Why baby eels are one of Spain's most expensive foods
为何幼鳗是西班牙最昂贵的食物？
Baby eels are one of Spain’s most expensive foods, but when you see them for the first time you might wonder why.
幼鳗这种小鱼是西班牙最昂贵的食物之一，但当你第一次看见它们时，你完全看不出它们为何会如此金贵。
They’re not, to put it mildly, something that cries out to be eaten.
When alive, they’re transparent and slimy, slithering and squirming like
tiny snakes. Cooked, they turn opaque and resemble limp, dead worms,
except they’re white with two tiny black dots for eyes. Hungry yet?
它们很不起眼，根本没有令人垂涎的样子。生鲜时，这是一种看上去透明而滑溜，细长如小蛇一般的鱼。烹制之后，它们不再透明，看上去有点像死去的蠕虫，白白的只有两个黑点儿，那是它们的眼睛。感觉有食欲吗？
But lots of delicious things are not particularly good looking; what’s
important is the taste. Here’s where it gets strange. It’s not that
angulas, as they’re called in Spain, taste good or bad. They don’t taste
of much at all – which is strange because they’re astronomically
expensive, up to 1,000 euros a kilo. Even stranger still, legend has it
they were once so unappreciated they were used as fodder for chickens
and pigs. But then again, when it comes to eels, everything is strange.
当然，很多美味都没有漂亮的外表，重要的是滋味。但这对幼鳗来说就更奇怪了，因为它们吃起来并没有什么滋味，说不上好坏。可是这种不起眼又没有什么滋味的小鱼在西班牙竟然如此昂贵，价格可高达1000欧元一公斤。更奇怪的是，传说这种鱼曾经只是喂鸡和猪的饲料！
Many Spaniards find it difficult to understand why some people are
willing to pay so much for angulas, including me. As a writer and
podcaster about Spanish food and culture, I’ve always found it
mystifying. Especially because the traditional recipe (a la bilbaína)
calls for frying garlic and hot peppers in lots of olive oil and then
adding angulas – a sure way to overpower their mild flavour.
很多西班牙人（包括我本人在内）都不明白为什么有人愿意花大钱买这种小鱼。作为一个关注西班牙美食和文化的作者，我一直对幼鳗的昂贵身份感到好奇，特别是一道用橄榄油烹炒蒜和辣椒的传统幼鳗菜（la bilbaína）。
Of course, mystery surrounds eels, not least when it comes to their life
cycle, which sounds like something out of a dark fairy tale. They live
in freshwater, but can breathe through their skin and travel over land
for long distances. They eat just about anything, living or dead. Then
at the age of 10 or so, they swim downstream in rivers across Europe to
the Atlantic Ocean and somehow (it’s still unknown to science) they find
their way to the Sargasso Sea, some 5,000km away. At depths of more
than 500m – quite a feat for a creature that lives most of its life in
shallow freshwater – they spawn and die, and their hatchlings drift on
the Gulf Stream currents towards Europe, a journey that takes at least
two years.
幼鳗的生命历程同样奇妙，听起来有点像出自古怪的神话传说。它们生活在淡水里，但可以通过皮肤呼吸，因此能够在陆地上爬行很远的距离。它们可以进食任何东西，死的活的都不在话下。成年鳗鱼沿河而下，穿越欧洲进入大西洋，最终抵达5000公里之外的北大阿西洋中的马尾藻海（Sargasso
Sea）。科学家们至今没有发现他们是如何正确导航的。这些习惯于生活在较浅河水里的鱼，最后潜入500多米深的海水中产卵并葬身在海底。而它们的鱼苗会随着墨西哥湾流一路向欧洲漂泊，两年之后才能到达目的地。
When the angulas finally arrive on Spain’s Atlantic shores, fisherman
with scoop nets are waiting for them. The season starts in November, and
the best time to catch them is in the middle of the coldest, blackest,
rainiest nights when the tide is strong and the water is rough and
turbid. Of course.
当幼鳗终于历尽艰辛抵达西班牙大西洋海岸，渔民们早已撒开大网等候它们了。捕幼鳗季节始于每年11月，最佳时间是在最阴冷而黑暗的雨夜，那时的潮水最高涨，海水汹涌而浑浊。
While angulas are incredibly pricey, the first batch to go on auction
every year are more expensive still. In 2016, the first lot up for sale
weighed 1.25 kilos and sold for an eye-watering 5,500 euros. Wholesale.
