中國餐館用"最辣米粉"挑戰食客

Within China, there's an ages-old argument over which province has the spiciest food. There's an old saying that 'Guizhou people like spiciness, Sichuan people don't fear spiciness, and Hunan people fear there is no spiciness.'

在中國，圍繞哪個省份食物最辣的爭議由來已久。有句老話說，貴州人愛吃辣，四川人不怕辣，湖南人怕不辣。

Fu Niu Tang, a recently opened beef noodle restaurant in Beijing, is trying to take the spicy crown for Hunan. It claims to have the world's spiciest rice noodles and is challenging patrons to finish a bowl of the signature dish in 10 minutes. Those who can finish the task are awarded with a T-shirt and a card that entitles them to a permanent 10% discount.

最近在北京開業的一家名爲“伏牛堂”的牛肉麪館正努力爲湖南爭取“第一辣”的頭銜。該餐館聲稱擁有全世界最辣的米粉，而且正在舉辦挑戰賽，邀請顧客在10分鐘之內吃完一碗這樣的招牌米粉。能夠完成這一任務的顧客將被獎勵一件T恤和一張打折卡，永久享受九折優惠。

The restaurant says the hot sauce for its rice noodles is 125 times hotter than Tabasco sauce.

伏牛堂稱其米粉中的辣椒醬要比塔瓦斯科辣椒醬(Tabasco sauce)辣125倍。

So far, about 300 people have taken the spicy noodle challenge, but only 15 have been able to complete the task. Zhao Lu is one of them.

到目前爲止，已有大約300人接受了吃辣米粉的挑戰，但只有15人能夠完成這一任務。趙路就是他們中的一個。

Mr. Zhao, 37, is originally from northeastern Shandong province--not a place particularly known for its spicy food. After paying a 35 yuan ($5.60) registration fee and signing a liability waiver, Mr. Zhao was served the bowl of rice noodles--which at first glance appear like any other regular bowl of beef noodles, with seasonings and chili sauce in the middle and green scallions sprinkled on the top.

今年37歲的趙路來自山東省，這並不是一個特別以辛辣食物聞名的地方。在繳納了人民幣35元的註冊費並簽署了免責協議後，有人給趙路端來了一碗牛肉米粉。第一眼看上去，這碗米粉與其他普通牛肉米粉似乎並無不同，作料和辣椒醬都在碗中央，米粉上還撒着綠色的蔥花。

After two minutes, Mr. Zhao's eyes began to tear up and his hands were shaking. But he kept going, cheered on by the restaurant's other patrons. At one point, he asked a waiter for some sugar, which was allowed. He finished the noodles in eight minutes--and promptly retreated to the bathroom, where he remained for 20 minutes.

兩分鐘後，趙路的兩眼開始流淚，雙手開始顫抖。但他繼續埋頭大吃，其他顧客在一旁爲他加油助威。吃到半截，他請服務員給他拿點糖，他的請求被接受了。他在八分鐘內吃完了米粉，然後立即去了衛生間，他在那裏待了20分鐘。

'I had some stomach convulsions, but I'm OK now,' he said. 'I wouldn't recommend that normal people try this.'

他說：“我胃有點痙攣，這會兒好一點。”他還說：“我建議一般人不要做這種挑戰。”

Asked whether he would ever give the noodles another go, he was adamant. 'No! No! No!' he said.

當被問到他是否會再來一次時，他態度堅決地說：“不！不！不！”

Zhang Tianyi, the restaurant's manager who hails from Hunan, said he had tried the noodles himself but could only finish a quarter of a bowl. 'As a local Hunanese person, I'm confident these are the spiciest beef rice noodles in the world,' he said.

這家餐館的經理張天一是湖南人，他說他自己曾經吃過這種米粉，但只吃完了四分之一碗。他說：“作爲湖南人，我相信這是世界上最辣的牛肉米粉。”

The noodles' not-so-secret ingredient is the seven-star chili, a searing off-shoot of China's popular facing-heaven chilies, so-called because they grow with their pointed ends facing upward.

這種米粉中一種並非祕密的原料是七星椒，是中國頗受喜愛的朝天椒的一種。之所以叫朝天椒，是因爲它們的尖是朝上長的。

'We did a lot of research and went to the chili plantation ourselves before we decided to buy this chili--the best--there,' said Xiong Wen, an employee at the restaurant. 'These chilies are only grown in a very small part of the whole plantation, where they call it the king of chilies.'

這家餐館的店員溫雄（音）說：“我們做了很多研究，親自去了辣椒種植園，然後才決定買這種辣椒，這種辣椒是那裏最好的。”溫雄還說：“這種辣椒只在整個種植園的一小片區域種植，那裏的人稱它爲辣椒王。”

Still, it's debatable whether Hunanese food is really the spiciest in China. After all, Mr. Zhang admits, 'the farmer plants this chili in Hunan province, but they introduced it and got the seven-star chili seed from Sichuan.'

不過，湘菜是否是中國最辣的，這還值得商榷。畢竟張天一承認，湖南的農民種這種辣椒，但他們是從外地引進的，七星椒的種子來自四川。