Smashed cucumber salad, a new dish popular with Americans

The difference between a sliced cucumber salad and a smashed cucumber salad reveals itself on first bite.

切片黄瓜和拍黄瓜的差别，一口就能吃出来。

Sliced cucumbers have a smooth, impenetrable surface, and when you introduce them to dressing, they usually shrug it off. By contrast, smashed cucumbers are wide open: Their craggy edges and rough surfaces absorb flavors and form relationships in seconds.

切片黄瓜表面光滑、不易入味，调料加在上面往往会滑落。拍黄瓜则不然：它不规则的棱角和粗糙的表面极易吸收调料，几秒钟的工夫就能入味。

Smashing (or smacking) cucumbers for salad is a standard technique in many parts of Asia that is showing its trendy side in New York this summer.

报道称，拍黄瓜是亚洲很多地方的标准做法，今年夏天，它也成为纽约的一股潮流。

"It's cool how just changing the way you break down an ingredient completely changes the way it feels and tastes," said Danny Bowien, the chef at Mission Chinese Food on the Lower East Side.

"只不过是采用不同的方法处理食材，就能彻底改变它的口感和味道，这真的很酷，"下东区Mission Chinese Food餐厅的大厨丹尼·博温(Danny Bowien)说。

Here's the technique: With one hand, the cook lays the blade of a knife flat on top of the cucumber, with the cucumber resting under the widest part of the blade. The heel of the other hand comes down sharply on the blade, as though the cook is smashing a garlic clove to remove its peel. (Alternatively, a wooden mallet or rolling pin can be used, as they are in Japan.)

拍黄瓜的做法是这样的：用一只手把刀平放在黄瓜上，把黄瓜放在刀面最宽处的下方。用另一只手的掌根往刀面上猛拍，和拍蒜以去除蒜皮的做法一样（也可以像日本人那样，用木锤或擀面杖拍）。

Once smashed, the cucumbers are roughly sliced or broken up with the hands — even better for removing the watery seeds — then sprinkled with salt and briefly set aside. This process softens the skin, firms the flesh and turns the peel a bright and appetizing green. It's important to use fresh, firm-fleshed cucumbers; old soft ones will turn to mush.

拍完之后，大致切几下，或者用手掰开——用手去掉湿滑的黄瓜籽更方便——然后撒上盐，腌一会儿。这个过程能让瓜肉变得更紧实，瓜皮变软，变成诱人的鲜绿色。关键是要用瓜肉紧实的嫩黄瓜，软软的老黄瓜会被拍碎。

The Chinese staple cucumber salad, pai huang gua, is dressed with a vinaigrette of soy sauce, rice or black vinegar, garlic and sesame oil. In the North and West, chiles and sometimes Sichuan peppercorns are often added.

中国的凉拌拍黄瓜大多是加入酱油、米醋或陈醋、蒜和芝麻油。在北方和西北，人们往往还会往里面加辣椒和花椒。

Smashed cucumbers have long been found at local Chinese restaurants, like Xi'an Famous Foods. But this summer, they are suddenly everywhere: At Mr. Bowien's Mexican-influenced restaurant Mission Cantina, dressed with an intensely flavored, lime-, cumin- and oregano-spiked sesame paste;

很早以前，纽约的一些中餐馆就有拍黄瓜，比如西安名吃(Xi'an Famous Foods)。但是今年夏天，突然之间，哪儿都是拍黄瓜。博温的墨西哥风味Mission Cantina餐馆是在拍黄瓜里加入味道浓郁的芝麻酱，芝麻酱里含有酸橙、孜然和牛至叶粉；

at the new Untitled at the Whitney, in a dish of soba noodles, baby turnips and tuna tartare; at the Ippudo ramen restaurants, where the cucumber is lightly smashed and dressed with sesame oil and garlic. (On the menu, it is called yamitsuki goma kyuri, or "addictive sesame cucumber.")

惠特尼博物馆(Whitney)新开的无名餐厅(Untitled)是在荞麦面里加入拍黄瓜、小萝卜和鞑靼金枪鱼；一风堂拉面馆(Ippudo)是把黄瓜轻拍，用芝麻油和大蒜调味（它在菜单上的名字是"让人上瘾的芝麻油黄瓜"[addictive sesame cucumber]）。

At Superiority Burger in the East Village, the craggy pieces are mixed with a fiercely tangy yogurt, drizzled with jalapeño honey and sprinkled with crushed sesame breadsticks.

东村的超级汉堡(Superiority Burger)餐厅把参差不齐的黄瓜块和味道浓烈的酸奶混合在一起，再撒上一点墨西哥青辣椒酱和芝麻棍子面包屑。

"There's something about the roughness, and the variety of shapes and sizes, that you get with smashing that is incredibly satisfying," said Julia Goldberg, a sous-chef who devised the dish with Brooks Headley, the chef and owner of Superiority Burger.

"拍黄瓜很粗糙，形状、大小不一，特别令人满意，"朱莉娅·戈德伯格(Julia Goldberg)说。她是超级汉堡餐厅的副主厨，她和餐厅的大厨兼老板布鲁克斯·黑德利(Brooks Headley)一起创造了那道菜。

Ms. Goldberg has figured out some useful tweaks to the usual method. She smashes the cucumbers inside a sealed plastic bag to keep the seeds from flying everywhere, and uses the same bag, filled with ice, as a weight on top of the draining cucumbers to make them even colder and crunchier.

戈德伯格对拍黄瓜的常见方法进行了一些改动，很是有用。她把黄瓜放进密封塑料袋中拍打，以免黄瓜籽四处飞溅。她还在同一塑料袋中装满冰块，放在沥过水的黄瓜上，让它们更冷、更脆。

"I love the idea of manipulating an ingredient with my hands instead of a knife for once," she said.

"只有这一次，我喜欢用手而非用刀来处理一种食材，"她说。