There is the mystical Da Hong Pao, the most expensive tea in the world.It has just gone on the menu for the first time at the Royal China Club in London, a swish Chinese restaurant in Baker Street beloved of wealthy connoisseurs of oriental gourmet exotica.
这是世界上最贵的大红袍茶，这种茶是第一次登上伦敦皇朝中餐厅的菜单上。皇朝中餐厅是伦敦贝克街上一家时尚高档的中式餐厅，它备受诸多富有、讲究的东方饮食家的喜爱。
Here, the Da Hong Pao is served reverentially by pretty girls wearing fuchsia lipstick; brought forth on a bamboo tray and poured from a £400 hand-painted clay teapot. It costs £180 a pot, which means it is about £40 for one tiny porcelain cup of tea.
价格180英镑一壶的大红袍放在竹托盘上，被涂着紫红色口红的漂亮女服务员端上来。茶壶是手工上色的陶制茶壶，价值400英镑。女服务员小心为你斟满一小陶瓷杯，就是这一小杯平均下来相当于40英镑。
Yet that seems cheap, compared with what is to come. The tea is part of a £1,500-per-head menu, surely the most expensive in the country, which the restaurant serves to its most demanding customers. It must be arranged in advance, according to availability of ingredients, and features six courses of the most exotic and highly-prized Chinese dishes.
不过比起接下来要端上桌的料理，这算便宜的了。这茶只是皇朝中餐厅人均消费需1500英镑的菜单上的一部分，这份菜单是为那些对饮食挑剔的顾客准备的，堪称是英国最贵的一份菜单。其特色是六道最具中式风情的珍馐美味，而且由于食材的时令性，所以必须提前预定。
The centrepiece today will be a serving of 30-year-old dried abalone (sea snail) that costs a staggering £888, while other delights include tiny, green baby Japanese peaches (£8 each), a portion of dried cod stomach (£128) and a serving of swallow nest stew (£88), literally a stew made of swallows’ nests, to finish things off.
今天这餐的亮点要数这道30年之久的干鲍鱼了，价格是888英镑，其他还包括每个8英镑的日本小绿桃，128英镑一份的干鳕鱼胃，88英镑一份的炖燕窝。
The prices on the menu always end with an eight, which is considered lucky in China — if not quite so lucky for the customer. The costly ingredients used are kept under lock and key, with the most precious items stored in a safe, to which only the head chef knows the secret combination (8888 perhaps?).
该餐厅菜单上的价格一般都是以8结尾，因为8在中文中是吉祥数字，能带来好运，不过对顾客来说这个数字可带不来好运。餐厅里最贵的食材都被锁起来保存的，最贵重的餐具也都放在保险柜中，只有主厨才知道哪些料理和哪些餐具能配套使用。
Customers are lured here by the off-menu specialities and the restaurant’s reputation for sourcing exceptional items; exotic teas wrapped in tissue paper, bottles of £15,000 rice wine, rare herbs grown at high altitudes, and deep water shellfish brought in weekly from the Far East by the Royal China’s own team of couriers. And with Chinese New Year set to be celebrated next week, the larders are groaning.
餐厅的诱人之处在于那些不在菜单上显示的当日特色菜，还有餐厅为人所知的那种追求精益求精的各种特色项目。由薄页纸包装的外国茶叶，1.5万英镑的瓶装米酒，高纬度地区生长的珍奇植物，由专门运输团队每周从远东地区运来的深海贝类…下周就是中国的春节了，所以当然餐厅的储藏室里也被塞得满满的了。
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