因紐特人冬日美食：晶瑩剔透的冰下貽貝正肥

KANGIQSUJUAQ, Quebec — For eight months a year, the flat bay around the village of Kangiqsujuaq in far northern Quebec freezes beneath a white expanse of ice and snow, leaving ravens and foxes as rare signs of life, along with Inuit and their dogs. Throughout the winter the Inuit hunt seal and caribou, and they fish through the ice for arctic char.

魁北克坎吉蘇加克——一年當中八個月的時間里，魁北克最北的村莊坎吉蘇加克村附近蕭瑟的海灣都沉睡在大片冰雪之下，難得一見的生命跡象包括烏鴉和狐貍，還有因紐特人和他們養(yǎng)的狗。整個冬季，因紐特人都會狩獵海豹和馴鹿，還會鑿開冰面捕撈紅點鮭魚。

But in the coldest months, when the ice is thickest, some venture beneath the ice to gather mussels. Every two weeks the pull of the moon combines with the geography of this region to create unusually large tides. The water falls as much as 55 feet in some places, emptying the bay under the ice along the shore for an hour or more. That’s when some Inuit climb aboard their snowmobiles and head out onto the bay.

但在冰層最厚的最冷月份里，為了采集貽貝，一些人會到冰下探險。每隔兩個星期，在月亮的引力和這一地區(qū)的地理條件共同作用下，都會出現(xiàn)異常大的潮汐。某些地方的水位會下降55英尺之多，讓岸邊冰層下的海灣在一個小時乃至更長時間里處于空心狀態(tài)。這時候，一些因紐特人就會騎著雪地摩托車向海灣進發(fā)。

Watch a 360 video of the mussel collecting mission.

觀看采集貽貝之旅的全景視頻。

One recent day I joined two of them, Tiisi Qisiiq, 51, and Adami Alaku, 61, who identified a void and chopped a hole into the ice.

不久前的一天，我和兩名因紐特人——51歲的蒂西·吉西克(Tiisi Qisiiq)和61歲的阿達米·阿拉庫(Adami Alaku)結(jié)伴而行，他們探明了一個空心之處，在冰面上鑿開了一個洞。

Underneath is a beautiful, eerie world of bending ice, glowing blue from the sunlight outside. The sound of trickling water fills the humid, salt-laced air. On my recent trip it was 20 degrees below zero (minus 29 degrees Celsius) but a balmy 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) beneath the ice.

下方是一個由彎曲冰塊構(gòu)建的世界，美麗而又怪異，從外面透進來的陽光讓它呈現(xiàn)出一片幽藍。耳中能聽到滴水聲，口鼻中涌入帶著一絲咸味的潮濕空氣。那天的氣溫是零下20華氏度(零下29攝氏度)，但冰下卻是宜人的32華氏度(零攝氏度)。

The men lowered themselves through the hole to the bay floor. The ground was covered with kelp, the occasional crab and edible clumps of roe from the fourhorn sculpin, which the Inuit call the ugly fish. But Mr. Qisiiq and Mr. Alaku came for fat blue mussels that cling to the rocks. Using lamps to light the way, they pulled the frigid mussels free with their hands.

吉西克和阿拉庫從鑿開的洞口處下到海灣底部。地上布滿巨藻，偶爾還能看到螃蟹，以及一團團魚籽——它們是可以食用的，來自被因紐特人稱為“丑魚”的四角床杜父魚。但兩人的目標是附著在巖石上的肥美的紫貽貝。他們一邊用燈照路，一邊徒手把冰涼的貽貝毫不費力地拽下來。

Before long, the sound of ticks and pops signaled the returning tide as it lifted the ice on the bay. Soon, the water would fill the caverns. The flood tide is deceiving, starting slowly until it rises more than a foot (30 centimeters) a minute. The men headed for the hole and climbed out into the clear, cold air.

很快，耳邊傳來咔噠聲和砰啪聲，意味著潮水正在返回，把海灣的冰層向上頂起。漲潮的過程頗具欺騙性，水位起初上升得很慢，直至達到每分鐘一英尺(30厘米)。兩人趕往洞口處，從那兒爬了出來，進入清透的冷空氣中。

I first heard of mussel gathering under the ice when I lived in Shanghai and my son was given a children’s book called “Very Last First Time,” by the Canadian author Jan Andrews. It tells the enchanting tale of an Inuit girl’s first time under the ice alone. Ever since, I’ve wanted to go under the ice myself. Now I have, and I saw the bay floor’s bounty brought to the surface.

