為何中西方飲食差異如此之大?

陳希

Different diet concepts 不同的飲食觀念

Western people prefer to have a balanced1 diet. They usually pay much attention to all kinds of nutritions that they can get from the foods, such as calories, vitamins, proteins etc, and they try to take in each of the nutritions in a scientific amount. Besides, in their opinion, people should choose food that fit the necessities of themselves.

西方人喜歡有一個平衡的膳食搭配。他們會十分注意像卡路里、維他命、蛋白質這些，可以從食物中得到的營養物質，并且盡力科學地攝取每一種物質。此外，在他們看來，人們應該選擇那些能滿足自己自身需要的食物。

On the contrary, Chinese care more about foods color, smell, taste, which work together to make a dish both appetitive2 to our eyes and taste. Chinese would pick up food carefully, so they go to the foods market for fresh foods every day. But most of westerners go to the supermarket only once a week. And each time they will purchase foods and then store the foods in the refrigerator3, from which we can see that they like to eat cold foods rather than fresh ones.

相反的是，中國人更加看重食物的“色”、“香”、“味”。只有這三種條件都具備的食物才會看起來、嘗起來都讓人很有食欲。中國人在買菜的時候會非常仔細，所以他們會每天都去超市購買新鮮的食材。但是大多數西方人都是一個星期只去一次超市，并將買回的食材儲藏在冰箱里。從這里可以看出，相對于新鮮食物，西方人更喜歡冷藏食物。

Different cooking methods 不同的烹飪方法

In China, cooking is an art which attracts them a lot. Just like dance, poetry and painting, cooking can also be a spiritual pursuing4. There are a lot of cooking methods in China, for example, fry, boil, steam, stew, grill, and so on. So cooking Chinese foods usually takes much time and they are changeable, not matter in the taste or in the cooking ways.

在中國，做烹飪是一門吸引著很多人的藝術。就像舞蹈、詩歌和繪畫一樣，烹飪可以作為人們的一種精神追求。中國的菜肴有很多種烹飪方法，比如炸、煮、蒸、燉、燉、烤等等。所以中國菜做起來非常耗時，但它同時無論是在味道還是在做法上都變化多樣。

However, Western diets emphasizes5 science and nutrition and the whole process of cooking should strictly6 follow the scientific standards. As a result, cooking turns to be a monotonous work which does not need any skills. The main purpose of eating for westerners is to absorb7 nutrition, and if the nutrition in the foods is enough, the other things are not so important.

然而，西方人的飲食注重科學和營養，他們的整個烹飪流程都要嚴格遵守科學的標準。這就使烹飪變成了一件單調乏味的事情，并且沒有任何技術含量。西方人吃飯的主要目的就是為了攝取營養，如果食物中有足夠的營養，其它的東西也就不那么重要了。

Different diet objectives 不同的飲食目的

Westerners think that food is used to satisfy their hunger, so they eat a great deal of meat, no matter chicken, pork or beef. Meanwhile8, they have a special taste of foods and always stick to them. The key point of western food is particularly on the scenery and table service instead of the taste of the foods themselves. Thus many good restaurant are usually built at the beautiful mountaintop, park or the revolving9 dining-room of a skyscraper10. We see that western people have food just for enjoyment of the atmosphere and the scenery, but not the taste.

西方人認為食物是用來充饑的，所以他們會吃很多的肉類，無論是雞肉、豬肉還是牛肉。同時，他們對事物有特別的品味，并且會一直持續下去。西方人將吃飯的重點放在環境和餐桌服務上，所以上好的餐館總是建造在美麗的山頂、公園，或者是摩天大樓頂的旋轉餐廳。我們可以看出西方人吃東西主要是為了享受美好的氛圍和景色，而不是食物的味道。

However, the key point of Chinese food is on the taste and participation. And the Chinese food has also conquered11 the world with its taste. There is a funny saying in China—if you want to conquer a mans heart, you should conquer his stomach first. In China, people share the dish in the same plates, moreover, the host will always help to keep your bowl full to show their hospitality12, so mostly the friendship among people are reinforced after a meal.

可是，中國人吃飯的重點主要是在食物的味道和人們的相聚上。中國菜已經憑著它的味道征服了世界，在中國有一種幽默的說法——你要是想征服一個男人，首先得征服他的胃。在中國，人們在同一個盤子里夾菜，主人還會經常往你碗里夾滿菜來顯示他們的熱情好客，這樣一來，人們之間的友誼通常就在吃飯間得到了加深。

[1] balanced adj. 平衡的 [2] appetitive adj. 食欲的；有食欲的；開胃的

[3] refrigerator n. 冰箱 [4] pursuing n. 追求；追逐

[5] emphasize v. 強調，著重 [6] strictly adv. 嚴格地；完全地

[7] absorb vt. 吸收 [8] meanwhile adv. 同時，其間

[9] revolving adj. 旋轉的 [10] skyscraper n. 摩天樓，超高層大樓

[11] conquer vt. 戰勝，征服 [12] hospitality n. 好客；殷勤