夏天什么水果最好吃（五种最美味的夏季水果）

五种最美味的夏季水果

The Best Fruits of Summer, Ranked

纽约时报中文网

2018年5月24日

The season for most summer fruits is short. In some cases, it’s not short enough. Mulberries, reaching the peak of their stewed-shoe flavor and falling one by one to the ground, noticed only by flies? Nope. Black currants, useful only for crème de cassis, and then only if you have a broad definition of “useful”? No, thanks. Honeydews, indestructible totems of hotel breakfast buffets? Not until all the batter at the make-your-own waffle station is gone, and probably not even then.

大多数夏季水果的季节很短。有的在到达美味巅峰时就会从树上掉落，比如桑葚；有的只能用来制作饮品或调料，比如黑加仑。这个夏天，我要等下面的五种水果上市。它们凭借口感、简单方便的吃法赢得了这个名单上的位置，但每一种是完美的，只要你拿起它，吃起来。

I’ll wait for the five charmers below. They earned their positions by their versatility, although each one can be perfect if you just, you know, pick it up and eat it.

5 覆盆子

5. Raspberries

在浆果中，它们的滋味最让人感到愉快，但新鲜度消失得也很快。在市场上看起来像一篮红宝石，到了你家门口就变得稀烂。美国人似乎忘记了新鲜的覆盆子汁有多好，也可以用它们来制作冰淇淋圣代。单独放一些糖，静置15分钟后，它们可以作为一块蛋糕顶部的装饰，唯一的竞争对手就是草莓。不过，与草莓不同的是，覆盆子在烹饪时不会变得软塌。如果你能用公道的价格买到它，试试做果酱吧。在325度温度下，用糖烘烤20分钟左右，然后搅拌使糖溶解，就会变成非常疏松的果酱。它不能保存很久，但它尝起来就像早晨的阳光。

They have the cheeriest and most hopeful flavor of the berries, but act fast. What looked like a basket of jewels at the market can turn to mush by the time you get to your front door. Americans seem to be forgetting how good fresh raspberry purée can be — strain and sweeten it, and you are two-thirds of the way to peach Melba, or an ice cream sundae. Left alone with some sugar for 15 minutes they will also give you a topping for shortcake or angel food cake, whose only near rival is a mound of macerated strawberries. Unlike strawberries, though, raspberries don’t lose their spirit when you cook them. If you can get a flat or two at a decent price, make jam right away. But just a pint, baked with their weight in sugar at 325 degrees for 20 minutes or so and then stirred to dissolve the sugar, will make a very loose jam. (Darina Allen goes into more detail, but not much more, in her book “Forgotten Skills of Cooking.”) It won’t keep long, but it will taste like the morning sun.

4 桃子

4. Peaches

桃子几乎是不会出错的。用手拿着啃，即使吃相乱七八糟也无所谓。放进酥皮水果馅饼里同样美味。还没熟透的桃子可以丢进沙拉或煎锅里，几分钟后放上黄油和调料（多香果？茴香籽？藏红花？）它们准备好了迎接烤鸭肉、猪排或火腿切片。但是要留意，完全成熟的桃子保鲜时限非常短。如果在温度高的下午，几个小时就足以让它们长满霉菌。

A peach is almost impossible to screw up. Eaten out of hand, it is the best kind of mess. A quart or more in a cobbler, pie, slump, crisp, crumble, betty or buckle is always good, even if the baker isn’t. Before they’re ripe, peaches can slip into a salad or a skillet, where after a few minutes with butter and seasoning (allspice? fennel seed? saffron? sage?) they are ready to meet grilled duck, pork chops or a sliced ham. Once they’re soft all over, eat or cook without delay. Even a few hours in a fruit bowl on a summer afternoon is enough to fur them with mold, after which emergency measures may or may not help.

