有一个地方，肉食性植物成为人类食物 [英国媒体]

Where people eat carnivorous plants

有一个地方，肉食性植物成为人类食物

You can’t tell upon first glance, but thishumble Malaysian snack comes wrapped in what was once a highly evolved hunter.

第一眼你根本看不出来，包裹这种朴素的马来西亚小吃的东西是一种曾经高度进化的猎手。

By Susanne Masters
4 May 2017

作者：苏赞尼·马斯特斯
2017年5月4日

It takes a few changes of clothes to climbMalaysian Borneo’s Mount Kinabalu. At its peak, stone slabs offer no shelter,and its 4,095m-high altitude brings more cold than you might expect in theheart of the tropics. Further down the mountain, a thick tree canopy providesshelter, but it is a cool, misty forest that drips. And at the base is theslightly too-warm embrace of tropical rainforest.

要爬到马来西亚婆罗洲的基纳巴鲁山顶需要换几次衣服。在山顶，石板并没有为人们提供任何遮蔽，4095米的海拔让温度比你想象中热带地区的温度低得多。往山下走，茂密的树冠为人们遮阴，但这是一片阴凉潮湿的树林，水珠会从树上滴落下来。到了山脚下，就变成了那种有点太热的热带雨林。

Seemingly unfazed by the sticky humidity,market vendors in the city of Kota Kinabalu, from where most journeys up and downMount Kinabalu start, sell a variety of local foods to hikers returning fromthe summit. Amid the sizzle and clatter of food stalls and the enticing aromasof buttered prawns and barbecued fish, pouches of sticky rice in dull, mottledwrappers aren’t the type of snack that catches attention.  

来自亚庇市的小贩们似乎并没有被湿热的气候影响，他们在基纳巴鲁山脚下摆摊贩卖各种当地小吃，不管上山还是下山的游客都会光顾。烹炸食物的嗤啦声和餐具撞击声交织在一起，奶油大虾和烤鱼发出诱人的香味。在堆积如山的食物中间有一种不起眼的小吃，是把糯米包在一种有深色斑点的小罐子状的叶子中。

But this modest bite is something quiteextraordinary. Made from coconut-scented sticky rice wrapped in the traps of acarnivorous plant, the snack can be found in several countries in SoutheastAsia. But in Malaysian Borneo, that consumption of nasi pelut (whiterice) in periuk kera (pitcher plant), also known as lemangperiuk kera, is thriving.

但这种朴素的小吃实际上很特别。它是把椰汁糯米饭装入一种食肉植物的叶子制成的，在东南亚很多国家都能见到。但是在马来西亚婆罗洲，这种把nasi pelut（白米）包进periuk kera（猪笼草）的叫lemang periuk kera的小吃十分流行。


 
Amid the offerings at the Kota Kinabalumarket, lemang periuk kera isn’t the type of snack that catches attention(Credit: Will Steeley/Alamy)

在亚庇市的市场上，lemang periuk kera是一种不引人注目的小吃（版权：Will Steeley/Alamy ）

Mount Kinabalu is one of the richestbiodiversity hotspots in the world. It is packed with life in varied forms,including some animals and plants that don’t live in the wild anywhere elsesuch as several species of carnivorous pitcher plant. These plants use avariety of techniques ‒ such as nectar, smells and colours ‒ to lure insects, and their traps deploy sheer drops, smoothsurfaces that cannot be scaled or blockades of bristles to prevent their preyfrom escaping.

基纳巴鲁山是地球上物种最丰富的热点地区之一。在这里有一些在世界其他地方不存在的动物和植物，尤其是一些种类的猪笼草。这种植物用不同的方法——包括花蜜、味道和颜色——来引诱虫子，它的捕食笼壁非常陡且光滑，让有鳞片或刚毛的昆虫也无法逃脱。

Pitcher plants often appear on touristinformation leaflets as a symbol of Mount Kinabalu’s biodiversity, but inmarkets in Kota Kinabalu and across Malaysian Borneo, they are part of the richculinary culture of Malaysia’s indigenous tribes.

