为何中西方饮食差异如此之大?

陈希

Different diet concepts 不同的饮食观念

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.

西方人喜欢有一个平衡的膳食搭配。他们会十分注意像卡路里、维他命、蛋白质这些，可以从食物中得到的营养物质，并且尽力科学地摄取每一种物质。此外，在他们看来，人们应该选择那些能满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，中国人更加看重食物的“色”、“香”、“味”。只有这三种条件都具备的食物才会看起来、尝起来都让人很有食欲。中国人在买菜的时候会非常仔细，所以他们会每天都去超市购买新鲜的食材。但是大多数西方人都是一个星期只去一次超市，并将买回的食材储藏在冰箱里。从这里可以看出，相对于新鲜食物，西方人更喜欢冷藏食物。

Different cooking methods 不同的烹饪方法

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.

在中国，做烹饪是一门吸引着很多人的艺术。就像舞蹈、诗歌和绘画一样，烹饪可以作为人们的一种精神追求。中国的菜肴有很多种烹饪方法，比如炸、煮、蒸、炖、炖、烤等等。所以中国菜做起来非常耗时，但它同时无论是在味道还是在做法上都变化多样。

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，西方人的饮食注重科学和营养，他们的整个烹饪流程都要严格遵守科学的标准。这就使烹饪变成了一件单调乏味的事情，并且没有任何技术含量。西方人吃饭的主要目的就是为了摄取营养，如果食物中有足够的营养，其它的东西也就不那么重要了。

Different diet objectives 不同的饮食目的

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.

西方人认为食物是用来充饥的，所以他们会吃很多的肉类，无论是鸡肉、猪肉还是牛肉。同时，他们对事物有特别的品味，并且会一直持续下去。西方人将吃饭的重点放在环境和餐桌服务上，所以上好的餐馆总是建造在美丽的山顶、公园，或者是摩天大楼顶的旋转餐厅。我们可以看出西方人吃东西主要是为了享受美好的氛围和景色，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，中国人吃饭的重点主要是在食物的味道和人们的相聚上。中国菜已经凭着它的味道征服了世界，在中国有一种幽默的说法——你要是想征服一个男人，首先得征服他的胃。在中国，人们在同一个盘子里夹菜，主人还会经常往你碗里夹满菜来显示他们的热情好客，这样一来，人们之间的友谊通常就在吃饭间得到了加深。

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

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

[5] emphasize v. 强调，着重 [6] strictly adv. 严格地；完全地

[7] absorb vt. 吸收 [8] meanwhile adv. 同时，其间

[9] revolving adj. 旋转的 [10] skyscraper n. 摩天楼，超高层大楼

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