Tinned fish is swimming against the tide
罐头鱼逆流而上

Mei Liao pulls back the can’s lid to reveal sardines swimming in a garlic and herb butter. In other videos she stuffs russet-coloured smoked mackerel into a sandwich or arranges sprats with capers and cucumber. Ms Liao says tinned fish is often considered “akin to cat food or bunker food”. But, posting as @daywithmei, she has turned it into a viral treat: her videos have millions of views on TikTok.
廖美 拉开罐头盖，沙丁鱼在大蒜和香草黄油中游动。在其他视频中，她将赤褐色的烟熏鲭鱼塞进三明治，或将鲱鱼与水瓜和黄瓜摆放在一起。廖女士说，罐头鱼经常被认为 "类似于猫粮或掩体食品"。但是，她以 @daywithmei 的名义发布视频，将罐头鱼变成了一种病毒式的美食：她的视频在 TikTok 上拥有数百万的点击量。

The canning process was invented during the Napoleonic wars. Fresh food was in short supply, particularly for those on military and naval expeditions, and so preserved foods became essential sources of sustenance. Tinned fish became a staple again during the second world war. For a long time this gave any food packed in aluminium or steel connotations of hardship. But now tinned fish is back: on social media, on restaurant menus and in Gen Z’s cupboards. What changed?
罐头工艺是在拿破仑战争期间发明的。当时新鲜食物供应短缺，尤其是对于那些参加军事和海军远征的人来说，因此腌制食品成了必不可少的食物来源。第二次世界大战期间，罐头鱼再次成为主食。在很长一段时间里，任何用铝或钢包装的食品都被赋予了艰苦的含义。但现在，罐头鱼又回来了：出现在社交媒体上，出现在餐厅菜单上，出现在 Z世代的橱柜里。是什么改变了这一切？

The product itself, for starters. Canned fish has been part of the Iberian food scene since the 19th century: shops in Lisbon are dedicated to the vibrantly coloured cans. Becca Millstein encountered artisanal tinned fish, such as pulpo en aceite de oliva (octopus in olive oil), while studying in Europe. Realising that American equivalents were “frozen in the 1960s”, she co-founded Fishwife, a food company, in 2020. Stockists are popping up to meet gourmands’ demands. The Fantastic World of the Portuguese Sardine opened in Times Square in New York last summer. The shop offers more than 30 varieties of tinned fish, including eels and whelks.
首先是产品本身。自 19 世纪以来，鱼罐头一直是伊比利亚美食的一部分：里斯本的商店专门出售色彩鲜艳的鱼罐头。贝卡-米尔斯坦（Becca Millstein）在欧洲求学时，曾接触过手工制作的罐装鱼，如橄榄油章鱼（ pulpo en aceite de oliva）。她意识到美国的同类产品都是 "20 世纪 60 年代的冷冻产品"，于是在 2020 年共同创办了一家食品公司 Fishwife。为了满足老饕们的需求，食品零售商如雨后春笋般涌现。去年夏天，"葡萄牙沙丁鱼的奇妙世界 "在纽约时代广场开业。该店提供 30 多种罐装鱼，包括鳗鱼和螺。

Patrick Martinez founded the Tinned Fish Market, a British online-delivery business, in 2018. “I remember doing farmers’ markets and people getting upset because our sardines were £3 [$3.90]”, above five times the cost of supermarket tins. Yet “the pandemic changed our appreciation of food,” he says, as people had more time to indulge and experiment with unfamiliar flavours. Now high-end products are his company’s main draw. In America, too, sales of premium tinned fish—anything exceeding $5 a tin—are growing at triple the rate of the broader market.
帕特里克-马丁内斯（Patrick Martinez）于2018年创办了英国在线配送企业--罐装鱼市场（Tinned Fish Market）。"我记得在农贸市场上，人们因为我们的沙丁鱼售价 3 英镑（约合 3.9 美元）而不高兴"，比超市罐头的价格高出五倍以上。然而，"大流行改变了我们对食物的鉴赏力"，他说，因为人们有更多时间去放纵自己，尝试陌生的口味。现在，高端产品成了他公司的主打产品。在美国，高档罐装鱼（每罐超过 5 美元）的销售增长速度也是整个市场的三倍。

Branding is an important part of the revival. Ms Millstein credits much of Fishwife’s success to social media; the company targets Gen Z and millennial consumers online. Videos of influencers unboxing retro-looking tins are both fun and helpful. Many people do not know what to do with something like tinned sardines, Ms Liao says, and some worry about choking on the bones. Watching instructional videos makes it “less scary” for the uninitiated.
品牌是复兴的重要组成部分。米尔斯坦女士认为，Fishwife 的成功在很大程度上归功于社交媒体；该公司的目标客户是 Z 世代和千禧一代的网络消费者。有影响力的人打开复古罐头的视频既有趣又有帮助。廖女士说，很多人不知道该如何处理沙丁鱼罐头，有些人还担心会被骨头噎着。观看教学视频会让新手 "不那么害怕"。

Tinned fish may be paving the way for cans’ comeback: there are more than 335m posts on TikTok related to “Spam food”. A new generation of consumers has peeled away unflattering assumptions about preserved foodstuffs and highlighted their convenience. Time to stock up. ■
罐头鱼可能正在为罐头的卷土重来铺平道路：TikTok 上与 "垃圾食品 "相关的帖子已超过 3.35 亿条。新一代消费者已经摒弃了对腌制食品的负面看法，并强调了其便利性。是时候囤货了。 ■