Večerja, zakopana ob zori

Blizu majhnega jezera, obdanega s paro, je Polly našla vrsto velikih loncev, ki so stali ob globokih luknjah, izkopanih v golo, počrnelo zemljo. Kuhar v težkem predpasniku je delal po vrsti in z vrvjo spuščal zaprt lonec v vsako luknjo, Polly pa se je namestila na bližnjo ograjo in gledala, radovedna, kaj bi bilo sploh vredno kuhati v luknji v tleh.

Near a small lake ringed with steam, Polly found a row of large pots standing beside deep holes cut into the bare, blackened ground. A cook in a heavy apron worked down the line, lowering a sealed pot into each hole with a rope, and Polly settled on a nearby rail to watch, curious what could possibly be worth cooking in a hole in the ground.

V vsakem loncu so bile plasti mesa, klobas, zelja in korenovk, tesno zaprte in spuščene v zemljo, ki jo od spodaj greje toplota, približno tako vroča kot vrela voda. Plamen se ne dotakne ničesar. Vsa vročina prihaja iz vulkana pod celo dolino in se dviga skozi razpoke, ki so jih izkopali in obdali s kamnitimi obroči že pred generacijami, davno preden je kdor koli znanstveno izmeril temperaturo.

Each pot held layers of meat, sausage, cabbage, and root vegetables, sealed tight and lowered into earth heated from below to roughly the temperature of boiling water. No flame touches any of it. The heat comes entirely from the volcano beneath the whole valley, rising up through cracks that were dug out and marked with stone rings generations ago, long before anyone measured the temperature scientifically.

Kuhar je bolj z gibi kot z besedami razložil, da gredo lonci v zemljo zgodaj in ostanejo zakopani šest ali sedem ur, medtem ko gredo vsi obiskat jezero, vrtove ali mesto, in se vrnejo šele takrat, ko je čas, da večerjo spet izkopljejo. Zdelo se je, kot da pravi, da je to najlažje pripravljen obrok na otoku in daleč najbolj nenavadna kuhinja, v kateri ga lahko skuhaš.

The cook explained, more with gestures than words, that the pots go in early and stay buried for six or seven hours while everyone goes off to visit the lake, the gardens, or the town, coming back only when it is time to dig dinner up again. It is, he seemed to say, the easiest meal on the island to start and by far the strangest kitchen to cook it in.

Ko je prišel na dan prvi lonec, se je iz njega v gostem oblaku vsula para, vonj po počasi kuhanem mesu in zelju pa se je razlil čez vso jaso. Polly ni ostala na obroku, gledala pa je, kako ga je kuhar ponosno odnesel, kot da bi vse delo opravil on in ne gora.

When the first pot came up, steam poured out of it in a thick cloud, and the smell of slow-cooked meat and cabbage drifted across the whole clearing. Polly did not stay for the meal itself, but she watched the cook carry it away proudly, as if he, and not the mountain, had done all the work.