關於食物的十大奇聞異事(上)

Food is the perfect metaphor for life. It can strike us as funny, as when British couples go in for some "toad-in-the-hole," enjoy the occasional "bubble and squeak" or gobble down some "spotted dick." It can also turn tragically bizarre, as when, in 1919, a Boston storage tank burst, letting loose a destructive 2.3-million-gallon (8.7-million-liter) wave of molasses that killed 21 people and demolished several structures.

完滿人生歷來少不了美食這個主旋律。英國素以黑暗料理聞名，他們的餐桌上常見的烤面拖牛肉、炸馬鈴薯和洋白菜以及受人喜愛的葡萄乾布丁等都成爲大家玩笑的談資。歷史上，食物也曾釀造過慘劇。1919年，美國波士頓的糖蜜儲存罐突然發生爆炸，約230萬加侖（870萬升）糖蜜傾瀉而出，造成21人死亡，損毀好幾處建築物。

And, like life, food is also precious, often in surprising ways. Take the case of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2012, in which 6 million pounds (2.7 million kilograms) of syrup were stolen from the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve (yes, that's a thing). You might think that syrup stealing should be filed under funny, but there's nothing laughable about a commodity that at the time of the heist was trading at $1,800 per 620-pound (281-kilogram) barrel, or roughly 13 times crude oil's then-going rate. For our cornucopia of kooky comestibles, we've pulled from all three categories -- and then some. We have silly food names, cheeses both bankable and burning, and fare that sounds like a dare.

但是誠如生命可貴，食物也是非常珍貴的，有時甚至可以昂貴到驚人的地步。加拿大著名的楓糖漿失竊案就是一個很好的例證。2012年，在加拿大一家全球戰略性楓糖漿儲備處（Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve，不要懷疑，真的有這個機構），大約有600萬磅（270萬公斤）楓糖漿失竊。也許你會覺得盜竊楓糖漿是很可笑的行爲，但如果你知道在當時的銷售市場上，1桶620磅（281公斤）的楓糖漿售價爲1800美元，大約是同期原油市場價格的13倍，你就笑不出來了。我們可以將這些千奇百怪的食物趣事大致分爲三類，如荒唐的食物名稱、可以用來抵押和燃燒的奶酪以及需要勇氣纔敢挑戰的食物！

ified Man: It's the Taste of Nuts and Honey

10.蜜漬人：堅果與蜂蜜的味道

While Europe was enduring the long intellectual Dark Ages that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Muslim world was experiencing a flourishing golden age of intellectual and cultural achievement. But if, as philosophers have long contended, we can judge a culture's character by what it eats, then here's one honey of an "Oh boy, I think I'm going to be sick."

伴隨着羅馬帝國的崩塌，歐洲經歷了一段漫長矇昧的黑暗時代，而與此同時，穆斯林世界正處於智慧與文化蓬勃發展的黃金時期。哲學家們早就主張“一種文化的品性可以通過它的飲食來評判”，那麼對穆斯林文化中的“蜜漬人”我們便只能感嘆一句“天哪，這太令人作嘔了！”

The recipe is simple: Take one elderly Arabian fellow, feed him nothing but honey, wait until he dies and then bury him ... in more honey. Allow the man to marinate for 100 years, then dig him up and sell the "mellified man" (from the Latin "mel" for honey) in your local grand bazaar for a substantial stack of coins. Was mellified man a real thing? It was recorded in a 16th-century Chinese pharmacopeia, Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica," but even the person who recorded it admitted it was hearsay at best. Like most honeyed words -- and a nice caramel -- it's probably best taken with a grain of salt.

“蜜漬人”的製作過程很簡單：挑選一名年長的阿拉伯人，讓他只以蜂蜜爲食，在他過世後再用大量的蜂蜜掩埋屍體。用蜂蜜醃製100年後，人們便將“蜜漬人”挖出並在當地的大巴扎集市售賣，以換取大量金幣（在拉丁語中“mel”代表蜂蜜）。“蜜漬人”是真實存在的嗎？早在16世紀，中國醫藥學家李時珍在其藥典《本草綱目》中便有相關記載，但他也明確說明這只是傳聞並無實證。我們看待這件事的真實性，也應當如同看待甜言蜜語和精美糖果一樣，持保留態度。

k That Cheese -- as Loan Collateral

9.成批奶酪可以作爲抵押貸款

Formaggio fans know the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy as the only place in the world legally entitled to call its hard, dry skim-milk cheese Parmigiano-Reggiano. But within the world of finance, this home to Ravenna, Bologna and Parma has also gained fame for a pecuniary peculiarity: It's home to a bank that accepts the celebrated cheese as collateral.

