冒死采来的珍馐——撒旦的手指
今天介绍给大家一种奇特的食材
To understand why a restaurant charged me €100 for a plate of percebes – tube-shaped, gooseneck barnacles known in Portugal as 'Lucifer’s fingers’ – I spent a day with the brave men who risk life and limb to harvest them from the country’s most south-western coastline, the Costa Vicentina.
为了理解为什么餐馆会收我一百欧元吃一盘狗爪螺—一种管状的，像鹅脖子一样的贝类，葡萄牙语中被称为“撒旦的手指”—我与一位冒着失去肢体和生命的危险来采集它们的勇者一起度过了一天，它们是从这个国家最西南面的海岸线文森蒂娜海岸采到的。
Likened to the devil’s digits because of their thick, finger-like trunks and diamond-shaped 'feet’ that are eerily similar to claws, percebes can only grow and multiply on rocks in the ocean intertidal zone (the area between the high and low water mark), where crashing waves feed them with plankton.
它们因为肥厚的像手指一般的 呼吸管和钻石型的像狗爪一样的“脚”而被比喻为恶魔的手指，狗爪螺只能在潮间带（涨潮和落潮水位相间的地带）生长繁殖，靠潮水带来的浮游生物为食。
They cannot be farmed, and the rough sea makes it notoriously dangerous for divers to harvest them.
它们不能人工饲养，狂野的海潮让它们的采集变得尤为危险 。
While gooseneck barnacles can be found in other parts of the world such as Canada, they are considered a rare delicacy in Spain and Portugal.
尽管鹅颈样的贝类在世界上其他地方比如加拿大也有，但它们被认为是西班牙和葡萄牙独有的珍馐。
Because of the culinary and monetary riches these filter-feeding 'truffles of the sea’ (as they are sometimes called locally) offer at market, divers make the most of any bout of milder weather to hunt for them.
因为烹饪和交易使这种滤食性的“海中松露”（当地的称法）供不应求，潜水者们亦有好天气就去采集它们。
“Even a bad day on the sea is better than a good day in the office,” said Fernando Damas (pictured), a percebes diver who quit his lucrative career as an industrial designer 19 years ago to dive for percebes full time.
“哪怕是海上的坏天气也比办公室的好天气来得棒！”费尔南多.达马斯（照片中人）说，他十九年前放弃了高薪的工业设计师的工作来当全职的狗爪螺潜水师。
“The ocean is full of wonderful surprises.”
“海洋充满了令人惊叹的神奇！”
João Rosário, a commercial diver explains that, “When you dive for percebes and you turn your back on the unpredictability of the ocean, you will most likely be injured or killed,” he said.
一个当地的商业潜水员约翰.洛萨里奥说，“当潜水寻找狗爪螺的时候，如果背向无法预测的大海，你很可能会受伤甚至死掉。”
“There are many cases of divers being knocked unconscious and drowning. The 'lucky ones’ get away with breaking an arm or leg or suffering abrasions where the rocks cut through their wetsuits.”
“有很多潜水员都被海浪拍晕溺水过。幸运儿有的断了胳膊腿儿，但在礁石划破的地方也会有严重的划伤。”
There’s an overwhelming consensus among the Portuguese that there’s only one way to cook percebes properly: in boiling salted water for no longer than it takes to say the Lord’s Prayer.
葡萄牙人民都一致认同烹饪狗爪螺的正确方法只有一种：在沸水里煮不超过一段祷告的时间。
“Even if you pray slowly, it should never take more than a minute,” said Adriano Lemes, Marisqueira Azul’s chef.
“就算你说得很慢，也不会超过一分钟，”，以为海鲜饭店的主厨，亚德里亚罗。勒米斯说。
“Then spoon it onto ice to terminate the cooking process. Don’t add any spices and especially not any sauce,” he stressed.
“然后舀出来放到冰上来结束烹饪过程。不要加辣椒或其他佐料。”他强调说。
And don’t dare mention the fact that British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay once served percebes in a creamy sauce.
我不敢提英国名厨乔登.拉姆齐曾经用奶油酱拌过狗爪螺。
The locals within earshot will throw their arms in the air and shout out sayings such as 'falando como um verdadeiro idiota’, which is loosely translated as, “what an idiot!”
当地人要是听到了，准会把双手往上一挥，笑道：“真是天字一号大傻瓜！”
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