Twitter Teaches American Reporter How to Eat Somali Food

Matt Pearce works for the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper sent him to Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this month to report on an event. One night, he had dinner at one of the city’s Somali restaurants. Minneapolis has a large population of Somali refugees.
马特•皮尔斯任职于《洛杉矶时报》。本月初，报社派他前往明尼苏达州的明尼阿波利斯市报道一则新闻。一天晚上，他在市里的一家索马里餐馆就餐。明尼阿波利斯市聚集着大批的索马里难民。

Matt Pearce ordered a lamb and rice dish at the eatery. The server brought the food to him. He also brought a banana, something Pearce had not ordered.
马特•皮尔斯在餐馆点了小羊肉和米饭套餐。服务生把食物端上了桌。餐盘里还放着一根香蕉，但是皮尔斯并没有点香蕉。

The reporter did not know what to do with the banana. He tweeted a photograph of his first-ever Somali meal. He wrote on Twitter that the banana was “brought as an appetizer.” An appetizer is a small dish served before the main meal.
记者就纳闷了：香蕉是干什么用的。他把自己第一次吃索马里美食的照片上传到了推特。他在推特上解释这根香蕉“可能是开胃菜”。开胃菜就是在主菜开始之前的小吃。

As Pearce learned, the banana was not, in fact, an appetizer. Somali Twitter users quickly corrected him. In fact, bananas are an important part of any Somali meal. Somalis cut up the fruit and eat it over the rice.
结果，皮尔斯发现香蕉并不是什么开胃菜。索马里地区的推特用户立即纠正了他的观念。其实，香蕉是索马里饮食中很重要的组成部分。索马里人会把香蕉切碎，放在米饭上面吃。

Twitter user Abdirahman Ali lives in Kenya. He explained that “a rice without banana is not complete. [I] am Somali and I eat [it] daily. Banana is life.”
推特用户亚伯德拉曼•阿里住在肯尼亚。他解释称“没有香蕉的米饭是不完整的。我是索马里人，我每天都这么吃。香蕉就是生活。”

Thousands of people mocked Pearce on social media for not knowing what to do with the banana. Somali Twitter user Hiba wrote, “man said the banana was brought in as an appetizer ... like it’s not the meal.”
几千名网友嘲笑皮尔斯居然不知道香蕉是干什么用的。索马里推特用户希巴写道，“他竟然说香蕉是作为开胃菜端上来的……好像香蕉不是正餐似的。”

Another Twitter user joked that anyone who goes to a Somali restaurant should know what to do with the banana.
另一名推特用户开玩笑道，去索马里餐馆的人应该事先科普下香蕉的作用。

On Wednesday, Pearce wrote a story about his mistake for the Los Angeles Times. He admitted that, although he likes to try new foods, he does not know very much about the food of different cultures. He added that the many comments he received showed the importance of the Internet and social media for Somalis around the world.
周三，皮尔斯在《洛杉矶时报》写了一篇关于自己认知错误的文章。他承认，虽然自己乐于尝试新鲜食物，但对不同文化中的食物尚没有充分了解。他补充说，他收到的那些评论彰显了互联网和社交媒体对全世界索马里人的重要性。

“Somali millennials around the world,” he wrote, “were laughing at me (definitely not with me) for failing Somali Cuisine 101 ... it taught me about how food -- and the Internet -- bring people in the Somali diaspora together.”
他写道，“遍布全球的索马里千禧一代都在嘲笑我的‘索马里美食第一课’失败的糗事（当然不是嘲笑我本人）……这件事让我意识到，食物和互联网是如何把散居世界的索马里人联系在一起的。”

One Somali Twitter user wrote that “this article is evident to why Somali Twitter is the best …”
一名索马里推特用户写道，“这篇文章表明我们索马里推特用户们是最棒的……”

By Wednesday night in the U.S., “Somali Cuisine” was the No. 1 trending topic on Facebook.
截止美国时间周三晚间，“索马里美食”一直占据脸书的热搜话题。

That same day, Pearce joked on Twitter about all the attention he has received from his banana mistake.
同一天，皮尔斯因香蕉风波而倍受关注一事在推特上调侃起来。

He wrote, “Today I covered a Trump rally and was a trending banana idiot.”
他写道，“没想到啊，今天我的风头居然盖过了特朗普集会，成了最热门的香蕉傻瓜。”