| There is a very popular local dish called huo guo ("fire-bowl"). It's a type of communal bouillon-based fondue. You have a big copper bowl in the center of the table with soup stock in it, heated by charcoal or a gas element. Around it are piles of vegetables, and often seaweed, and whatever meat you are eating, all raw. You throw all the stuff in the bouillon and let it cook, then fetch it out with your chopsticks. Afterwards you drink the soup. |
當(dāng)?shù)赜幸环N非常受歡迎的菜式叫做“火鍋”，做法類似于用清湯作鍋底的芝士火鍋，是大家圍在一起吃的。人們把一個(gè)裝著湯的大銅鍋放在桌子正中央，下面用木炭或氣體燃料加熱。鍋?zhàn)又車鷶[上各種蔬菜，通常還有海菜和各種肉類，全都是生的。你把所有的食物丟進(jìn)湯里，讓它們?cè)诶锩嬷笫?，然后用筷子夾出來吃，最后把湯喝掉。 |
| This meal started with tasty fish huo-guo, and continued in similar vein for some time. At length, a little puzzled by the non-appearance of the frogs, I asked my friend when we would be eating them. |
當(dāng)天那頓飯就是以美味的魚肉火鍋開場(chǎng)的，接下來的步驟也都差不多，吃到最后也沒有看見青蛙的影子。我有些奇怪，于是問朋友我們什么時(shí)候可以吃到青蛙。 |
| "Right now!" he replied. Reaching beneath the table he produced a white plastic bag full of frog cadavers, and grabbing several fistfuls, he hurled them into the huo-guo bowl. They were whole and unskinned, but at least they were mercifully dead when they went into the water. |
“現(xiàn)在就可以！”朋友回答說。他從桌子下面掏出一個(gè)白色的塑料袋，里面裝滿了青蛙。他就從里面抓了幾把丟在火鍋里。那些青蛙都是整只的，沒有剝皮；至少值得慶幸的是，他們?cè)谙洛伒臅r(shí)候已經(jīng)是死的了。 |
| After a few moments in the broth they began to swell up, and bobbed around on the surface with their heads poking up like fat little drunk men in lifejackets. All too soon, it was time to enjoy the flavour. |
青蛙在湯里煮了一會(huì)之后開始膨脹，上下浮動(dòng)，頭從湯面上探出來，好像一個(gè)個(gè)身穿救生衣的喝醉酒的小胖子。轉(zhuǎn)瞬之間，就可以開吃了。 |
| It transpired that these were pregnant females from the start of spring. This being the case, their bodies had atrophied over the winter, and there was no meat left on them, nor anything else that even a Frenchman would have recognized as edible. |
這些都是初春時(shí)節(jié)帶著卵的母蛙。因此，經(jīng)過一冬天的消耗，它們的軀體已經(jīng)很干癟了，身上根本沒有肉，就算是法國(guó)人也找不出有什么可吃的地方。 |
| The trick was to pull their heads off, taking the backbone away with it. You were then left with an egg sac on each side of the body, accompanied by a gobbet of fat – this fat also being the source of "frog oil", a prized and expensive ingredient that is of considerable importance in local Chinese traditional medicine. |
吃青蛙的竅門是把腦袋拽下來的同時(shí)，也順帶著把脊柱一起抽出來；剩下的就是身體里一邊一個(gè)的卵囊，還有一整塊脂肪。這塊脂肪能夠用來提煉蛤蟆油。在當(dāng)?shù)氐闹兴幚?，蛤蟆油是一種重要成分，藥用價(jià)值極高，當(dāng)然也貴得要命。 |
| The frogs were a great local delicacy, and had cost my friend the astronomical sum of nearly a pound each. This being the case, I was obliged to enjoy them as much as my Chinese friends seemed to, and I did my honest best. I ate perhaps four – maybe even five. It seemed like many more. |
青蛙是當(dāng)?shù)赜忻拿朗?，這頓飯花了我朋友一大筆錢，幾乎一只青蛙價(jià)值一英鎊。既然如此，我就有義務(wù)像我的中國(guó)朋友們一樣吃出享受的樣子。我真的盡力了。我一共可能吃了4只，或者是5只，但感覺好像吃的遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了這個(gè)數(shù)字。 |
