你不知道的關於龍蝦的10件怪事(上)

Lobsters are pretty strange animals. For starters they have no vocal chords, possess two stomachs, and have been known to eat each other.

龍蝦是十分奇怪的一類動物，它們沒有聲帶，卻有兩個胃，甚至還會互相吞食。

But you don't think about all that when a big red one lands on your dinner plate. There's nothing like extracting large pieces of lobster meat from the shell, swirling them in warm drawn butter, adding a squeeze of lemon, and savoring each sweet, delicious bite.

但是當一隻紅色的大龍蝦擺在你的餐盤裏時，你就不會思考這些了。去掉殼的龍蝦肉拌上奶油，再配上一杯檸檬汁，再沒有比這更美味的食物了。

While lobster is usually considered a gourmet entrée, right up there with filet mignon, that wasn't always the case.

龍蝦和菲力牛排都是精美的主菜，然而事情並不總是這樣美好的。

Lobsters were once so plentiful in New England that they could easily be caught right at the shore and were eaten mainly by poor people and prisoners.

新英格蘭的海灘上的龍蝦曾經多得隨手一抓就是一把，而這些龍蝦大都被窮人和囚犯享用了。

Let's look at this and nine other strange facts about lobsters. (For the purposes of this article, we're mostly focusing on the American or Maine lobster). Read on to find out how familiarity bred contempt.

讓我們一起來閱讀這篇文章，瞭解關於龍蝦的怪事吧。（爲了完成這篇文章，作者集中研究了美國和緬因州的龍蝦），繼續閱讀下去，你就會知道到龍蝦是如何發展爲一種美食的。

ter Was Once Poor Man's Food

10.龍蝦曾是窮人家的飯食

Lobsters were considered a delicacy during the Middle Ages in Europe, and even served as medicine.

在中世紀的歐洲，龍蝦既是一種美食也可作爲藥材。

The rostrum, or frontal part of the body, was pulverized and used to help people pass kidney stones. The gastrolith, or gizzard stone which the lobster uses to help grind up food, was handy for treating stomach aches.

龍蝦的嘴巴和前額磨成細粉可以用於治療腎結石，而龍蝦用於磨碎食物的胃石和砂囊石則可以緩解胃疼。

Fast-forward a few hundred years and attitudes changed drastically. Lobster was so abundant in 18th and early-19thcentury New England that it was fed to pigs and the shells used as fertilizer.

這幾百年里社會迅速發展，人類對龍蝦的態度也徹底改變。在18世紀和19世紀初的新英格蘭，龍蝦因爲太多，甚至被用於餵豬，而蝦殼則作爲肥料使用。

Indentured servants in Massachusetts were so sick of eating it that they won a court case to keep their masters from feeding them lobster more than three times a week.

在馬薩諸塞州，簽約的僕人非常討厭吃龍蝦，他們甚至贏得了一個法案訴訟，規定他們的主人每週讓他們吃龍蝦的次數不得超過三次。

The first shift to luxury food item took place in the late 1800s, as wealthy city-dwellers flocked to the beach and enjoyed the novel taste (for them) of lobster. Advances in refrigeration allowed live ones to be transported all over the country.

18世紀末，一些富有的城裏人涌到海灘，嚐到了龍蝦這種新鮮的（對他們來說）美味，龍蝦開始成爲奢侈品。而隨着冷藏技術的發展，生龍蝦也可以運到世界各地。

As demand increased, supply decreased, which drove up the price. Supply and demand has ebbed and flowed over the years, but these days lobster is considered fancy food.

需求的增加和供應減少導致龍蝦的價格水漲船高。雖然這些年龍蝦的供需一直起伏不定，但它已被普遍認爲是一種美食了。

Aren't (Usually) Red Before Cooking

9.生龍蝦不都是紅的

In the wild, most lobsters are a mottled greenish brown. They turn red when cooked because heating breaks the bond between pigmentation and protein in the shell.