我第一次聽說采集貽貝的事情是在上海居住期間。當時，我兒子得到了一本加拿大作家簡·安德魯斯(Jan Andrews)寫的童書，名叫《最后的第一次》(Very Last First Time)。它講了一個因紐特女孩初次獨自探訪冰下世界的迷人故事。從那時起，我一直渴望親自到冰下看看。現(xiàn)在我得償夙愿，還目睹了這些來自海灣底部的慷慨贈與是如何被帶到冰面上的。

The book’s drawings depict a colorful, cavernous space beneath the ice, far different from the cramped and narrow confines that I discovered. The colder the winter, the thicker and more stable the ice and the larger the spaces left by the ebbing tide.

那本書里的圖畫描繪了一個多姿多彩的洞穴狀冰下空間，和我探訪的這個狹窄空間天差地別。冬天的氣溫越低，冰層就越厚越結(jié)實，退潮所制造出的空間就越大。

Mr. Qisiiq’s mentor, Lukasi Nappaaluk, remembers gathering mussels as a child in caverns of ice with ceilings 20 feet high. But global warming is making the ice less predictable and more prone to buckling. Warm water currents thin the ice from below, making the snowmobile crossings increasingly dangerous.

吉西克的師傅呂卡西·納帕盧克(Lukasi Nappaaluk)，還記得自己小時候在底部距離上方冰層足有20英尺的冰穴里撿貽貝的情形。但全球變暖正讓冰面變得更不可預測，更容易坍塌。溫暖的水流從下方把冰層變薄，在冰上騎摩托車穿行越來越危險。

The mussels are a welcome winter treat these days, but at one time they were a lifesaving source of food during the lean frozen months. Raw meat, with its abundance of vitamins, has allowed the Inuit to live for centuries on a diet almost devoid of fruits and vegetables. The only preparation for the mussels is pulling off their beards, the strings of protein that mussels make to cling to rocks, and then rinsing them.

近來，貽貝成了一道頗受歡迎的冬日佳肴，但是曾幾何時，在天寒地凍、物資匱乏的月份里，它們是具有救命功能的食物來源。生貽貝肉富含維生素，讓因紐特人得以在幾乎吃不到水果和蔬菜的情況下存續(xù)了千百年。食用前只需除去貽貝的“胡須”，也就是它們用以附著在巖石上的蛋白質(zhì)須狀物，再用水沖洗一番。

The Inuit still eat a lot of “country food,” caribou and seal and whale and fish that they prefer to eat raw while sitting on the floor.

因紐特人依然大量食用當?shù)?ldquo;土產(chǎn)”，譬如馴鹿、海豹、鯨魚和魚，并且喜歡坐在地上生吃。

Mussels are no exception. Mr. Qisiiq and his wife, Siasi Qisiiq, shucked the bivalves using the edge of a shell. They scraped out the meat and squeezed it in their fist, wringing out the salty seawater, before eating them as is.

其中當然也包括貽貝。吉西克和妻子夏西·吉西克(Siasi Qisiiq)用一個貝殼的邊緣給這種雙殼類動物去了殼。他們把肉弄出來以后，用手攥了一攥，擠出咸咸的海水，然后直接吃掉。

Ms. Qisiiq boiled some of the mussels for me. They were rich and meaty, salty with no seasoning, and steaming — welcome warmth after hours outside. I had some of the raw mussels, too, still chilled from the bay. They tasted a lot like raw oysters, but with a bitter finish. I would prefer them marinara style.

夏西·吉西克為我煮了一些貽貝。它們肥美多肉，沒加任何調(diào)味料但自帶咸味，冒著騰騰熱氣——給在室外呆了幾個小時的人奉上久違的溫暖。我也生吃了一些貽貝，入口時還帶著來自海灣的涼氣。它們嘗起來和生牡蠣非常接近，但余味較苦。我還是更喜歡用意大利番茄醬調(diào)味的那種。