Food is the perfect metaphor for life. It can strike us as funny, as when British couples go in for some "toad-in-the-hole," enjoy the occasional "bubble and squeak" or gobble down some "spotted dick." It can also turn tragically bizarre, as when, in 1919, a Boston storage tank burst, letting loose a destructive 2.3-million-gallon (8.7-million-liter) wave of molasses that killed 21 people and demolished several structures.
完满人生历来少不了美食这个主旋律。英国素以黑暗料理闻名，他们的餐桌上常见的烤面拖牛肉、炸马铃薯和洋白菜以及受人喜爱的葡萄干布丁等都成为大家玩笑的谈资。历史上，食物也曾酿造过惨剧。1919年，美国波士顿的糖蜜储存罐突然发生爆炸，约230万加仑（870万升）糖蜜倾泻而出，造成21人死亡，损毁好几处建筑物。
And, like life, food is also precious, often in surprising ways. Take the case of the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2012, in which 6 million pounds (2.7 million kilograms) of syrup were stolen from the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve (yes, that's a thing). You might think that syrup stealing should be filed under funny, but there's nothing laughable about a commodity that at the time of the heist was trading at $1,800 per 620-pound (281-kilogram) barrel, or roughly 13 times crude oil's then-going rate. For our cornucopia of kooky comestibles, we've pulled from all three categories -- and then some. We have silly food names, cheeses both bankable and burning, and fare that sounds like a dare.
但是诚如生命可贵，食物也是非常珍贵的，有时甚至可以昂贵到惊人的地步。加拿大著名的枫糖浆失窃案就是一个很好的例证。2012年，在加拿大一家全球战略性枫糖浆储备处（Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve，不要怀疑，真的有这个机构），大约有600万磅（270万公斤）枫糖浆失窃。也许你会觉得盗窃枫糖浆是很可笑的行为，但如果你知道在当时的销售市场上，1桶620磅（281公斤）的枫糖浆售价为1800美元，大约是同期原油市场价格的13倍，你就笑不出来了。我们可以将这些千奇百怪的食物趣事大致分为三类，如荒唐的食物名称、可以用来抵押和燃烧的奶酪以及需要勇气才敢挑战的食物！
10.Mellified Man: It's the Taste of Nuts and Honey
10.蜜渍人：坚果与蜂蜜的味道
While Europe was enduring the long intellectual Dark Ages that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Muslim world was experiencing a flourishing golden age of intellectual and cultural achievement. But if, as philosophers have long contended, we can judge a culture's character by what it eats, then here's one honey of an "Oh boy, I think I'm going to be sick."
伴随着罗马帝国的崩塌，欧洲经历了一段漫长蒙昧的黑暗时代，而与此同时，穆斯林世界正处于智慧与文化蓬勃发展的黄金时期。哲学家们早就主张“一种文化的品性可以通过它的饮食来评判”，那么对穆斯林文化中的“蜜渍人”我们便只能感叹一句“天哪，这太令人作呕了！”
The recipe is simple: Take one elderly Arabian fellow, feed him nothing but honey, wait until he dies and then bury him ... in more honey. Allow the man to marinate for 100 years, then dig him up and sell the "mellified man" (from the Latin "mel" for honey) in your local grand bazaar for a substantial stack of coins. Was mellified man a real thing? It was recorded in a 16th-century Chinese pharmacopeia, Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica," but even the person who recorded it admitted it was hearsay at best. Like most honeyed words -- and a nice caramel -- it's probably best taken with a grain of salt.
“蜜渍人”的制作过程很简单：挑选一名年长的阿拉伯人，让他只以蜂蜜为食，在他过世后再用大量的蜂蜜掩埋尸体。用蜂蜜腌制100年后，人们便将“蜜渍人”挖出并在当地的大巴扎集市售卖，以换取大量金币（在拉丁语中“mel”代表蜂蜜）。“蜜渍人”是真实存在的吗？早在16世纪，中国医药学家李时珍在其药典《本草纲目》中便有相关记载，但他也明确说明这只是传闻并无实证。我们看待这件事的真实性，也应当如同看待甜言蜜语和精美糖果一样，持保留态度。
9.Stack That Cheese -- as Loan Collateral
9.成批奶酪可以作为抵押贷款
Formaggio fans know the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy as the only place in the world legally entitled to call its hard, dry skim-milk cheese Parmigiano-Reggiano. But within the world of finance, this home to Ravenna, Bologna and Parma has also gained fame for a pecuniary peculiarity: It's home to a bank that accepts the celebrated cheese as collateral.
