Fried Rice炒饭

I came home to Dad yelling at our CookBot again. There was a wok of fried rice on the stove.

我回到家，听见爸爸又在冲着家里的做饭机器人库克嚷嚷。炉子上放着一锅炒饭。

Dad said， “The damn machine can’t get it right. The garlic goes in when the oil is hot， not with the oil. And the ginger should be chopped fine. Really fine.”

爸爸说：“这该死的机器总做不对。大蒜要在油热后才下锅，而不是和油一起下锅。生姜要切细，非常细。”

Cook said， “Please define ‘really fine’ quantitatively.”

库克说：“请量化一下‘非常细’。”

“Fine means fine. Go look it up， you piece of junk.”

“细就是细。自己去查，你这没用的东西！”

We’ve had Cook for a month now. Ever since Mom died， Dad’s been trading one obsession for another. After periods of relentless exercising， house cleaning， and cataloging of Mom’s books， he’s now fixated on perfecting Cook’s fried rice. We’ve had fried rice every day for two weeks.

库克来我们家一个月了。妈妈去世以后，爸爸执着于一件又一件事。先是玩命锻炼身体，打扫房间，接着是整理妈妈的书籍，现在是一门心思地要完善库克的炒饭技术。连续两周，我们天天吃炒饭。

I helped myself to a plate and started eating. “It’s good， Dad. Better than yesterday.”

我自己盛了一盘，开始吃起来。“不错哦，老爸。比昨天的好。”

Cook said， “Thank you for your praise， Marta. Flavor profile is a 93% match versus original sample. This exceeds the average human detection of 85% minimum match for carbohydrate-based recipes.”

库克说：“谢谢夸奖，玛尔塔。根据风味剖面法，这份炒饭与原始样本匹配度为93%。这超过了85%——人类对碳水食谱能有所察觉的平均最小匹配值。

Dad said， “It’s not just about the flavor. You have to cook it right. If you can’t make fried rice， how are we going to move on to other dishes？”

爸爸说：“这不只是味道的问题，炒的方法得对才行。如果连炒饭都做不对，还怎么去做其他菜？”

“Progression does not need to be linear，” said Cook.

“不一定非要循序渐进，”库克说。

I said， “Shut down1， Cook. We’ll talk later.”

我说，“关机吧，库克。我们等会再聊。”

Cook retracted his pneumatic2 arms and rolled to his charging station beside the fridge. The display screen on his chest went black but I had a feeling he was still listening.

库克收回气动手臂，滚轮将他带到冰箱旁的充电站。他胸前的显示屏变黑了，但我感觉他还在听。

“Seriously， Dad， arguing with a bot？”

“你是认真的吗，老爸，和机器人吵架？”

“Who else am I going to argue with？ You’re out all the time.”

“我还能和谁吵？你老不着家。”

If I could， I would just eat my way through Cook’s three hundred pre-loaded five-star recipes. The ones I had tried were all delicious although it had felt like a betrayal at first， missing Mom but not her food. The problem was Dad.

如果可以，我真想把库克预装在系统里的300种五星级菜品吃个遍。虽然这么想刚开始会有种背叛的感觉，仿佛在想念妈妈却不想念她做的菜，但我尝试过的菜品的确都很美味。是爸爸在找茬。

Mom had refused to stop cooking before she died. She filled our two fridges and chest freezer with labelled plastic containers of everything she could think of cooking. Dad chipped away at the frozen food like it was gold， feeding samples into Cook’s analyzer to deconstruct and reproduce. Every attempt was declared a failure despite the flavor profile matching. I was starting to think it’d been a mistake getting a Cookbot， that it’d given Dad an excuse for not moving on.

妈妈直到去世之前都不愿意停止做饭。家里两个冰箱和冰柜塞满了贴标签的塑料盒，所有她能想到用来做饭的东西应有尽有。爸爸把这些冷冻食品一点点凿开，就像凿金子一样，然后再把样本输入库克的分析仪，让它进行分解重制。尽管口味匹配，但他每次都说不成功。我开始觉得买做饭机器人是个错误，因为它给了爸爸拒绝重新开始生活的借口。

Later that night， I went into the kitchen. “Wake up， Cook.”

那天晚上晚些时候，我走进厨房。“库克，醒醒。”

Cook’s screen came on. “Hello. Would you like a snack？”

库克的屏幕亮了。“您好，您要点心吗？”

“I wouldn’t mind a roti3 if you have some dal4 curry.”

“如果有木豆咖喱的话，我想吃烙饼。”

“Dal curry is available. Your meal will be ready in twelve minutes. Calorie count is three hundred and sixty.”

“木豆咖喱有。您的餐点将在十二分钟内做好。热量是360卡路里。”

“You didn’t need to tell me that.”

“你不用告诉我这个。”

“Instruction to provide calorie information for snacks was given on August first.”

“提供点心热量信息的指令是8月1日下达的。”

Cook took a dough ball from the fridge. He stretched it into a thin， rubbery skin， flipped and twirled it in the air before folding and patting it into shape on the hot griddle with his tong hands.

库克从冰箱拿出一个面团。他把面团抻成一层薄薄的、有弹力的面皮，然后在空中翻转、旋转面皮，最后用钳手在滚烫的铁板上折叠拍打成型。

I said， “How many fried rice recipes do you have， Cook？”

我问：“库克，你有多少炒饭的菜谱？”

“Seven. One was dictated by your father.”

“七种。其中一种是您父亲口述的。”

“Please add this to Dad’s recipe. Chop garlic and ginger into fine pieces of not more than one millimeter in size. Heat oil in wok until smoking. Add chopped garlic and ginger. Sauté5 until fragrant. Did you get that， Cook？ Can you tell when it’s fragrant？”

“请把我说的补充到老爸的菜谱里。将大蒜和生姜切成不超过一毫米的细末。锅里放油加热至冒烟。放入切好的蒜和姜，炒至出香味。明白了吗，库克？出香味时你能闻到吗？”

“Yes. My olfactory6 sensors can detect increased concentrations of allicin and gingerol compounds in the air around the stove. That is what you define as fragrant.”

“清楚，我的嗅觉传感器可以检测火炉周围空气中大蒜素和姜酚化合物浓度的增加。那就是你所说的香味。”

“How do we solve this problem with Dad？ I don’t want to be eating fried rice for the rest of the year.”

“我们怎么解决老爸的问题？我可不想今年余下的日子都吃炒饭。”

“Please define the problem. I have made fried rice for sixteen consecutive days. The repetition is unacceptable according to my nutrition planning algorithm.”

“请明确一下问题。我已经连续做了16天炒饭。根据我的营养计划算法，如此重复饮食并不可取。”

“OK， here’s the problem. Dad wants fried rice to taste like Mom’s. Flavor profile is matched， but Dad is not satisfied. He’s hurting. You are not Mom. You can’t cook like Mom.”

“好吧，是这样的。老爸希望炒饭的味道和妈妈做的一样。即使风味分析合格，但老爸就是不满意。他很痛苦。你不是妈妈，你做的饭跟妈妈做的不一样。

“Concise problem statement is ‘You are not Mom’. Please describe Mom.”