有關培根 About bacon
咱身為土生土長的台灣人，在美國南部叛逆了徬徨青春期，在盧森堡闖蕩了不安於室期，在澳洲穩定了早老青壯期。當然其中有很多不為人知的辛酸淚（大部分是被感慨怎麼會這麼蠢），不過我忽然很想寫培根：美式培根及英式培根。
Growing up as a typical Taiwanese, I had rebelled the dazed adolescence in the deep south of U.S.A., I had trial-and-error the restless early adulthood in Luxembourg, and I had settled down the overly-ripe young adulthood in Australia. Obviously the journey has been filled with bitter-sweet moments (alright, it has mostly been filled with the dumb-and-dumber moments), however I all the sudden really want to write about bacon: American style and British style.
照片清楚的比較出來，美式培根脆、薄，肥肉多，煎起來肉乾樣。英式培根韌、厚，瘦肉多，煎起來肉片樣。
The pictures clearly show the comparison: American style is crispy, thin, and fatty; once grilled, it became more a jerky. British style is chewy, thick, and lean; once grilled, it stayed in its original slice.
那來比較一下價位。在網上找沃爾瑪賣的三百四十克的美式培根要價約美金五塊（促銷價美金兩塊五）而在網上找特易購賣的一公斤的英式培根要價約六英鎊。用二零二零年七月底匯率（一美金比七十八便士）來計算一公克培根的價格，結果真心讓我匪夷所思。
Let’s compare price. I searched online to find Walmart sells 340 grams of American style bacon for around USD $5 (sales price at $2.5), and Tesco sells 1kg of British style bacon for approximately GBP £6. Using the FX rate at end of Jul 2020 (1 USD to 78 pence) to calculate the cost per one gram of bacon, and the outcome truly perplexed me.
這個比較結果讓我好奇。假設有幾種可能：是因為供需關係的影響，好比說在美國需求量高過供給量，所以美國的培根單價高過英國的（就二零零九年的統計美國人的確比英國人更肉食性*）；或者說英國的貨物流通性比給美國來的高，所以就反映在相較低廉的成本裡；抑或是美國農夫養豬的成本比英國農夫來的高（有可能是政府補助金的差異，或是農業自動化的差異等等）。
This result got me curious. Hypothesise the possible drivers: effects of supply and demand, for example, the demand was higher than supply in the States, hence the higher unit cost of bacon in the States than in the UK (based on the 2009 statistics Americans were more carnivorous than British); or the UK has better logistics than the States, therefore reflective in the relatively cheaper unit cost of bacon; or could it be that the costs of raising pigs for American farmers were higher than British farmers (let it be the differences in government subsidy, or the different level of agriculture automation, etc).
儘管這些數據不能解釋美式與英是培根的差異，但是培根就是培根就是培根。我們應該努力看破外表的差異，並且擁抱物質的本質。它就是培根。
Despite the fact these statistics cannot explain the differences between American-style vs British-style bacon, bacon is bacon is bacon. We should strive to look beyond the differences in appearance, and embrace the essence in substances. It is bacon.
* Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2013). “Current Worldwide Annual Meat Consumption per capita”
無三小路用通識之玉米麵包和培根 Useless Common Sense of Cornbread and Bacon
培根似乎並不是美國人的歷久彌新的喜好，反之，早在一八五三年的【德州旅記】裡，佛羅德里克．勞．奧爾姆斯特德，一位紐約的建築師作家，如此形容他第一次與玉米麵包和培根的相遇：
在這一頓晚餐中我算是第一次實際接觸，那些很快的變成我人生中的毒藥，也就是，玉米麵包和培根。我憨厚無所警覺地進食了這些菜餚，因為它們看起來是晚餐的主食；我一點也沒想到在未來的六個月我除了這些食物外沒有其他的選擇。這裡，有其他的肉類和出色的烤番薯在案，它們輕鬆地被消化掉。單用，還搭配著低劣的咖啡，我深沉地懷疑，有誰能容忍這些東西？
Bacon doesn’t seem to be a timeless favourite by Americans. In the contrast, the description of the first encounter with cornbread and bacon, by a New York-based writer and architect Frederick Law Olmsted, in a 1853 travelogue “A Journey Through Texas”, wasn’t all that enticing:
At this dinner I made the first practical acquaintance with what shortly was to be the bane of my life, viz., corn-bread and bacon. I partook innocent and unsuspicious of these dishes, as they seemed to be the staple of the meal, without a thought that for the next six months I should actually see nothing else. Here, relieved by other meats and by excellent sweet potatoes baked and in pone, they disappeared in easy digestion. Taken alone, with vile coffee, I may ask, with deep feeling, who is sufficient for these things?
無三小路用通識之紅脖子 Useless Common Sense of Redneck
紅脖子算是侮辱人的詞，泛指早期美國南部的藍領工人，沒受什麼教育且因長期低頭在陽光下勞動所以頸後那塊部分會被太陽曬得通紅。
Redneck is considered an insulting term; in general it refers to people in southern states of U.S.A., who were less educated blue collar labours and worked under the sun with the back of their neck being exposed to the sun — the back of their neck became redneck.
