As we strolled through the elegant old streets of Hamburg, with enchanting red-brick warehouses on one side of us and the striking, glass-topped Elbe Philharmonic Hall rising in the distance, native Helmut Moller talked about the city’s history. He oozed civic pride and self-confidence – particularly when he made his boldest claim of the evening: “The hamburger,” he said, “comes from Hamburg.”
It sounded like one of the most “well, duh” statements I’d ever heard. After all, the frankfurter really was born in Frankfurt. But as I was about to learn, the burger’s past is a little more – well, messy.
Hamburgers may be most associated with the United States, where these days, you can find a version on the menu of almost any upscale restaurant priced at more than $20 and stuffed with foie gras or topped with truffles. But Europe is going through its own burger obsession. A recent Wall Street Journal article revealed that a dedicated hamburger eater can now find a tasty burger in nearly every big European city.
Could this mean the hamburger has finally come full circle – that after a grand culinary tour of the New World, this hot sandwich has returned home to Europeans, who are the rightful heirs to the hamburger throne?
I intended to find out – to do a little digging and learn once and for all where the hamburger began. What Moller, a friend of a friend, was referring to when he spoke of the burger’s origins was the local, centuries-old hot pork sandwich called the rundstück warm – which is a low-German translation of “round piece warm”, referring to the sandwich’s round bun-like bread. When Moller first said the words, they seeped from his mouth like goopy melted cheese. In fact, I didn’t understand him, and when I asked him to repeat them, he appeared to be losing patience with me. “Roondshtook vahrm,” he said very slowly, sounding it out. “It’s the ancestor of the hamburger. Go find it and you can decide.”
Hamburg is home to a handful of restaurants that serve this possible proto-burger. Moller scrawled a few names down for me. One isKrameramtstuben, which all the pilsners in the world won’t help you pronounce if you don’t speak German. The place has been open since 1718, but when I got there I found it was closed for the day.
So I went to the next one on Moller’s list: Oberhafen Kantine, seven decades old, set in a leaning house on the port below elevated railroad tracks. I walked in to find a couple of bearded fellows chatting with an inked-up female server over pints of lager. She looked at me expectantly.
“Rundstück warm?” I said, trying my hardest to twist my tongue in a way that would have pleased Moller.
She nodded and barked something at the chef. A few minutes later, she placed it in front of me: the rundstück warm, which, depending on who you ask, could be the ur-burger, the modern’s hamburger’s forbearer whose DNA permeates every Big Mac and Whopper the world over. Before I could dig in, owner Sebastian Libbert wandered over. I couldn’t help but interrogate him.
“The rundstück warm has roots as a snack for dock workers,” he said. “But really it’s a leftover, something you eat on Monday as the remains from the usual Sunday pork roast.”
The rundstück warm consists of day-old pork topped with either beet root, pickles, tomato slices, or even chives. It’s sandwiched between two round buns and doused with pork gravy.
“It should normally only have a bottom bun,” Libbert said. “This is a modernized version.”
Тема 3 Перевод текста, используя функциональный способ перевода
Катастрофа парома: число пропавших без вести неизвестно
Власти Италии заявили, что не могут назвать точное число пропавших без вести в результате катастрофы парома "Норман Атлантик" в Адриатическом море.
Эвакуация пассажиров была завершена накануне. Известно, что 10 человек погибли.
Всего на борту парома находились 478 человек. По словам представителей властей, спасены более 400 пассажиров.
Как сообщил премьер-министр Италии, Маттео Ренци, последним судно покинул его капитан.
Паром направлялся из греческого порта Патрас в итальянский город Анкона.
Согласно имеющимся данным, "Норман Атлантик" загорелся, когда находился примерно в 40 морских милях к западу от греческого острова Корфу.
В списках не значились
Причина возникновения пожара, который начался на автомобильной палубе, пока неизвестна.
Спасательная операция продолжалась всю прошедшую ночь, несмотря на штормовой ветер и сильное задымление.
По словам главы итальянской береговой охраны адмирала Джованни Петторино, 80 из спасенных вообще не значились в списках пассажиров.
Эвакуированные пассажиры рассказывают о начавшейся на пароме панике по мере того, как из-за пожара у них под ногами нагревалась палуба.
Жена одного из поваров рассказала журналистам, что ее муж позвонил ей и сказал: "Мне нечем дышать, мы все тут сгорим, как крысы. Господи, спаси нас!"
Выжившие в катастрофе утверждают, что пожарная сигнализация на судне не сработала, при этом члены команды не будили спящих пассажиров.
Кроме того, по их словам, большинство спасательных шлюпок на пароме находилось в нерабочем состоянии.
Тема 4 Перевод текста, используя коммуникативно-прагматический способ перевода