deflate  [dɪ'fleɪt] 

v. 瘪下来

图片来源:KFC

KFC’s latest salvo in the chicken sandwich arms race (wings race?) in the fast-food industry immediately prompted outrage.
肯德基在快餐行业的鸡肉三明治军备竞赛(鸡翅竞赛?)中发起的最新攻势即刻使人们愤怒了。

Some, understandably, saw the over-the-top offering — a fried hunk of bird between two glazed doughnuts in place of a bun — as a nutritional abomination: the fat! the sugar! the calorieeeeees! 
有人视这种过于夸张的食品为一种令人讨厌的营养成分:脂肪!糖!卡路里!!!这是可以理解的,因为它用两个浇了糖浆的甜甜圈替换了夹着炸鸡的小圆面包。

Others had more existential takes. “Fried industrial chicken smashed between two stale doughnuts is maybe the best metaphor yet for Trump’s America,” was Grub Street’s summation.
其他人对此则持存在主义的观点。格拉布街(人们发表观点的一个平台)总结道,“被两个不新鲜的甜甜圈毁掉的炸鸡也许是迄今为止对特朗普领导的美国的最佳隐喻。”

But what if — and stick with me here — it were actually … delicious?
但如果它真的……很好吃,并吸引了我怎么办?

Reader, I think it might be.
读者们,我想可能会这样的。

I tried the sandwich at a KFC in Hopewell, Va., outside Richmond, one of three markets where the chain is testing the limited-time menu addition. 
我在弗吉尼亚州里士满外围的霍普威尔的一家肯德基试吃了这种三明治。这是肯德基测试这一限时新品的三个门店之一。

For $5.99, I got the sandwich (does anyone really need a side of potato wedges with this?) and a gratis case of early-onset regret for the gastronomic sin I was about to commit.
我花了5.99美元买到了这种三明治(配菜是一份薯角,但你真的还需要再多那一份热量吗?),免费附送的还有我提前对这次胡吃海塞怀有的深深悔意。

It arrived in a cardboard shell bearing a clue as to what I’d find inside: Running down the side was a large drip of sugary glaze, like a warning sign on a highway to Candyland. 
它被装在一个硬纸盒里,盒子上为我提供了里面所盛食品的线索:一大滴糖浆沿边淌下,就像通往糖果乐园的公路上的一个警示标志。

But I had braved the traffic on Interstate 95, and now I was seated under a large poster of Colonel Sanders and there was no turning back. 
但我在95号州际公路上都勇敢地穿过车流了,而如今我坐在桑德斯上校的大幅海报下,没有回头路了。

Once in hand, it was clear the doughnuts were fresh from the fryer, evidenced by the way the topping melted off the pastry, pooling on the paper bed beneath it and sticking to my fingers as I attempted to wrestle it into my maw.
拿到它之后,显然甜甜圈是刚炸出来的,因为上面淋着的糖浆都融化了,并淌了下来,粘在了下面的纸盒上,当我试图把它吃掉的时候,糖浆还粘到了我的手指上。

But when I did? A sweet-meets-salty, crispy-meets-pillowy mash-up that my lizard brain immediately loved despite that snooty voice in my head mocking it. The chicken filet was well-seasoned and juicy, encased in a peppery, craggy coating. 
但这是什么时候粘上的呢?我那善变的头脑立刻就被这种甜中带咸、软脆混搭的食品所俘获,尽管我的脑海里有一个傲慢的声音在嘲笑它。夹着的鸡排鲜美多汁,鸡排表面还裹着一层辛辣的脆皮。

The soft doughnuts deflated a bit as I ate, pressing the glaze into the chicken and making the concoction easier to handle, though I still went through seven napkins eating only half of it.
在我品尝它的时候,软软的甜甜圈瘪了一点,把糖浆压在鸡肉上,使这种调配品更容易食用,不过我还是只吃了一半就用了七张餐巾纸。

 

今日词汇

deflate  [dɪ'fleɪt]  

v. 瘪下来

 

He deflated the dinghy and folded it up.
他把橡皮艇的气排空,然后把它叠好。

 

deflation 通货紧缩