| One of the things in the market that interests me a lot is the fish. For a city so far from the sea there is a very impressive display. One of the most popular, though, is a local fish from the Songhua Lake called pangtou ("fat head"). It's a strange fish like a big salmon, with an odd head that looks as though it's on upside down. |
市場里最吸引我的商品是各種各樣的魚。一個離海很遠(yuǎn)的城市，出售的魚卻種類繁多，令人印象深刻。而當(dāng)?shù)厝俗類鄢缘氖潜镜厮苫ê霎a(chǎn)的胖頭魚。這種魚模樣古怪，乍一看像大個的鮭魚，腦袋卻好似上下顛倒了一樣。 |
| The fishmongers display the fish on wooden slats on the floor with their heads chopped off. At first I thought that the heads had been chopped off to sell for soup or to throw away. In retrospect, this was more than a little na?ve – nothing in China gets thrown away. In fact, the heads are a prized delicacy. |
魚販子們把去頭的魚用木頭板條墊著，擺在地上出售。一開始我以為砍下來的魚頭都被單賣出去做湯喝或干脆扔掉了?，F(xiàn)在回想起來，我未免太過天真——在中國沒有什么不能吃的。事實(shí)上，魚頭被當(dāng)作價值極高的美食。 |
| I discovered this the first time I was invited to a banquet at one of the fish restaurants that border the lake. After what seemed like an endless succession of courses, I had thought that the meal must be drawing to a close, when a waiter appeared bearing a fish head the size of a dustbin lid. |
我第一次被邀請去湖邊的一家魚餐館參加飯局的時候就發(fā)現(xiàn)了這一點(diǎn)。在上了無數(shù)道菜之后，我以為這頓飯已接近尾聲；這時，一個服務(wù)員端著一盤魚頭出現(xiàn)了，那魚頭足有垃圾桶蓋子大小。 |
| Inevitably, the choicest parts of the fish head are the eyes and the brain, and inevitably, as the guest of honour seated by the host, I was privileged to have him pick these out for me and place them in my bowl. The eye was the size of a golf ball. Mercifully, fishes' brains are small; I could have wished this one a little smaller all the same. |
魚頭上的精華部位照例是眼睛和腦子；同樣按照慣例，作為坐在主人身邊的貴客，我有幸得到了主人親手夾到我碗里的魚眼和魚腦。那眼睛足足有高爾夫球那么大。不幸中的萬幸，魚類的腦子通常都比較??；可我還是希望這條魚的腦子能更小一些。 |
| The tactic I have adopted when given gobby things to eat is to chew them very aggressively for a second or two longer than I think I can manage, and then swallow them. Mumbling them around your gums in a mealy-mouthed fashion and hoping they'll go away will get you nowhere. |
通常別人讓我嘗試難吃的東西時，我會采取這樣的策略：用力地嚼一兩秒鐘（這可比我想象中能堅持的時間長多了），然后整個吞下去。在嘴里翻來覆去地咀嚼，希望這些奇怪的東西自己消失，這種做法是沒有用的。 |
| This is an essential approach when dealing with many of the local delicacies. I was once taken out to dinner by a friend in Changchun, and had been promised a treat of frogs. As a long-term resident of France, based in La Dombes where the eating of frogs is central to the culture, I have long been an enthusiast for a hot plate of frogs fried in butter, parsley, salt and garlic. I knew that frogs figure highly in Chinese culinary heritage too, so I was looking forward to this experience. |
這是我應(yīng)對當(dāng)?shù)睾芏嗝朗车幕痉椒āＳ幸淮?，一位長春的朋友請我出去吃飯；他許諾會招待我吃青蛙。我曾在法國東貝住過很長一段時間，那里飲食文化的核心就是吃青蛙。一直以來，我的最愛就是一大盤熱騰騰的用黃油煎過的青蛙，再以歐芹、鹽和大蒜調(diào)味。我知道青蛙在中國飲食傳統(tǒng)中的地位也很高，因此我對這頓大餐充滿了期待。
（China.org.cn 李瀟 譯）
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