Ikea? Abba?

宜家家居、ABBA 樂團？

Maybe those delicious cinnamon rolls?

又或許你想到的是美味的肉桂捲？

But what about these?

不過這些小東西呢？

Swedish meatballs.

瑞典肉丸。

Right?

是瑞典的對吧？

Well, maybe not.

這個嘛，或許不是喔。

Welcome to the meatball mystery.

歡迎來到肉丸的身世之謎。

Let's cut straight to the chase.

我們就直接切入主題吧。

It's hard to make the Swedes angry, but on one fateful day, something happened that fired up the whole country.

要讓瑞典人生氣並不容易，但在這歷史性的一天所發生的某件事情，讓全瑞典人都氣炸了。

This tweet was sent from the official Sweden Twitter account:

這則推文是由瑞典的官方推特帳號所發出的：

"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."

「瑞典肉丸這個食譜實際上是卡爾十二世在 18 世紀初從土耳其帶回來的。好好面對事實吧。 」

Yikes.

哎唷喂。

Did you catch that?

你聽到他們是怎麼說的了嗎？

The tweet said that Swedish meatballs actually come from Turkey.

這則推文指出瑞典肉丸其實來自土耳其。

As you can imagine, the tweet went viral.

而如你所猜測的，這則貼文造成了轟動。

Swedes were up in arms.

瑞典人都氣瘋了。

It was picked up all around the world.

全世界都在談論這件事情。

The Swedish government has admitted Swedish meatballs are actually Turkish.

瑞典政府承認了瑞典肉丸其實來自土耳其。

What? What?

什麼？什麼？

No, that's not a fact.

不，這並不是事實。

The fact is really interesting.

實際情況其實更加有趣。

Since we don't have any facts from that period.

這是因為我們並沒有任何來自當時的事實紀載。

Wait, who are you?

等等，你是誰啊？

My name is Richard Tellström, and I'm a food historian.

我叫 Richard Tellström，而我是一名食物歷史學家。

OK, here's what we know.

好，以下是我們知道的事實。

In the 1700s, Swedish King Charles XII lost a battle in the Great Northern War.

在大約西元 1700 年時，瑞典國王卡爾十二世在大北方戰爭中戰敗了。

He was forced to flee to the where for several years he negotiated his return.

他被迫逃離到鄂圖曼帝國，並在之後的多年下來不斷想盡辦法要回到瑞典。

The controversial tweets suggested that he brought back a local Turkish meat dish called 'koftas.'

這則充滿議題的貼文指出，是他把土耳其當地名為「koftas」的肉丸料理帶回來的。

However, there is no documented interests from him in food; no mentioning of the meatballs there.

不過，沒有任何的資料顯示他對美食有所講究，也沒有提到任何有關肉丸的紀載。

They are not Turkish because we can't follow the original meatballs in the world.

我之所以說這不是土耳其料理，是因為我們其實不知道肉丸這種料理最初到底是從哪裡來的。

There is no zero meatball where everything started.

並沒有一個料理能真的被稱為「元祖」肉丸。

Most likely, origin of the meatball is a development in parallel ways, in parallel food cultures.

最有可能的情況是，肉丸這道料理的發展是在不同飲食文化中平行發展的。

Therefore, meatballs are very different all over the world, but they exist all over the world.

所以雖然世界各地的肉丸都截然不同，但世界各地卻都有各自的肉丸料理。

Today, it's one of Sweden's most popular dishes.

到了現在，肉丸成為了瑞典最受歡迎的料理之一。

Traditionally served with mashed potatoes, a brown gravy, and a sweet lingonberry sauce.

傳統上肉丸會搭配馬鈴薯泥、肉汁與甜越橘果醬。

Mh-mm.

好吃。

Food gives us an example of how we are connected when it comes to culture.

食物是一種能顯現出不同文化是如何相互交流的例子。

Food is a sort of cultural network.

食物像是一種文化網絡。

So take pride in your meatballs, Sweden, and so should Turkey, China, Italy, and every meatball-rolling country.

所以瑞典，以你們的肉丸為傲吧，還有土耳其、中國、義大利和其他有肉丸的國家也是。

Because if there's one thing the world can agree on, it's that meatballs are delicious.

因為如果要說一件全世界都認同的事，那就是肉丸真的很好吃。