蜗牛子酱是“其他食物无法比拟的味道”

蜗牛子酱是“其他食物无法比拟的味道”

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.

蜗牛鱼子酱是当下风靡烹饪界的一种风味。据《现代农夫》杂志报道，这种微小的、带珍珠的美味佳肴在意大利像热蛋糕一样热销，每公斤售价超过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.

意大利最大的蜗牛农场的主人戴维·梅里诺告诉《现代农夫》杂志说:“这种味道是其他任何食物都无法比拟的。”

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

Merlino对每公斤这种原料收取1900美元的费用。

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.

像他这样的蜗牛养殖者正在把他们缓慢的生产过程融入到从水疗到高端菜肴的方方面面。因此，意大利主要的农业协会称，在过去20年里，该国蜗牛的消费量增长了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.

现代农场主报道，鱼子酱的高昂价格是由于制作这种美味的工作量，而这种美味最好是在“鱼、虾或牛肉馅饼”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.

这一过程历时150天，养殖蜗牛的人把消毒过的玻璃杯放在地上，让蜗牛在里面产卵，然后对珍贵的沉积物进行分类，取出不完美的样本。据《现代农夫》报道，每只蜗牛每年只产大约50到100个卵。

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

梅利诺说:“我们必须用镊子把小珍珠一颗一颗地摘下来。”

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

法国和意大利是卢玛卡鱼子酱的最大市场，但Merlino也接到了来自俄罗斯、瑞士和迪拜的订单。

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.

梅里诺也有一些竞争对手。长岛的Peconic Escargot正在为曼哈顿屡获殊荣的french chette和Eleven Madison Park提供当地蜗牛品种。

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.

很明显，蜗牛的副产品并不仅限于鸡蛋:它们的黏液被用来防止皱纹，促进胶原蛋白的生成，这是面部护理的一部分。一家意大利豪华水疗中心甚至提供一种治疗方法，让软体动物爬过你的脸。

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.”

意大利一家专门研究蜗牛的研究所所长西蒙萨姆普(simone samp_)甚至发明了一种无虐待性的蜗牛黏液采集装置，名为mullerone或“蜗牛水疗中心”。

“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的采访时说：“越来越多的人发现这种产品，因为它对皮肤、呼吸系统和胃有难以置信的好处。”