，大多数是拟声词。比如：hoku-hoku，形容蒸熟的甘薯那种淀粉含量高、密实的口感；还有fuwa-fuwa，形容像棉花糖那种结构轻盈、蓬松食物的口感。英语中这样的描述词少得多，大多是指咬到硬东西的感觉，像“噼啪（crackle）”“啪嚓（crack）”“咔滋（crisp）”“嘎 吱（crunch）”和“咔嚓（snap）”等。

5After years of neglect by American gourmands, the rise of meat alternatives is pushing mouthfeel to center stage.

5在被美国饕客忽视多年后，肉类替代品的兴起将口感推向中央舞台。

6A 2020 Gallup poll found that a quarter of US adults had eaten less meat in the previous year than they had in the year before that, with most citing health and environmental concerns.As more folks look to reduce consumption, companies are cropping up to help them do so without sacrificing flavor.According to data from the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that encourages the production of meat alternatives, the industry grew roughly 70 percent between 2018 and 2020, from $811 million to $1.4 billion.Fast-food chains including Qdoba,White Castle, and Burger King now sell the beef like morsels of brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

62020 年的一项盖洛普民意调查发现，美国四分之一的成年人去年吃的肉比前年少，其中大多数人是出于健康和环境方面的考虑。由于更多人希望少吃肉，突然冒出来多家公司帮助他们在这样做的同时享受到肉味。根据鼓励肉类替代品生产的非营利组织好食品研究所的数据，这项产业在2018年至2020 年间增长了约70%，产值从8.11 亿美元增长到14亿美元。包括Qdoba、白色城堡和汉堡王在内的多家快餐连锁店现在都出售Impossible Foods 和别样肉客等品牌的类似牛肉的小块人造肉。

7But getting something to feel like flesh isn’t easy.The folks at Wildtype,a startup in San Francisco, ran into this problem when they first tried growing salmon in a lab.Their early attempts were “pretty far off,” says co-founder Aryé Elfenbein.They had tested real fish with a machine that analyzed resistance and stretch in an attempt to quantify texture, but “there was a lot that the data just wasn’t capturing.”

7不过，要让什么东西尝起来像肉并不容易。旧金山食品科技初创公司Wildtype 的工作人员第一次尝试在实验室中培育三文鱼时就遇到了这个难题。联合创始人阿里耶·埃尔芬拜因表示，他们早期的尝试结果“差得非常远”。他们用一台分析阻力和弹性的机器检测了真鱼，试图量化其质地，但“很多东西是数据表达不出来的”。

8To understand why, says CEO Justin Kolbeck, think about what happens when you bite into a piece of sashimi.At first, he says, you notice a touch of fibrousness.But that’s not the whole story.“As you’re chewing, it has that initial give,” he says.“And then when your teeth start to bite into it, there’s almost different layers ripping apart.”Making something taste fishy is one thing; giving people fish flavor means getting that multifaceted chew just right.Once Wildtype figures out what shape cells need to take in order to produce the perfect bite, it can steer its process accordingly.

8该公司首席执行官贾斯汀·科尔贝克表示，要想了解其中的原因，可以想想吃生鱼片时的感觉。他说，一开始，你会注意到一种纤维感。但这不是全部。“咀嚼的时候，鱼肉最初会带给人这种感觉。”他说，“牙齿咬进鱼肉后，鱼肉几乎是一层一层被撕开。”让什么东西吃起来像鱼是一码事；而让人们尝到鱼的风味就意味着要恰到好处地再现那种全方位的咀嚼感受。一旦Wildtype 弄清楚细胞需要做成什么形状才能产生完美口感，它就可以相应地控制制作过程。

9Companies starting sans animal cells have a tougher time.They’ve got to break down the structure of a plant protein and use it to mimic the shape of an animal protein.That’s one reason Beyond and Impossible began by replicating patties and sausages—not filet mignon.In a 2019 interview, Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown claimed the company would eventually tackle“whole cuts” of ersatz beef, but vegan T-bones have yet to hit the market.

9从一开始就弃用动物细胞的公司更不容易。他们必须分解植物蛋白的结构，并利用其模仿动物蛋白的形状。这是别样肉客和Impossible 以复制肉饼和香肠而非菲力牛排为起点的原因之一。在2019 年的一次采访中，Impossible Foods 创始人帕特·布朗称，该公司最终将研制出“整块”人造牛肉，但素食T 骨迄今仍未上市。

10Meanwhile, Mouritsen notes that another growing group of Americans may push for more interesting textural experiences: those who’ve lost their sense of smell.This phenomenon,known as anosmia, has always affected a small number of people—some estimates put it at roughly 3 percent of adults over age 40—because of genetics, illnesses such as Parkinson’s, or radiation treatment.But the condition is becoming more common because of COVID-19.According to one estimate,more than 40 percent of patients experience some loss of taste and/or smell.While research on long-term COVID effects is still scant, it seems this dulling of the senses may be permanent in a small percentage of the population.

10同时，莫里特森指出，还有一类美国人在逐渐增加，他们可能会追求更有意思的质地体验，即那些失去嗅觉的人。这种被称为嗅觉缺失症的病症一直影响着一小部分人——据估计，在40 岁以上的成年人中，大约3%患有该症——致病原因是遗传、帕金森症等疾病或放射治疗。但是，新冠肺炎的暴发让这种病症变得更加常见。据估计，超过40%的患者经历了味觉和/或嗅觉某种程度的丧失。尽管关于新冠肺炎长期影响的研究仍然很少，但似乎这种感官迟钝对一小部分人来说可能是永久性的症状。

11People with anosmia often report finding food less pleasurable.This can lead them to opt for more hyperprocessed grub—such products are easier to sense because they tend to contain a lot of salt and sugar—or to suffer from nutritional deficiencies.Shifting the focus to texture can make eating more pleasant.That’s why Ben and Jerry’s ice cream has so many chunks: The eponymous Ben has suffered from anosmia since childhood.

11患有嗅觉缺失症的人经常说，他们发现食物不那么诱人了。这可能导致他们选择更多过度加工的食品——这类食品更容易尝出味道，因为往往含有大量的盐和糖——或导致他们营养不良。将注意力转移到食物质地上可能让进食更加愉快。这就是为什么本杰瑞品牌的冰淇淋大多做成厚实的大块：品牌同名创始人本从小患有嗅觉缺失症。

12In the case of people who develop the condition later in life, as is the case with COVID patients, Mouritsen says,cranking up the volume of one sensory experience can trigger memories of another.“Mouthfeel stimulates the brain,”he says, “so you sort of remember what the taste and odor used to be like.” ■

12莫里特森说，对于长大后出现这种症状的人，就像新冠患者一样，增加一种感官体验的强度可能触发对另一种感官体验的记忆。“口感会刺激大脑，”他说，“所以人们会依稀记起以前的味道和气味。” □