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The tiny shop had been bought by Wyse’s father using money from the sale of a family fishing boat.
这家小店是威斯的父亲用卖掉一艘家庭渔船的钱买下的。
There were nautical portraits on the walls.
墙上挂着航海图。
A peg-letter menu listed eight unchanging menu items, one of which was described in its entirety as “FISH”.
一个钉子板菜单列出了八个不变的菜名，其中一个是被完整拼出的“鱼”。
Working together, Wyse and Murray unloaded sacks of potatoes from the lorry, carrying them inside on their shoulders.
威斯和默里一同从卡车上卸下一袋袋土豆，用肩膀把它们扛进小店内。
A mile along the shore from Pittenweem, in the smarter harbour town of Anstruther, Murray parked his lorry outside a fish and chip shop called the Wee Chippy.
在离皮滕威姆海岸一英里远的更时髦的港口小镇安斯特拉瑟, 默里把卡车停在了一家名叫“Wee Chippy”的炸鱼薯条店外面。
Founded by Ian Fleming, a 64-year-old seafood trader with a tattoo of a shark on his forearm, the Wee Chippy stood across from a seaweed-covered strip of beach and a cobbled jetty.
Wee Chippy的创办者是64岁的伊恩·弗莱明，他是一名前臂绘有鲨鱼纹身的海鲜贸易员。炸鱼薯条店的对面是一片布满海藻的海滩和一个铺着鹅卵石的码头。
Fleming later told me it ruined his marriage, this fish and chip shop.
弗莱明后来告诉我，那家炸鱼薯条店毁了他的婚姻。
“The hours,” he growled in explanation.
“时间。”他咆哮着解释。
Daily operations had long since passed to his business partner, a chef in his 40s called Chris Lewis.
店铺的日常运营早就交给了他的商业伙伴--40多岁的厨师克里斯·刘易斯。
But Fleming kept a close eye on the Wee Chippy, which had absorbed such a big part of his life.
但弗莱明一直密切关注着“Wee Chippy”，这家店铺占据了他生活的很大一部分。
Leaving Anstruther behind, the tattie round almost done, Murray swung his lorry inland, in the rough direction of Dundee and a fish and chip shop called the Popular.
安斯特拉瑟镇在背后远去，默里日常的土豆运送之路几乎走完，他晃动着卡车开向内陆，朝着敦提市一家名叫“Popular”的炸鱼薯条店的大致方向驶去。
Bright and cramped, the Popular had an eye-catching facade that was painted brown and baize green, making it resemble a snooker table turned on one side.
“Popular”这家店虽然明亮，但空间却很狭窄，被漆成棕色和台面绿的立面引人注目，使其看起来像一个翻转的斯诺克台球桌。
A family concern, the Popular was staffed six days a week by a man called Graham Forbes, his wife Angela, and their two adult children.
“Popular”作为一个家庭企业，每周员工上六天班，员工分别是男人格雷厄姆·福布斯，男人的妻子安吉拉，以及他们的两个成年子女。
Though Forbes was in his mid-70s, he was the one who rose early to let the tattie man in.
虽然福布斯已经70多岁了，但他是那个起得很早让那个送土豆的男人进来的人。
He liked to get started at about the same time the sun came up, feeding potatoes into the Popular’s rumbling peeler.
在太阳升起的同一时间，他喜欢开始工作，把土豆塞进“Popular”店里隆隆作响的削皮器里。
These three businesses – the Pittenweem Fish Bar in Pittenweem, the Wee Chippy in Anstruther, the Popular in Dundee – shared not only a potato supplier but the near-religious devotion of the communities they serviced.
这三家店——皮滕威姆村的“Pittenweem Fish Bar”，安斯特拉瑟镇的“Wee Chippy”，敦提市的“Popular”——不仅共享一家土豆供应商，而且他们还都享有所服务的社区对他们近乎宗教般的忠诚热爱。
They were run by men and women who had thick skins, literally so when it came to their fingertips, which had become so desensitised to heat that they could be brushed against boiling oil to better position a fillet of frying fish or test the readiness of chopped potatoes as they fizzed and crisped.
这些店都由厚脸皮的男男女女经营着。当提到手指时，这里指的是字面意思皮厚。手指对高温已经变得如此不敏感，以至于可以把手指放在滚烫的油上，以便更好地放置炸鱼片，或者在土豆嘶嘶作响、变得酥脆时测试一下切好的土豆是否熟了。
But these people were not invulnerable to strain.
这些人并非不会受到压力的影响。
By the following summer, two of the three businesses would be gone, forced to close against their owner’s will.
到第二年夏天，三家企业中的两家将会不复存在，被迫违背店主意愿关门歇业。