猪笼草经常被印在旅游宣传单上以宣传基纳巴鲁山的生物多样性，但是在亚庇市和整个马来西亚婆罗洲，猪笼草是马来西亚土着部落饮食文化的一部分。

Dr Rachel Schwallier, lecturer at GrandValley State University Department of Biology in Michigan, was in Borneo in2012-2013 conducting research on the evolution and diversity of pitcher plants.On hearing about the use of pitcher plants in local cuisine, she expanded herwork and returned to look at the culture and heritage of edible pitcher plants.

瑞秋·施瓦利尔博士，密歇根大峡谷州立大学生物系的讲师，曾经在2012-2013年在婆罗洲研究猪笼草的进化和种类。当听说当地对猪笼草的烹饪方法时，她扩大了研究范围，并回过头去研究食用猪笼草的文化和传统。


 
Mount Kinabalu is one of the world’srichest biodiversity hotspots (Credit: Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images)

基纳巴鲁山是世界上物种最丰富的热点之一（版权： Nora Carol Photography/GettyImages ）

Lemang periuk kera is recognised as aMalaysian heritage food that differs from other methods of cooking sticky ricebecause of the way the pitcher plant is used. To make the snack, pitchers arecleaned and filled with rice, packed upright into a steamer, covered withcoconut milk and then steamed for an hour. Cooked in this way, the naturallyglutinous texture of local sticky rice is transformed into tidycoconut-flavoured packages.

Lemang periuk kera是一种马来西亚传统食物，由于使用了猪笼草，使得它的做法跟其他烹调糯米的方法区别开来。具体做法是：将猪笼草清洗后装入糯米，直立在笼屉上，倒入椰汁，蒸一个小时。用这种方法可以将当地富有粘性的糯米自然地转变成椰子味的米包子。

One person interviewed by Schwallierdescribed eating it on a highland trek in Borneo. In the case of this meal, thelandscape provided cooking vessels as well as fuel for the fire: their tribalguides collected pitchers, coated them in mud and placed them on the coals of afire to cook the rice.

一位施瓦利尔的采访者描述了在婆罗洲高地旅行中吃这种食物的经历。在这个例子中，自然环境为人们提供了烹饪容器和燃料：他们的土着部落向导摘了些猪笼草，放入大米后把它们包在泥巴里放在炭火上烤。


“I was lucky enough to cook the snack alongwith a tribal family in Borneo, too, and it seems that the rich flavour reallycomes from the coconut milk that the rice is steeped in, making it sweet andfull of flavour,” Schwallier said.

“很幸运，我在婆罗洲跟一个土着部落家庭一起做了这种食物，丰富的香气似乎来自于浸泡糯米的椰汁，米饭变得又甜又香，”施瓦利尔说。（译者忍不住吐槽：马来西亚的米粗糙而且没有味道，就算用椰汁煮出来的椰浆饭也无法在味道和口感上跟普通中国米饭相比，更不用说我国还有顶级的东北大米，深深为这群没吃过上等米饭的外国人感到悲哀……）


 
The pitcher plant’s unique shape is perfectfor holding rice (Credit: Barcroft/Getty Images)

猪笼草的形状让它成为盛放米饭的绝妙容器（版权：Barcroft/GettyImages ）

At market stalls in Kota Kinabalu andthroughout Borneo, vendors customise their own versions: a bit of pandan leafadds fragrance, while peanut or fermented shrimp paste creates depth.

在亚庇市和整个婆罗洲的市场上，食品摊主们有自己的烹调技巧：放一点班丹叶来增加香味，放花生和虾酱让味道更加醇厚。（译者又来吐槽啦：这不就变成臭烘烘齁咸的椰浆饭了么……）

The flask-shaped pitcher plant (named forits unique shape that allows it to consume falling leaves) is ideal for holdingrice, though the common swamp pitcher plant also does the trick. One way totell one from the other is that lemang periuk keramade with the commonswamp pitcher plant can be eaten whole because the plant makes more pliable andchewable pitchers. The flask-shaped plant has pitchers that are much more likecardboard ‒ harder to chew but easy to peel off therice.

