有一個地方,肉食性植物成爲人類食物
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.
要爬到馬來西亞婆羅洲的基納巴魯山頂需要換幾次衣服。在山頂，石板並沒有爲人們提供任何遮蔽，4095米的海拔讓溫度比你想象中熱帶地區的溫度低得多。往山下走，茂密的樹冠爲人們遮陰，但這是一片陰涼潮溼的樹林，水珠會從樹上滴落下來。到了山腳下，就變成了那種有點太熱的熱帶雨林。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.
來自亞庇市的小販們似乎並沒有被溼熱的氣候影響，他們在基納巴魯山腳下襬攤販賣各種當地小吃，不管上山還是下山的遊客都會光顧。烹炸食物的嗤啦聲和餐具撞擊聲交織在一起，奶油大蝦和烤魚發出誘人的香味。在堆積如山的食物中間有一種不起眼的小吃，是把糯米包在一種有深色斑點的小罐子狀的葉子中。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.
但這種樸素的小吃實際上很特別。它是把椰汁糯米飯裝入一種食肉植物的葉子製成的，在東南亞很多國家都能見到。但是在馬來西亞婆羅洲，這種把nasi pelut（白米）包進periuk kera（豬籠草）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)
在亞庇市的市場上，lemang periuk kera是一種不引人注目的小吃（版權：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.
基納巴魯山是地球上物種最豐富的熱點地區之一。在這裏有一些在世界其他地方不存在的動物和植物，尤其是一些種類的豬籠草。這種植物用不同的方法——包括花蜜、味道和顏色——來引誘蟲子，它的捕食籠壁非常陡且光滑，讓有鱗片或剛毛的昆蟲也無法逃脫。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.
豬籠草經常被印在旅遊宣傳單上以宣傳基納巴魯山的生物多樣性，但是在亞庇市和整個馬來西亞婆羅洲，豬籠草是馬來西亞土著部落飲食文化的一部分。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 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·施瓦利爾博士，密歇根大峽谷州立大學生物系的講師，曾經在2012-2013年在婆羅洲研究豬籠草的進化和種類。當聽說當地對豬籠草的烹飪方法時，她擴大了研究範圍，並回過頭去研究食用豬籠草的文化和傳統。Mount Kinabalu is one of the world’srichest biodiversity hotspots (Credit: Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images)
基納巴魯山是世界上物種最豐富的熱點之一（版權： 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是一種馬來西亞傳統食物，由於使用了豬籠草，使得它的做法跟其他烹調糯米的方法區別開來。具體做法是：將豬籠草清洗後裝入糯米，直立在籠屜上，倒入椰汁，蒸一個小時。用這種方法可以將當地富有粘性的糯米自然地轉變成椰子味的米包子。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.
一位施瓦利爾的採訪者描述了在婆羅洲高地旅行中吃這種食物的經歷。在這個例子中，自然環境爲人們提供了烹飪容器和燃料：他們的土著部落嚮導摘了些豬籠草，放入大米後把它們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.
“很幸運，我在婆羅洲跟一個土著部落家庭一起做了這種食物，豐富的香氣似乎來自於浸泡糯米的椰汁，米飯變得又甜又香，”施瓦利爾說。（譯者忍不住吐槽：馬來西亞的米粗糙而且沒有味道，就算用椰汁煮出來的椰漿飯也無法在味道和口感上跟普通中國米飯相比，更不用說我國還有頂級的東北大米，深深爲這羣沒吃過上等米飯的外國人感到悲哀……）The pitcher plant’s unique shape is perfectfor holding rice (Credit: Barcroft/Getty Images)
豬籠草的形狀讓它成爲盛放米飯的絕妙容器（版權：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.
在亞庇市和整個婆羅洲的市場上，食品攤主們有自己的烹調技巧：放一點班丹葉來增加香味，放花生和蝦醬讓味道更加醇厚。（譯者又來吐槽啦：這不就變成臭烘烘齁鹹的椰漿飯了麼……）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.
這種瓶子形狀的豬籠草（名字來源於它用來捕食落入陷阱的小蟲的捕蟲籠的形狀）非常適合盛放米飯，雖然其他普通的沼澤豬籠草也可以用來裝大米。一個把這種豬籠草和其他普通沼澤豬籠草區別開的方法是這種豬籠草的捕蟲籠更加柔軟，可以被嚼碎，這樣它可以跟米飯一起被吃掉。這種瓶子形狀的捕蟲籠更像紙殼——很難咀嚼，但可以輕鬆剝掉稻殼。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.
有時候，使用植物——例如可食用的Curcuma candida——一種緬甸和泰國當地的花朵來做飯是被明令禁止的，因爲涉及到保護瀕危植物。但是豬籠草不是保護植物。只有合適的豬籠草纔會被採摘：尺寸必須小（但也不能太小），不能太老也不能太脆。其他豬籠草就被留下，在森林中繼續生長，繁殖出更多的豬籠草。Lemang periuk kera (white rice in pitcherplants) is a popular snack in Malaysian Borneo (Credit: Jonathan Lin/Flickr)
Lemang periuk kera（豬籠草盛白米）是馬來西亞婆羅洲一種十分流行的小吃（版權：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.”
施瓦利爾在描述她跟着婆羅洲西南石隆門附近一個村莊的家庭去森林裏採摘豬籠草時說：“實際上我在森林裏每走出一步都會踩到豬籠草——可見它們在森林裏多麼普遍地存在。”
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.”
施瓦利爾相信這種用豬籠草烹煮食物的傳統十分具有保護價值。“保留傳統食品可以加強人們同自然環境和持續利用森林的聯繫，”她說。“維護（這種）聯繫……增加了當地森林的價值，當砍伐者對森林產生威脅時，本地的居民更可能站出來保護森林。”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.
得益於對利用植物烹飪米飯的傳統的保護，來到馬來西亞婆羅洲的遊客們可以吃到這種特殊的食物，它的味道代表着人們在這個世界上森林最繁茂的地區之一的生活。在亞庇市小吃市場上穿梭的驢友們會記住lemang periuk kera的味道，這種樸素的食物會讓他們想起他們的旅程，以及森林裏生長的奇異的異鄉植物。Pitcher plants use smells, colours andnectar to lure their prey (Credit: Goran ?afarek/Alamy)
豬籠草用味道、顏色和花蜜引誘獵物（版權：Goran ?afarek/Alamy）