奶酪愛好者都應該知道，全世界只有意大利北部的艾米利亞 - 羅馬涅大區生產的奶酪纔有權利稱爲帕爾馬地方奶酪，這種硬質乾酪由牛生乳製成，被稱爲奶酪之王。但在世界金融領域，拉文納，博洛尼亞和帕爾馬這三個意大利城市則以其奇特的財務交易而聞名——這些地方的銀行允許用名貴奶酪做爲抵押品進行貸款。

Credito Emiliano SpA (aka Credem) stores and cares for around 450,000 80-pound (36-kilogram) wheels of aging Parmigiano-Reggiano at a time. That stacks up to around 160 million euros, or (very roughly) $176 million worth. By accepting the curd-based collateral, the bank provides a valuable service to local cheese producers, who must finance milk-buying and storage while their products cure. Loans from Credem can reach as high as 80 percent of the cheese's market value. Each wheel bears a branded serial number, which became important in February 2009, when thieves burrowed their way into one depository and rolled off with 570 pieces before police nabbed them. That must have really grated.

意大利埃米利亞諾信託銀行曾經一度存放了約450,000輪80磅（36公斤）重的帕爾馬地方奶酪，並加以照管。這些奶酪累計起來可以折價約1.6億歐元，粗略估計合1.76億美元市值。通過接受乳製品抵押貸款，銀行向當地的奶酪生產商提供有價值的服務，但在烤制加工產品期間，生產商必須支付牛奶採購和存儲的費用。從埃米利亞諾信託銀行申請的信貸最高可達奶酪市場價值的80%。每一輪奶酪都印有品牌的序列號，這些序列號在之後起到了重要的作用。2009年2月，一些竊賊挖掘地道潛入奶酪貯藏所，在被捕之前他們運走了570份奶酪輪。當時銀行必定相當惱火。

se: Of Fire and Flies

8.芝士：火與蒼蠅的結合

Other countries may require the aid of spirits to set their respective cheeses aflame, but the land of fjords produces a brown cheese that burns like a tire fire all on its own. Actually, brunost is not technically a cheese because, like ricotta, it's made not only of curds but also of whey, the liquid left over after milk has been curdled and strained. The result is a sweet, brown block of sticky, caramelized lactose, a brick of fat and sugar that burns like nobody's business – enough so that a spilled, flaming truckload shut down a Norwegian tunnel for four days.

其他國家出產的芝士可能需要加入酒精才能燃燒起來，而挪威海灣地區出產的一種褐色的芝士則不用任何添加物就可以像輪胎起火一樣燒起來。事實上，傑託斯特芝士嚴格意義上來說並不是芝士。就像意大利乳清乾酪一樣，製作傑託斯特芝士不僅要使用凝乳，還要使用乳清——就是那些牛奶凝固後被過濾出來的液體。這樣生產出來的就是甜甜粘粘的焦糖色乳糖。這些像磚頭一樣的脂肪和糖，如果自顧自地熊熊燃燒，其釋放出的能量堪比一貨車燃燒着的貨物，能導致一個挪威隧道關閉4天之久。

Of course, there are reasons you might want to set cheese on fire, and we're not talking about fondues or saganakis. Take Sardinia's illegal maggot-ridden cheese casu marzu. In a possible case of "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," this putrid pecorino requires some larval love to fully come alive. With a little encouragement from cheese makers, flies lay eggs in the product, which then hatch into larvae. As the maggots crawl through the cheese using their tiny teeth, they release a putrefying enzyme essential to the product's characteristic flavor and (gulp!) mouthfeel. Patrons are advised to cover their eyes, ostensibly to prevent wayward maggots from jumping into them.

或許你有很多種理由想燃燒芝士，當然我們並不是在講芝士火鍋或是希臘奶酪。再來看看撒丁島佈滿蟲蛆的非法芝士：卡蘇馬蘇。可謂是“假如你不能打敗你的敵人那就吃了它們”的現實版寫照 。這種腐爛的羊乳芝士需要添加幼蟲來激活。芝士製造商給予催化，蒼蠅會在上面產卵然後孵化成幼蟲。這些小蛆們用自己小小的牙齒在芝士裏不斷爬行，他們釋放出來的具有腐化作用的酶正是製作出其特色風味和口感的一種最關鍵的發酵劑。當你吃這個的時候最好閉上眼睛，至少可以裝作不想讓這些任性的蛆蛆們跳到你的眼睛裏去的樣子。

stmas Culinary Curiosities Killed the Cat

7.聖誕美食是什麼——好奇心害死貓

In the U.S., Christmas is associated with a sort of quid pro quo: People who celebrate Christmas leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus, and he leaves edible treats in their stockings. But other holiday traditions around the world incorporate food as well.