And yet the second lot, which weighed about the same, sold for a ‘mere’
1,070 euros.
幼鳗价钱如此之贵，而每年的第一网鱼又格外昂贵。2016年，第一网幼鳗1.25公斤，以5500欧元令人瞠目的价格售出，这还是批发价。而第二网几乎同样重量的幼鳗，仅以1070欧元成交。
So why the difference? Same baby eels, bought minutes apart, just one
batch before the other. Even more curious is that both lots were bought
by the same man.
这是什么原因呢？同样的幼鳗，仅仅几分钟捕捞时间的差别，价格竟如此悬殊。跟幼鳗有关的事情就是这么古怪，这两网幼鳗是同一个买主。
I tracked down the buyer, José Gonzalo Hevia, who owned Casa Tista restaurant in Asturias, to ask him.
我设法找到了买主，一个叫何塞·冈萨罗·埃维亚（José Gonzalo Hevia）的人，他在阿斯图利亚斯（Asturias）有一家叫 Casa Tista 餐馆。
“It was a bit of marketing for my restaurant and also an homage to the
fisherman,” said Gonzalo Hevia, now retired. He was once an angula
fisherman himself. “The atmosphere at the auction is very exciting. It’s
a big media event. The next day, the name of my restaurant was in every
newspaper and on every TV station.”
"这对我的餐馆来说是一个市场策略，也是对渔民表示敬意。"埃维亚说，他本人也曾经是幼鳗渔民，现在退休了。"拍卖时的气氛非常令人激动，这也是令媒体关注的事件。第二天，我餐馆的名字出现在西班牙所有的报纸和电视新闻上。"
That kind of publicity can bring in a lot of customers. “Some of my
clients came back 20 or 30 times a season to eat angulas,” Gonzalo Hevia
added. When I asked him what’s so special about them, he said, “It’s
the texture more than anything.”
当然，这种公关成就会带来大量顾客。"我的一些顾客在一个幼鳗季节里会到我餐馆来20次或30次品尝幼鳗。"埃维亚说，我问他幼鳗为什么这么吸引人？他说，"它的口感妙极了。"
But the texture doesn’t seem so special to me. I remember them as
slippery, with a very slight crunch. Still wondering why people would
pay so much for them, I visited Arima, a noted Basque restaurant in
Madrid, and spoke to the head chef, Rodrigo García Fonseca.
可是我却没有感受到幼鳗的口感有多好，只感觉吃到口里很滑溜，还有一点嚼头。我仍然对幼鳗如此昂贵的原因感兴趣，于是造访了马德里的一家颇为有名的巴斯克餐馆Arima，跟餐馆主厨罗德里戈·加西亚·方塞卡（Rodrigo García Fonseca）聊起来。
García Fonseca, who served 3kg of them in one week this past January,
also a la bilbaína, said, “I wouldn’t pay that money for them. They have
no taste, no colour, nothing, not even smell. A lettuce has more aroma.
But I had two guys in here that ordered half a kilo of them. Five
hundred euros in one shot. Some people who have money like to spend it.
Who doesn’t like being a snob from time to time?”
在过去的这个1月份里，一个星期方塞卡就为食客烹制了3公斤的幼鳗。"我自己不会花这么多钱吃幼鳗。它们无色又无味，连鱼腥味都没有。生菜都比它有味儿。但我们有两个顾客，竟然吃了半公斤幼鳗！一次花了500欧元。有钱人不在乎怎么花钱，谁不想时不时炫富一下？"
Nagore Irazuegi, the owner of Arima, is also from the Basque Country,
where angulas are ingrained in the traditional menus of Christmas Eve,
New Years and the Day of San Sebastian on 20 January. “They’re way
overpriced, but some people like the ostentation of it,” she said. But
she is quick to add that there is more to it. “On special feast days,
it’s just a tradition to eat them. And that ties a certain class of
people together. It’s a cultural thing. More than anything, people want
to belong.”
