When I first came to Britain nearly three decades ago, one of the (many) things I found strange was carrot cake. Carrot, for me, was something you pickled with oriental cabbage in kimchee, boiled in Japanese-style kare or fried with other vegetables for japchae (Korean glass noodles fried with julienne of vegetables and meat). It was not something you put in a dessert. Carrot cake is now one of my favourites but initially it was the equivalent, say, of Brussels sprouts crumble or cabbage cheesecake for a Brit, proving that so many of our ideas about how a food ingredient should be used are culturally specific.
差不多30年前，我第一次来到英国时，碰到诸多怪事，其中之一就是胡萝卜蛋糕。在我看来，胡萝卜的用途是与大白菜一起做泡菜、煮日式烩菜或是与其它蔬菜一起做韩式炒粉丝（用蔬菜丁与肉末炒韩式粉丝），它不应该是甜点配料。如今胡萝卜蛋糕成了我最爱吃的东西，但我最初对待它的态度就如同英国人对待球芽甘蓝甜点(Brussels sprouts crumble)与甘蓝奶酪蛋糕一样，这证明了我们对食材的既有吃法在不同国家与文化中会大相径庭。