大部分野外龍蝦都是綠褐色，當它們被煮熟時就會變成紅色，這是因爲加熱打破了蝦殼上天然色與蛋白質之間的束縛。

The red color comes from the expression of astaxanthin, a type of carotenoid pigment found in orange-colored plants, eaten by the animals the lobster eats.

蝦殼的紅色來源於蝦青素，這是橘紅色的植物裏所含一種類胡蘿蔔素，龍蝦是因爲捕食一些食用蝦青素的動物才變成紅色的。

A small number of lobsters can be red prior to being cooked -- as well as orange, yellow, green, blue and various combinations of these colors.

有一部分龍蝦在被煮熟前就變成了紅色或者橙色、黃色、綠色、藍色以及其他顏色的混合色。

In some cases, these hues are a genetic mutation. Other times, it has to do with the food the lobster eats; if it only has one type of food available, it may turn a solid color as a result.

有一些龍蝦殼的顏色變化是由基因突變引起的，有時候卻與它們所吃的食物有關。如果它們只吃一種食物，也許龍蝦殼就只有固定的單一顏色。

So far, we've been referring to the American lobster. This big-clawed crustacean is found off the east coast of Canada and the United States.

到目前爲止，我們提及的主要是美國龍蝦。這種在加拿大東海岸和美國發現的大爪子龍蝦屬於甲殼綱。

Its cousin, the European lobster, has smaller claws and its natural coloring is dark blue with spots and a yellow underbelly. It'd found in the waters around Western Europe and North Africa.

而它的“表親”歐洲龍蝦爪子則要小一些，蝦殼的天然色帶有深藍色的小斑點，下腹部爲黃色。在西歐和北非的水域裏可以找到它們的身影。

Non-clawed lobsters, called rock lobsters or spiny lobsters, are found in warmer waters around the world and come in a variety of colors.

無爪龍蝦又叫大螯蝦或巖蝦，這類龍蝦可變換各種不同的顏色，在世界上更暖和些的水域裏可以尋到它們的蹤跡。

ters Pee Out of Their Faces

8.龍蝦從臉部排尿

You might look a little differently at the next lobster you see when you learn how they excrete their waste. Good thing we don't eat their faces, right?

在瞭解了龍蝦是如何排泄廢物之後，你再次看到龍蝦時可能就會有不同的想法了。幸好的是我們並不吃它們的頭部，對吧？

A lobster pees from openings (nephrophores) located at the base of its second antennae. These excretory organs are called green glands and include a sac linked to a bladder by a coiled tube.

龍蝦會從它的第二對觸鬚底部觸角腺孔（類似於人類的原腎管）排尿。這些排泄器官也叫綠腺，綠腺包括通過螺旋狀管與膀胱連接的體腔囊。

Lobsters also excrete from other places on their bodies, including their gills and digestive glands.

當然，龍蝦也會從身體其他部位排泄廢物，包括鰓和消化腺。

Excreting from the nephrophores isn't just about getting rid of toxic waste products, though -- it's part of the lobster mating ritual.

而從觸鬚腺排尿不僅僅是除去體內的有毒廢物，也是龍蝦交配儀式的一部分。

Male lobsters love to fight. Female lobsters seek out the most aggressive, dominant male in the area and show their interest by peeing repeatedly into his shelter.

雄性龍蝦生性好鬥，雌性龍蝦會在附近水域找出最好鬥，最強大的雄性龍蝦，然後在這個雄性龍蝦的居住地不時地留下尿液求偶。

Their urine contains pheromones, which calm him down and get him in the mood, so to speak. Lobsters also urinate in each others' faces during fights to express themselves.

雌性龍蝦的尿液中含有信息素，可以使雄性龍蝦平靜下來，也可以說是讓它愉悅。此外，爲了表現自己，龍蝦也會在戰鬥過程中彼此噴尿。