爲了吃小鳥 法國人用餐巾蓋住臉

PARIS — The menu at Les Prés d’Eugénie, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in the bucolic Landes region of southwest France, reads like a decadent litany of the terroir: truffle blini in a silky galette; toasted pigs’ feet with smoked eel; verveine soufflé scented with citronnelle.

巴黎——米其林三星餐館歐也尼草原(Les Prés d’Eugénie)位於法國西南部田園詩般的朗德省，這裏的菜單讀上去好像一段關於風土條件(terroir)的享樂禱文：松露薄煎餅配絲滑的格雷派餅、烤豬蹄配煙燻鰻魚、檸檬草口味的馬鞭草蘇芙蕾。

But the chef, Michel Guérard, says that one essential dish is missing: the ortolan, a tiny songbird that gourmands, including former President François Mitterrand, used to covet, consuming the head, bones and body in a single, steaming mouthful, while covering their faces with a white napkin to conceal the act.

但是大廚米凱爾·居埃赫(Michel Guérard)說，餐廳的一道重要菜餚沒有寫在菜單上，那就是圃鵐，一種會唱歌的小鳥，包括法國前總統弗朗索瓦·密特朗(François Mitterrand)在內的老饕們覬覦着將它連頭帶骨，整個身體一口吞下去，與此同時爲了掩飾，還要用白色餐布擋住臉。

Now, Mr. Guérard and three other celebrity chefs who hail from southwest France — Alain Ducasse, Jean Coussau and Alain Dutournier — are trying to engineer a public comeback for the ortolan, an overhunted species that France banished from restaurant menus in 1999. If they get their way, the forbidden food will be legally offered to napkin-wearing diners at restaurants in Landes for one weekend a year — the gastronomic equivalent of a visitation from the holy grail.

1999年，法國禁止餐廳將這個遭受過度捕獵的物種列入菜單，如今，居埃赫和其他三位享譽法國西南部的名廚——阿蘭·杜卡斯(Alain Ducasse)、讓·庫索(Jean Coussau)和阿蘭·杜都爾涅(Alain Dutournier)——卻在籌劃讓它重返公衆視野。如果他們成功了，每年中將會有一個週末，朗德省的餐廳中那些頭頂餐巾的食客將可以合法地享用這種禁忌的食品，這無疑相當於到此地旅遊的美食聖盃。

“The bird is absolutely delicious,” said Mr. Guérard, who recalled preparing ortolans for Mitterrand and his successor, Jacques Chirac, back when it was legal. (Mitterrand was said to linger over two ortolans in his last supper before his death in 1996, also consuming three dozen oysters, foie gras and capon.)

“這種鳥兒絕對美味，”居埃赫說，他回憶自己曾爲密特朗及其繼任者雅克·希拉剋準備圃鵐菜餚，當時這還是合法的（據說密特朗在1996年去世前的最後一頓晚餐就是細細品嚐了兩隻圃鵐，還吃了三打牡蠣、鵝肝和閹雞）。

“It is enveloped in fat that tastes subtly like hazelnut,” Mr. Guérard said, “and to eat the flesh, the fat and its little bones hot, all together, is like being taken to another dimension.”

“它被包裹在肥油之中，有榛仁的微妙口味，”居埃赫說，“趁熱一口吃下肉質、油脂和細小的骨頭，感覺就像進入了另一個空間。”

But the campaign has provoked environmentalists, who accuse the chefs of engaging in a publicity stunt to promote what they say is an archaic custom that will further endanger the bird, and that treats the ortolan inhumanely before it is killed.

但環保者們對這些大廚們的努力感到憤怒，譴責他們試圖恢復這種會進一步危害圃鵐生存的所謂古老傳統，其實是一種公關噱頭，而且在宰殺圃鵐之前對它們很不人道。

“These chefs are totally backward; they are not living in the 21st century,” said Allain Bougrain Dubourg, the president of France’s Birds Protection League. “They aren’t doing this for gastronomy. It’s all about raising their profile.”