在美國，聖誕節算得上是某種等價交換：慶祝聖誕節的人們給聖誕老人留些餅乾和牛奶，而聖誕老人則留下美食在人們的長筒襪裏。不僅美國，世界各地的節日傳統裏都少不了食物。

Take some of Europe's historical yuletide traditions, which may or may not still hold true (leave a comment if you know). On Dec. 5 in Austria, the eve of St. Nicholas Day, good children used to receive candy in their shoes, while naughty ones got coal ... or potatoes. In Bavaria, farmers once encouraged a bountiful harvest by asking their fruit trees on a luncheon date. If the arboreal invitees didn't show, the farmers brought lunch to them -- or, rather, to the spirits that they believed dwelled inside them. On New Year's Eve, Spaniards have tried to court good luck (or a Heimlich) by gobbling down a dozen grapes while the clock struck midnight. In Sweden, a white-clad girl with candles in her hair would wake her family on Christmas with special wheat cakes called lussekatter, in memory of St. Lucia. Yuletide can be a tough time for cats in Europe. Icelanders bedecked their family felines in bows lest they be mistaken for the shape-shifting Christmas Cat, which reputedly gobbled up children who received only toys for Christmas. But they had it better than some cats in Switzerland, where a small number of diehards still eat the domestic variety for their Christmas meals

就拿歐洲的一些具有歷史意義的聖誕節傳統來聊一聊，這當中有些可能仍然適用，而有些已經不適用了（如果你知道，請留下評論告訴我）。在奧地利，每年的12月5號，即聖尼古拉斯節前夕，乖孩子一般會在他們的鞋子裏收到糖果，而淘氣的小朋友則只能收到煤或是土豆。而在巴伐利亞，農民們曾一度邀請自己的果樹參加午宴，以期望獲得好收成。如果被邀請的果樹沒有赴宴，農民們就把午餐送去獻給果樹——或者更準確地說，獻給他們認爲住在樹裏的精靈。西班牙人在新年前夕想要獲得好運（還不如說他們是想感受一下海姆立克急救法）他們就會在午夜鐘聲敲響時吞下十幾顆葡萄。在瑞典，爲了紀念聖盧西亞，慶祝聖誕節時家中的女孩會換上白色的衣服，在頭髮上插上蠟燭，並用一種特製的小麥餅——露西亞麪包來叫她的家人起牀。聖誕節對歐洲的貓來說是一段艱辛的時期。冰島人會給自己家的貓裝扮上蝴蝶結以免被別人誤認爲是會變形的聖誕怪貓，據說這種怪貓會把在聖誕節中只收到玩偶的孩子們吃掉。不過比起瑞士的貓，它們就幸運多了，瑞士仍有少數頑固分子至今還會把本地貓咪當作他們的聖誕大餐。

Hippo Nearly Became America's Other Dark Meat

6.美國的河馬肉差點成爲盤中餐

The turn of the 20th century was marked by a bold optimism concerning what was possible through science and industry coupled with a willingness to explore the most outlandish options available. Faced with a problem, real or perceived, you could count on someone to offer solutions ranging from the impractical to the morally dubious.

20世紀初是一個勇敢而樂觀的時代，人們懷着探索精神，通過科學和技術，探索世界上的奇聞趣事。在面對真實的或假想的問題之時，你誠然可以靠別人來幫你解決，但這些解決方法要麼無法實踐，要麼有不道德之嫌。

At the time, the U.S faced a serious problem: a booming population and not enough meat with which to feed it. Proposals ranged from introducing antelope to establishing ostrich farms, but probably the most remarkable remedy lay in the proposed use of hippopotamuses as a local meat source. The advantages were several. Hippos would live and feed in areas unfit for traditional cattle, and the so-called "lake cows" (as at least one marketing-savvy editorial called them, even if hippopotamus literally means "river horse" in Greek) would remove a blight from Louisiana's bayous to boot, an invasive water hyacinth that was clogging waterways and knocking off fish. Despite the support of such luminaries as former President Teddy Roosevelt, the idea eventually gave way to burgeoning industrial farms.

當時，美國面臨一個非常嚴峻的問題：人口爆炸式增長，而國內卻缺乏足夠的食物。儘管有人建議通過建立羚羊或者鴕鳥養殖場來解決肉源的問題，但最切實可行的做法，卻是選擇河馬肉。他們的理由是，河馬可以在不適合養牛的地方生存和養殖，而且這種所謂的“湖奶牛”（雖然河馬一詞在希臘文中表示“河流的馬”，但是仍有不少營銷書這樣爲它命名）能夠清除路易斯安那州湖沼的水葫蘆，解決生物入侵帶來的水道堵塞、魚類死亡問題。儘管這個想法得到了諸如前總統西奧多·羅斯福等名人的支持，但最後還是被迅速發展的工業化農場淹沒。

翻譯：泯泯 審校：Freya然 來源：前十網