take-no-prisoners
本日のNYTから。シェフという「枠」にはおさまらず、経営者、作家やTVのパーソナリティーなどとしても活躍する台湾系の男性に関する記事です。
Chef Who Refuses to Be Defined by His Wok
The firebrand chef Eddie Huang took over a table at Hot Kitchen, a Sichuan restaurant in the East Village, and commandeered the remote control. It was a Saturday night, and the Orlando Magic was losing to the New York Knicks. As Carmelo Anthony worked his way to 40 points, Mr. Huang’s body jerked in sympathetic rebound.
Mr. Huang’s face was framed by a crisp black New Yorker baseball cap. On his pinkie was a ring emblazoned with a Star of David; on his wrist a Nike+ FuelBand; and on his torso was an oversized black hoodie with the letters “P-I-F” emblazoned on the front.
“It’s a type of very high-quality weed,” Mr. Huang said matter-of-factly. “The proper usage is, ‘You got dat pif, mang?’ ” Mr. Huang smiled, a walking mixtape of postmodern cultural appropriation.
At 30, Mr. Huang is usually identified as a chef, which is only partly true. He is the chef and co-owner of BaoHaus, an informal Taiwanese bun shop in the East Village. But, he is quick to add, “I have more to say as a writer than from behind a wok.”
Since 2009, Mr. Huang has built a career as an author and a television personality based on his brash cultural mashups and his take-no-prisoners critiques of everyone and everything.
ハイフン形容詞 take-no-prisonersは「情熱的に、徹底的に、脇目もふらずに、果敢に」などの意味があります。元々は軍事用語で「捕虜を捕らえるな！」→「（捕らえると面倒臭いので）即、皆殺しにしろ！」→「徹底的にたたけ」と転移してきたものです。
ともあれ、１年後にはこうした記事がスラッと読めるようになるといいですね。（UG）