“這些大廚完全是在搞倒退，他們不是生活在21世紀，”法國鳥類保護聯盟的主席阿蘭·布格安·杜博爾(Allain Bougrain Dubourg)說。“他們做這種事不是因爲美食，而是想樹立自己的形象。”

Mr. Ducasse, who has several restaurants around the world, had already alarmed animal-rights activists in New York City when he served about 20 ortolans during a 1995 dinner at Le Cirque that grabbed tabloid headlines.

杜卡斯在全世界擁有數家餐館，1995年，他在紐約的馬戲團餐廳做了20道圃鵐，一時成了小報頭條，令動物保護活動者們大吃一驚。

Today, Mr. Ducasse and his confreres say their main objective is to revive a culinary tradition that dates to Roman times, when emperors sought out the ortolan’s intoxicating taste, and to pass the savoir-faire to a new generation of cooks. “We want to be able to do this so as not to lose all the beautiful things that make up the history and the DNA of French cooking,” Mr. Guérard said.

如今，杜卡斯和他的同行們說，他們的主要目的是想恢復一種可以追溯到羅馬時代的烹飪傳統，當時帝王們就熱衷於圃鵐迷人的滋味；而且他們還希望能把這種技能留給新一代的廚師們。“我們希望能做到這件事，好讓構成法國烹飪的歷史與DNA中的美好之物不致流失，”居埃赫說。

The European Union banned the hunting of ortolans and declared them a protected species in 1979 amid concerns about their survival and an outcry from environmentalists. But France waited two decades to codify the measure.

1979年，由於圃鵐的生存狀況和環保主義者們的呼聲，歐盟禁止獵殺圃鵐，並將其列爲保護物種。但20年後，法國纔將這一保護條令列入法律。

Still, many people in France continue to capture and eat the birds. Families in Landes would traditionally savor them once a year, “like a bonbon” at the end of a big lunch, eating them in total silence with a glass of Sauternes and the shades drawn, said Mr. Dutournier, a native of Landes and the head chef at Carré des Feuillants in Paris, which has two Michelin stars.

如今，很多法國人仍在捕食、享用這種鳥兒。傳統上，朗德省的家庭會每年吃一次圃鵐，是在一頓正式午餐之後享用，在陰影之下，大家靜靜地品嚐，輔以一杯蘇恩特白葡萄酒，“就像吃小糖果一樣”。杜都爾涅說，他是朗德本地人，是巴黎斐揚餐館(Carré des Feuillants)的主廚，這是一家米其林二星餐廳。

Wearing the white napkin allows diners to savor the aromas and enjoy some privacy while devouring the bird — or, critics say, hide their indulgence from the eyes of God.

頭頂白色餐巾可以讓食客們在品嚐美味、吞下鳥兒的同時享有一點隱私——或者如批評者們所說，是在上帝面前隱藏自己的放縱。

Eating ortolan is also a surreptitious pleasure beyond France: The author and chef Anthony Bourdain, in his 2010 book, “Medium Raw,” described a secret, late-night meeting of French chefs in a New York restaurant to eat ortolans. “It’s sort of a hot rush of fat, guts, bones, blood and meat, and it’s really delicious,” he told Stephen Colbert in an interview.

在法國，吃圃鵐也是一種偷偷摸摸的享樂：作家兼大廚安東尼·伯爾頓(Anthony Bourdain)在2010年的著作《半熟》(Medium Raw)中描寫法國大廚們半夜在紐約的一家餐廳祕密聚會，品嚐圃鵐。“就像一股肥油、內臟、骨頭與血肉的熱流，的確非常美味，”他在一次採訪中對斯蒂芬·科爾伯特(Stephen Colbert)說。

Such extravagance can involve an uncomfortable trade-off. Poachers lure the ortolan into ground traps during its migratory flight from Northern Europe to Africa. Mr. Dubourg, the activist, said that because the birds are prized for their fat, they are kept in darkness for 21 days and are sometimes blinded, prompting them to gorge on millet and grapes. Once the ortolan’s fat has tripled in volume, the bird is drowned with Armagnac, plucked, roasted and served hot in its entirety. “Good cuisine cannot be used as an excuse for the condition these animals are kept in,” Mr. Dubourg said.

