蝸牛子醬是“其他食物無法比擬的味道”

蝸牛子醬是“其他食物無法比擬的味道”

Snail caviar is the flavor du jour taking the culinary world by storm. The tiny, pearled delicacies are selling like hotcakes in Italy, where a kilogram can cost more than $3,000, according to Modern Farmer.

蝸牛魚子醬是當下風靡烹飪界的一種風味。據《現代農夫》雜志報道，這種微小的、帶珍珠的美味佳肴在意大利像熱蛋糕一樣熱銷，每公斤售價超過3000美元。

“It’s a flavor that’s incomparable with any other kind of food,” Davide Merlino, the owner of Italy’s largest snail farm, tells Modern Farmer.

意大利最大的蝸牛農場的主人戴維·梅里諾告訴《現代農夫》雜志說:“這種味道是其他任何食物都無法比擬的。”

Merlino charges $1,900 per kilogram vat of the stuff.

Merlino對每公斤這種原料收取1900美元的費用。

Snail farmers like him are incorporating their slow-moving produce into everything from spa treatments to high-end dishes. As a result, Italy’s snail consumption is up by more than 325 percent in the past two decades, according to the country’s leading agricultural association.

像他這樣的蝸牛養(yǎng)殖者正在把他們緩慢的生產過程融入到從水療到高端菜肴的方方面面。因此，意大利主要的農業(yè)協(xié)會稱，在過去20年里，該國蝸牛的消費量增長了325%以上。

The hefty price tag for the caviar is due to how much work goes into producing the delicacy, which is best enjoyed on “tartares of fish, prawn or beef,” Modern Farmer reports.

現代農場主報道，魚子醬的高昂價格是由于制作這種美味的工作量，而這種美味最好是在“魚、蝦或牛肉餡餅”上享用。

The process is a 150-day endeavor, in which snail breeders put sterilized glasses on the ground for snails to lay their eggs in, then sort through the precious deposits and remove non-perfect specimens. Each snail only lays roughly 50 to 100 eggs a year, Modern Farmer reports.

這一過程歷時150天，養(yǎng)殖蝸牛的人把消毒過的玻璃杯放在地上，讓蝸牛在里面產卵，然后對珍貴的沉積物進行分類，取出不完美的樣本。據《現代農夫》報道，每只蝸牛每年只產大約50到100個卵。

“We have to harvest the little pearls one-by-one using tweezers,” Merlino says.

梅利諾說:“我們必須用鑷子把小珍珠一顆一顆地摘下來。”

The French and Italians are the biggest market for the caviale di lumaca, but Merlino has also had orders from Russia, Switzerland and Dubai.

法國和意大利是盧瑪卡魚子醬的最大市場，但Merlino也接到了來自俄羅斯、瑞士和迪拜的訂單。

Merlino has some competition, too. Long Island’s Peconic Escargot is supplying a local snail variety to Manhattan’s award-winning Frenchette and Eleven Madison Park.

梅里諾也有一些競爭對手。長島的Peconic Escargot正在為曼哈頓屢獲殊榮的french chette和Eleven Madison Park提供當地蝸牛品種。

Apparently delightful snail byproducts don’t stop at the eggs: Their slime is used to prevent wrinkles and boost collagen as part of facial treatments. One Italian luxury spa even offers a treatment involving the mollusks crawling over one’s face.

很明顯，蝸牛的副產品并不僅限于雞蛋:它們的黏液被用來防止皺紋，促進膠原蛋白的生成，這是面部護理的一部分。一家意大利豪華水療中心甚至提供一種治療方法，讓軟體動物爬過你的臉。

Simone Sampò, the director of an Italian institute dedicated to the study of snails, has even invented a cruelty-free snail slime harvesting device called the MullerOne or the “snail spa.”

意大利一家專門研究蝸牛的研究所所長西蒙薩姆普(simone samp_)甚至發(fā)明了一種無虐待性的蝸牛黏液采集裝置，名為mullerone或“蝸牛水療中心”。

“More and more people are discovering this product for the incredible benefits it has for the skin, the respiratory system and the stomach,” Sampo says in an interview with dw.com.

sampo在接受dw.com的采訪時說：“越來越多的人發(fā)現這種產品，因為它對皮膚、呼吸系統(tǒng)和胃有難以置信的好處。”