When you think of Sweden, what comes to mind?
当提到瑞典时，你会联想到什么呢？
Ikea? ABBA?
宜家家居、ABBA 乐团？
Maybe those delicious cinnamon rolls?
又或许你想到的是美味的肉桂卷？
But what about these?
不过这些小东西呢？
Swedish meatballs.
瑞典肉丸。
Right?
是瑞典的对吧？
Well, maybe not.
这个嘛，或许不是喔。
Welcome to the meatball mystery.
欢迎来到肉丸的身世之谜。
Let's cut straight to the chase.
我们就直接切入主题吧。
It's hard to make the Swedes angry, but on one fateful day, something happened that fired up the whole country.
要让瑞典人生气并不容易，但在这历史性的一天所发生的某件事情，让全瑞典人都气炸了。
This tweet was sent from the official Sweden Twitter account:
这篇文章是由瑞典的官方推特账号所发出的：
"Swedish meatballs actually based on a recipe from King Charles XII brought back from Turkey in the early 18th century. Let's stick to the facts".
"瑞典肉丸这个食谱实际上是卡尔十二世在 18 世纪初从土耳其带回来的。好好面对事实吧。 "
Yikes.
哎哟。
Did you catch that?
你听到他们是怎么说的了吗？
The tweet said that Swedish meatballs actually come from Turkey.
这篇文章指出瑞典肉丸其实来自土耳其。
As you can imagine, the tweet went viral.
而如你所猜测的，这篇文章造成了轰动。
Swedes were up in arms.
瑞典人都气疯了。
It was picked up all around the world.
全世界都在谈论这件事情。
The Swedish government has admitted Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.
瑞典政府承认了瑞典肉丸其实来自土耳其。
What?
What?什么？什么？
No, that's not a fact.
不，这并不是事实。
The fact is really interesting.
实际情况其实更加有趣。
Since we don't have any facts from that period.
这是因为我们并没有任何来自当时的史实记载。
Wait, who are you?
等等，你是谁啊？
My name is Richard Tellström, and I'm a food historian.
我叫 Richard Tellström，而我是一名食物历史学家。
OK, here's what we know.
好，以下是我们知道的事实。
In the 1700s, Swedish King Charles XII lost a battle in the Great Northern War.
在大约公元十八世纪，瑞典国王卡尔十二世在大北方战争中战败了。
He was forced to flee to the where for several years he negotiated his return.
他被迫逃离到奥斯曼帝国，并在之后的多年下来不断想尽办法要回到瑞典。
The controversial tweets suggested that he brought back a local Turkish meat dish called 'koftas'.
这篇充满议题的文章指出，是他把土耳其当地名为"koftas"的肉丸料理带回来的。
However, there is no documented interests from him in food; no mentioning of the meatballs there.
不过，没有任何的资料显示他对美食有所讲究，也没有提到任何有关肉丸的记载。
They are not Turkish because we can't follow the original meatballs in the world.
我之所以说这不是土耳其料理，是因为我们其实不知道肉丸这种料理最初到底是从哪里来的。
There is no zero meatball where everything started.
并没有一个料理能真的被称为"元祖"肉丸。
Most likely, origin of the meatball is a development in parallel ways, in parallel food cultures.
最有可能的情况是，肉丸这道料理的发展是在不同饮食文化中平行发展的。
Therefore, meatballs are very different all over the world, but they exist all over the world.
所以虽然世界各地的肉丸都截然不同，但世界各地却都有各自的肉丸料理。
Today, it's one of Sweden's most popular dishes.
到了现在，肉丸成为了瑞典最受欢迎的料理之一。
Traditionally served with mashed potatoes, a brown gravy, and a sweet lingonberry sauce.
传统上肉丸会搭配土豆泥、肉汁与甜越橘果酱。
Mh-mm.
好吃。
Food gives us an example of how we are connected when it comes to culture.
食物是一种能显现出不同文化是如何相互交流的例子。
Food is a sort of cultural network.
食物就是一种文化网络。
So take pride in your meatballs, Sweden, and so should Turkey, China, Italy, and every meatball-rolling country.
所以瑞典，以你们的肉丸为傲吧，还有土耳其、中国、意大利和其他有肉丸的国家也是。
Because if there's one thing the world can agree on, it's that meatballs are delicious.
因为如果要说一件全世界都认同的事，那就是肉丸真的很好吃。
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