這樣的奢侈同非常令人不適的交易相關。偷獵者在圃鵐從北歐遷徙到非洲的途中，用地上的捕鳥夾誘捕它們。環保主義者杜博爾說，因爲這種鳥的肥厚油脂特別美味，偷獵者會把它們在黑暗中飼養21天，有時還會弄瞎它們，讓它們飽食大量燕麥和葡萄，以便長膘。等它身上的肥肉長了三倍，就會被浸在阿瑪尼亞克白蘭地裏、拔毛，烤熟，再趁熱整個上桌。“美食不能充當這樣對待動物的藉口，”杜博爾說。

Last month, he led a group of activists into the fields of Landes, where they released scores of trapped ortolans and demanded that poachers be arrested. The police declined to take action, and a scuffle broke out between protesters and trappers.

上個月，他領着一羣環保活動家們來到朗德，放飛了幾十只被捕獵的圃鵐，並要求逮捕偷獵者。警方拒絕採取行動，抗議者與捕獵者們之間爆發了衝突。

Mr. Dubourg’s group estimates that the ortolan population fell by more than 40 percent between 2001 and 2011. About 30,000 wild ortolans are still being culled illegally in the South of France every summer, while the police look the other way, he added. A single ortolan can fetch up to 150 euros ($189) on the black market.

杜博爾的團體估計，圃鵐的數量在2001年至2011年間減少了40%以上。他補充說，法國南部每年夏天都有三萬只野生圃鵐被選擇性捕殺。一隻圃鵐在黑市上可以賣出150歐元的價格（合189美元）.

Lifting the hunting ban would reduce prices significantly, the chefs argue.

大廚們說，解除捕獵禁令可以顯著降低圃鵐價格。

Mr. Coussau, the chef at the two-Michelin-star restaurant Relais de la Poste in southwest France, insisted that the birds were not treated inhumanely, and cited an unpublished Canadian ornithological study indicating that the ortolan population in Northern Europe is around 30 million. “They are hardly endangered,” he said.

庫索是法國西南米其林兩星級餐廳驛站酒店(Relais de la Poste)的主廚，他說這種鳥兒沒有受到不人道的對待，還引用未發表的一項加拿大鳥類學研究，指出圃鵐在北歐的數量約在3000萬隻。“它們並沒有瀕危，”他說。

Besides, Mr. Guérard added, he and his fellow chefs are seeking a waiver from the French government to serve ortolan only one weekend a year. But with all of the other problems confronting the nation, they don’t expect quick results.

此外，居埃赫還說，他和其他大廚們正在向法國政府申請一項不強制執行的規定：每年只在一個週末供應用圃鵐做的菜。但這個國家還有各種各樣其他問題，他們並不指望很快會有結果。

He said the chefs do not want to wipe out the birds: “We just want to maintain a tradition.”

他說，大廚們不是想滅絕這種鳥兒：“我們只是想保留一項傳統。”

Mr. Coussau rebuffed critics who say the ortolan is an unnecessary extravagance. “There are many things that we eat that are not essential to live,” he said. “We could survive on nutritional pills if we had to.”

有人說圃鵐是一種不必要的奢侈，庫索斷然否定這種觀點。“我們吃的很多東西都不是維持生命所必須的，”他說，“如果有必要，我們可以吃營養藥片活着。”

“But if we go down that path,” he concluded, “the notion of pleasure will disappear.”

“但如果這樣做的話，”他斷言“快樂的概念就將不復存在了”。