奶酪爱好者都应该知道，全世界只有意大利北部的艾米利亚 - 罗马涅大区生产的奶酪才有权利称为帕尔马地方奶酪，这种硬质干酪由牛生乳制成，被称为奶酪之王。但在世界金融领域，拉文纳，博洛尼亚和帕尔马这三个意大利城市则以其奇特的财务交易而闻名——这些地方的银行允许用名贵奶酪做为抵押品进行贷款。
Credito Emiliano SpA (aka Credem) stores and cares for around 450,000 80-pound (36-kilogram) wheels of aging Parmigiano-Reggiano at a time. That stacks up to around 160 million euros, or (very roughly) $176 million worth. By accepting the curd-based collateral, the bank provides a valuable service to local cheese producers, who must finance milk-buying and storage while their products cure. Loans from Credem can reach as high as 80 percent of the cheese's market value. Each wheel bears a branded serial number, which became important in February 2009, when thieves burrowed their way into one depository and rolled off with 570 pieces before police nabbed them. That must have really grated.
意大利埃米利亚诺信托银行曾经一度存放了约450,000轮80磅（36公斤）重的帕尔马地方奶酪，并加以照管。这些奶酪累计起来可以折价约1.6亿欧元，粗略估计合1.76亿美元市值。通过接受乳制品抵押贷款，银行向当地的奶酪生产商提供有价值的服务，但在烤制加工产品期间，生产商必须支付牛奶采购和存储的费用。从埃米利亚诺信托银行申请的信贷最高可达奶酪市场价值的80%。每一轮奶酪都印有品牌的序列号，这些序列号在之后起到了重要的作用。2009年2月，一些窃贼挖掘地道潜入奶酪贮藏所，在被捕之前他们运走了570份奶酪轮。当时银行必定相当恼火。
8.Cheese: Of Fire and Flies
8.芝士：火与苍蝇的结合
Other countries may require the aid of spirits to set their respective cheeses aflame, but the land of fjords produces a brown cheese that burns like a tire fire all on its own. Actually, brunost is not technically a cheese because, like ricotta, it's made not only of curds but also of whey, the liquid left over after milk has been curdled and strained. The result is a sweet, brown block of sticky, caramelized lactose, a brick of fat and sugar that burns like nobody's business – enough so that a spilled, flaming truckload shut down a Norwegian tunnel for four days.
其他国家出产的芝士可能需要加入酒精才能燃烧起来，而挪威海湾地区出产的一种褐色的芝士则不用任何添加物就可以像轮胎起火一样烧起来。事实上，杰托斯特芝士严格意义上来说并不是芝士。就像意大利乳清干酪一样，制作杰托斯特芝士不仅要使用凝乳，还要使用乳清——就是那些牛奶凝固后被过滤出来的液体。这样生产出来的就是甜甜粘粘的焦糖色乳糖。这些像砖头一样的脂肪和糖，如果自顾自地熊熊燃烧，其释放出的能量堪比一货车燃烧着的货物，能导致一个挪威隧道关闭4天之久。
Of course, there are reasons you might want to set cheese on fire, and we're not talking about fondues or saganakis. Take Sardinia's illegal maggot-ridden cheese casu marzu. In a possible case of "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," this putrid pecorino requires some larval love to fully come alive. With a little encouragement from cheese makers, flies lay eggs in the product, which then hatch into larvae. As the maggots crawl through the cheese using their tiny teeth, they release a putrefying enzyme essential to the product's characteristic flavor and (gulp!) mouthfeel. Patrons are advised to cover their eyes, ostensibly to prevent wayward maggots from jumping into them.
或许你有很多种理由想燃烧芝士，当然我们并不是在讲芝士火锅或是希腊奶酪。再来看看撒丁岛布满虫蛆的非法芝士：卡苏马苏。可谓是“假如你不能打败你的敌人那就吃了它们”的现实版写照 。这种腐烂的羊乳芝士需要添加幼虫来激活。芝士制造商给予催化，苍蝇会在上面产卵然后孵化成幼虫。这些小蛆们用自己小小的牙齿在芝士里不断爬行，他们释放出来的具有腐化作用的酶正是制作出其特色风味和口感的一种最关键的发酵剂。当你吃这个的时候最好闭上眼睛，至少可以装作不想让这些任性的蛆蛆们跳到你的眼睛里去的样子。
7.Christmas Culinary Curiosities Killed the Cat
7.圣诞美食是什么——好奇心害死猫
In the U.S., Christmas is associated with a sort of quid pro quo: People who celebrate Christmas leave cookies and milk for Santa Claus, and he leaves edible treats in their stockings. But other holiday traditions around the world incorporate food as well.