3 蓝莓

3. Blueberries

蓝莓是唯一原产于北美的夏季水果。它们之所以能获得高排名，部分原因是它们经常出现在野外，遍布山谷草地和山顶。生长在地面的灌木里有最颜色最深、个头最小、甜度最高的蓝莓，而高灌木品种可以更快地装满你的帽子或篮子。一点点的蓝莓就足够做薄煎饼、松饼或一碗早餐麦片了。吃一大碗蓝莓本身就是一种奢侈。然而，另一个让它们进入前三名的特点是，只要把一小撮蓝莓加入到任何用核果或其他浆果制成的食物中，就能在视觉和味觉上产生爆炸的效果。

Blueberries are the only big-deal summer fruit that is native to North America. They earn their high ranking in part by appearing so often in the wild, spread across valley meadows and mountaintop clearings. The ground-hugging, scrubby bushes have the darkest, smallest, most concentrated fruit, while the high-bush varieties will fill your hat or basket faster. A small haul can be enough for pancakes, muffins or a bowl of cereal; more means a fool or a pie. For either one, try making half into a compote and, after it cools, stirring in the other half. Big portions of blueberries alone can be a luxury. The other trait that raises them high on the list, though, is that even a handful pitched into anything made with stone fruits, or other berries, produces tiny explosions of flavor and color.

2 樱桃

2. Cherries

没人会分享一颗樱桃。它的乐趣是私人的，从把它摘下后，它在你嘴里滚动的方式，到突然涌出来的果汁，在你一年的第一次品尝中，果汁的味道总是比你记忆中的更浓郁、复杂。樱桃有很多品种，把它们烤成一道克拉芙提甜点，做成馅饼，你会希望自己多买了10磅冷藏进冰箱。用糖和香草豆一起炖煮，你会得到苏打、酸橙酒、各种鸡尾酒的调料，或者是一种鲜亮而浓郁的冰淇淋酱。

Nobody shares a cherry. Its pleasures are private, from the way it rolls loose in your mouth once you pluck the stem to the sudden rush of juice — which in your first taste of the year is always more lush and complicated than you remember — to the quiet, propulsive exit of a stripped-clean pit. The cherry in question is a sweet variety, Bing or Rainier or Queen Anne, usually very cold, although the juice of a cherry left in the sun has a wonderful urgency. Sour cherries’ rewards take more effort. Bake them, stones and all, into a clafoutis. Pit them for a pie filling that will make you wish you’d bought 10 more pounds for the freezer. Boil them with sugar and maybe a vanilla bean, and you have a base for sodas, lime rickeys, any number of cocktails, the sharbats that Persian hosts pour for their grateful guests, or best of all an ice cream sauce so bright and intense that other toppings can stand down.

1 西瓜

1. Watermelons

你可以说它味道平淡，或者单一。你可以说它很无聊，引发不起什么争论。但西瓜并不是因为它是一种复杂芳香的集合水果而成为夏季水果冠军。不，西瓜渴望参加眼前的任何派对。小气的大学二年级生在喝酒吗？切开一角，耐心地给西瓜喂一瓶伏特加，就像你在给一只宠物猪喂婴儿配方奶一样，然后把它冷藏起来。鸡尾酒专家？把一整个西瓜的头盖切掉，挖出果肉，再把酒倒进瓜壳里，好好抱着你的西瓜鸡尾酒。让人意外的禁酒主义者？混合，过滤，加入水和酸橙汁——这就是墨西哥著名的agua de sandia。最后一分钟的午餐？把西瓜切成方块，与红洋葱、羊乳酪一起搅拌，用油、龙蒿叶、薄荷或茴藿香调味。晚餐不想下厨？用一半番茄，一半西瓜做成一道西班牙凉菜汤，撒醋的时候可别含蓄。烧烤晚餐？呃，烤西瓜有点恶心。把它冷藏起来，切成小块作为甜点吧。

You could call its flavor plain. Or one-dimensional. You could say it’s boring and still not get much argument. But complex aromatic compounds did not make the watermelon the champion of summer fruits. No, it is the watermelon’s eagerness to join any party in sight. Cheapskate sophomores on a bender? Carve out a plug of rind, patiently feed the melon a bottle of vodka as if you were giving baby formula to a pet pig, then stopper it up and refrigerate. Neo-tiki sophisticates? Saber the top off, scoop the guts out, and behold the bowl for your watermelon punch. Unexpected teetotalers? Blend, strain, add water and lime juice — that’s agua de sandia. Last minute lunch? Knock wedges or cubes together with red onions and feta or an other salty young goat or sheep cheese, splatter it with oil and tarragon, mint, or anise hyssop. Dinner without cooking? A half-tomato, half-watermelon gazpacho, don’t be shy with the vinegar. All-grilled dinner? Hmm, grilled watermelon is sort of nasty. Just keep it cold and cut it up for dessert.

西瓜本质上是一种社会性水果，为集体而生。在炎炎夏日，当人们一起分享，或者心血来潮地要用它进行恶作剧时，它是最让人快乐的水果之王。