Arima 餐馆的主人纳戈雷·伊萨苏基（Nagore
Irazuegi）来自巴斯克地区，幼鳗是当地圣诞夜传统食物，在新年和1月20日的圣塞巴斯蒂安日的菜单上也可见这种小鱼。"我认为它们的确过于昂贵了，但有些人就喜欢炫耀。当然，在特别节庆日，吃幼鳗是传统。吃幼鳗把一些人分出阶层，这是一种文化，物以类聚，人以群分嘛。"
Whether or not baby eels were once fed to livestock (everyone I spoke to
had heard the same story, but little evidence exists), there’s no doubt
they were once the food of the working class in northern Spain. But
that was back when angulas were plentiful, and therefore cheap. As
angulas became scarce and prices rose, a company called Angulas Aguinaga
saw an opportunity. In 1991, using surimi, a paste of processed fish,
they created imitation angulas, which are called simply gulas. They look
almost the same, but that’s about it. Gulas are softer and taste
vaguely fishy. And yet they’re so popular you can find them in just
about any grocery shop in Spain.
不管幼鳗是否如人们所说曾经是喂鸡喂猪的饲料，但在西班牙北方它的确曾经是劳动人民的食物。不过那时候幼鳗非常多，所以很便宜。而如今幼鳗越来越少，价格自然也就上去了。一家叫安古拉斯·阿古纳加（Angulas
Aguinaga）的公司发现了机会，他们在1991年利用鱼糜——一种鱼肉加工制品，生产出了仿幼鳗替代品，就叫"古拉斯"（gulas），看上去跟幼鳗几乎一模一样，但吃起来更柔软，还带一点鱼腥味。"古拉斯"非常受欢迎，你几乎可以在西班牙任何食品店看到它们。
Part of the reason angulas are so expensive is that dams and
environmental degradation have taken a toll on eel numbers, and they are
now listed as critically endangered.
幼鳗如此昂贵的部分原因是水坝和生存环境的恶化导致它们数量减少，现在幼鳗已经被列为濒危物种。
Three-star Michelin chefs have also played a role in the price increase.
Manolo González, an award-winning food writer and historian from San
Sebastian and secretary of one of the city’s famed gastronomic clubs,
Cofradía del Ajo y el Perejil (The Brotherhood of the Garlic and
Parsley), explains. “When I was young, in the 1950s and 60s, we ate a
lot of angulas. At that time, they were still considered too low class
for a restaurant to serve, but in the ‘70s, the great Basque restaurants
like Arzak started to cook with them, and all of a sudden, angulas were
high class.”
来自圣塞巴斯蒂安的西班牙获奖美食作者和历史学家马诺洛·冈萨雷斯（Manolo
González）认为，米其林三星餐馆主厨们的青睐也是幼鳗价格飞涨的原因之一。"我年轻时，1950和60年代，我们吃了很多幼鳗，当时它们仍然是劳动大众的食物。但到了1970年代，一些有名的巴斯克餐馆开始烹制和提供幼鳗佳肴，幼鳗突然就登上了上流社会的餐桌。"
Now they were not only scarce, they were also fashionable. It was a perfect storm of demand. Prices skyrocketed.
如今，数量日益减少而时尚的幼鳗成了抢手货，价格自然越来越贵了。
And yet they remain popular. Why?
这种不起眼的鱼为什么持续在西班牙人餐桌上走红呢？
“Exclusivity has always played a role in gastronomy,” González
explained. He likens it to buying wines that cost 5,000 euros a bottle,
way beyond their true value, but worth it to some even if only to show
status. While admitting that angulas don’t taste of much, González does
enjoy the texture. “And for a food lover, on a special occasion, 80
euros for an appetizer isn’t completely out of reach.”
"说到美食，食品的独特性永远扮演重要角色，"冈萨雷斯说，他举例说就像花5000欧元买一瓶佳酿一样，实在是超过物件的真实价值，但是有人觉得就是值这么多钱，即使仅仅是显示地位。不过，冈萨雷斯自己的确喜欢幼鳗的肉质口感，"作为一个美食热爱者，偶尔奢侈一下，花80欧元吃一道幼鳗头盘还是不过分的。"
While he himself doesn’t cook with them anymore because of the high
price, the taste of the classic angula recipe with oil, garlic and hot
peppers still holds fond memories.
由于价钱昂贵，冈萨雷斯自己已经不再烹制幼鳗了，不过用橄榄油、蒜和辣椒烹制的传统幼鳗菜肴的美味依然留在他的记忆中。
“You can make the same dish but with using spaghetti. We call it Poor
Man’s Angulas,” he said with a touch of irony. “Try it, you’ll see how
delicious it is!”
"你可以用意大利面做这道菜，我们称其为穷人的幼鳗菜，"他带点嘲讽地说，"试着做这道菜，你会发现它如此美味！"
来源：好英语网
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