在美国，圣诞节算得上是某种等价交换：庆祝圣诞节的人们给圣诞老人留些饼干和牛奶，而圣诞老人则留下美食在人们的长筒袜里。不仅美国，世界各地的节日传统里都少不了食物。
Take some of Europe's historical yuletide traditions, which may or may not still hold true (leave a comment if you know). On Dec. 5 in Austria, the eve of St. Nicholas Day, good children used to receive candy in their shoes, while naughty ones got coal ... or potatoes. In Bavaria, farmers once encouraged a bountiful harvest by asking their fruit trees on a luncheon date. If the arboreal invitees didn't show, the farmers brought lunch to them -- or, rather, to the spirits that they believed dwelled inside them. On New Year's Eve, Spaniards have tried to court good luck (or a Heimlich) by gobbling down a dozen grapes while the clock struck midnight. In Sweden, a white-clad girl with candles in her hair would wake her family on Christmas with special wheat cakes called lussekatter, in memory of St. Lucia. Yuletide can be a tough time for cats in Europe. Icelanders bedecked their family felines in bows lest they be mistaken for the shape-shifting Christmas Cat, which reputedly gobbled up children who received only toys for Christmas. But they had it better than some cats in Switzerland, where a small number of diehards still eat the domestic variety for their Christmas meals
就拿欧洲的一些具有历史意义的圣诞节传统来聊一聊，这当中有些可能仍然适用，而有些已经不适用了（如果你知道，请留下评论告诉我）。在奥地利，每年的12月5号，即圣尼古拉斯节前夕，乖孩子一般会在他们的鞋子里收到糖果，而淘气的小朋友则只能收到煤或是土豆。而在巴伐利亚，农民们曾一度邀请自己的果树参加午宴，以期望获得好收成。如果被邀请的果树没有赴宴，农民们就把午餐送去献给果树——或者更准确地说，献给他们认为住在树里的精灵。西班牙人在新年前夕想要获得好运（还不如说他们是想感受一下海姆立克急救法）他们就会在午夜钟声敲响时吞下十几颗葡萄。在瑞典，为了纪念圣卢西亚，庆祝圣诞节时家中的女孩会换上白色的衣服，在头发上插上蜡烛，并用一种特制的小麦饼——露西亚面包来叫她的家人起床。圣诞节对欧洲的猫来说是一段艰辛的时期。冰岛人会给自己家的猫装扮上蝴蝶结以免被别人误认为是会变形的圣诞怪猫，据说这种怪猫会把在圣诞节中只收到玩偶的孩子们吃掉。不过比起瑞士的猫，它们就幸运多了，瑞士仍有少数顽固分子至今还会把本地猫咪当作他们的圣诞大餐。
6.How Hippo Nearly Became America's Other Dark Meat
6.美国的河马肉差点成为盘中餐
The turn of the 20th century was marked by a bold optimism concerning what was possible through science and industry coupled with a willingness to explore the most outlandish options available. Faced with a problem, real or perceived, you could count on someone to offer solutions ranging from the impractical to the morally dubious.
20世纪初是一个勇敢而乐观的时代，人们怀着探索精神，通过科学和技术，探索世界上的奇闻趣事。在面对真实的或假想的问题之时，你诚然可以靠别人来帮你解决，但这些解决方法要么无法实践，要么有不道德之嫌。
At the time, the U.S faced a serious problem: a booming population and not enough meat with which to feed it. Proposals ranged from introducing antelope to establishing ostrich farms, but probably the most remarkable remedy lay in the proposed use of hippopotamuses as a local meat source. The advantages were several. Hippos would live and feed in areas unfit for traditional cattle, and the so-called "lake cows" (as at least one marketing-savvy editorial called them, even if hippopotamus literally means "river horse" in Greek) would remove a blight from Louisiana's bayous to boot, an invasive water hyacinth that was clogging waterways and knocking off fish. Despite the support of such luminaries as former President Teddy Roosevelt, the idea eventually gave way to burgeoning industrial farms.
当时，美国面临一个非常严峻的问题：人口爆炸式增长，而国内却缺乏足够的食物。尽管有人建议通过建立羚羊或者鸵鸟养殖场来解决肉源的问题，但最切实可行的做法，却是选择河马肉。他们的理由是，河马可以在不适合养牛的地方生存和养殖，而且这种所谓的“湖奶牛”（虽然河马一词在希腊文中表示“河流的马”，但是仍有不少营销书这样为它命名）能够清除路易斯安那州湖沼的水葫芦，解决生物入侵带来的水道堵塞、鱼类死亡问题。尽管这个想法得到了诸如前总统西奥多·罗斯福等名人的支持，但最后还是被迅速发展的工业化农场淹没。
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