这种瓶子形状的猪笼草（名字来源于它用来捕食落入陷阱的小虫的捕虫笼的形状）非常适合盛放米饭，虽然其他普通的沼泽猪笼草也可以用来装大米。一个把这种猪笼草和其他普通沼泽猪笼草区别开的方法是这种猪笼草的捕虫笼更加柔软，可以被嚼碎，这样它可以跟米饭一起被吃掉。这种瓶子形状的捕虫笼更像纸壳——很难咀嚼，但可以轻松剥掉稻壳。

Sometimes, use of plants – such as theedible Curcuma candida, a flower native to Myanmar and Thailand – incooking is restricted in order to conserve them. But pitcher plants aren’t atrisk of extinction. Only the right pitcher is picked from a plant: it must besmall (but not too small), not too old or brittle. The rest of the plant isleft growing in the forest, continuing to produce more pitchers.

有时候，使用植物——例如可食用的Curcuma candida——一种缅甸和泰国当地的花朵来做饭是被明令禁止的，因为涉及到保护濒危植物。但是猪笼草不是保护植物。只有合适的猪笼草才会被采摘：尺寸必须小（但也不能太小），不能太老也不能太脆。其他猪笼草就被留下，在森林中继续生长，繁殖出更多的猪笼草。


 
Lemang periuk kera (white rice in pitcherplants) is a popular snack in Malaysian Borneo (Credit: Jonathan Lin/Flickr)

Lemang periuk kera（猪笼草盛白米）是马来西亚婆罗洲一种十分流行的小吃（版权：Jonathan Lin/Flickr）

In describing being taken into theforest by a family who were harvesting pitchers near the village ofKampung Duyoh in southwestern Borneo, Schwallier said: “I literally could not takea single step without crunching the pitchers below my feet – that is how wellthey carpeted the forest floor.”

施瓦利尔在描述她跟着婆罗洲西南石隆门附近一个村庄的家庭去森林里采摘猪笼草时说：“实际上我在森林里每走出一步都会踩到猪笼草——可见它们在森林里多么普遍地存在。”

Schwallier believes there is conservationvalue in the consumption of pitcher plants. “Preservation of traditional foodenhances the link that people have with their natural environment andsustainable forest practices,” she said. “Maintaining [this] connection…strengthens the value placed on local forests, which strengthens the likelihoodthat communities will call for preservation of their forest when it isthreatened by drivers of deforestation.”

施瓦利尔相信这种用猪笼草烹煮食物的传统十分具有保护价值。“保留传统食品可以加强人们同自然环境和持续利用森林的联系，”她说。“维护（这种）联系……增加了当地森林的价值，当砍伐者对森林产生威胁时，本地的居民更可能站出来保护森林。”

In line with conservation approaches thatseek to maintain traditional plant uses, visitors to Malaysian Borneo can enjoythe taste of a food that tells a tale of people living in some of the richestforest in the world. And for hikers descending on market stalls in KotaKinabalu, a bite of unassuming lemang periuk kera is a tasty reminder of theirtrek through the forest and the exotic plants that live in it.

得益于对利用植物烹饪米饭的传统的保护，来到马来西亚婆罗洲的游客们可以吃到这种特殊的食物，它的味道代表着人们在这个世界上森林最繁茂的地区之一的生活。在亚庇市小吃市场上穿梭的驴友们会记住lemang periuk kera的味道，这种朴素的食物会让他们想起他们的旅程，以及森林里生长的奇异的异乡植物。



Pitcher plants use smells, colours andnectar to lure their prey (Credit: Goran Šafarek/Alamy)

猪笼草用味道、颜色和花蜜引诱猎物（版权：Goran Šafarek/Alamy）