一个人吃饭有什么大不了的?

一个人吃饭有什么大不了的?

When you see someone eating alone in a restaurant, do you think they're brave or lonely?

当你看到有人独自在餐厅吃饭，你认为他们是勇敢还是孤独?

Food writer Suzanne Lenzer says it's likely the latter.

美食作家苏珊娜·兰泽说，答案很可能是后者。

Eating alone can be a time to catch up on your thoughts. (Photo: Radiokafka/Shutterstock.com)

"From day one we learn to eat in the company of others, and we figure out fast that the kids who eat alone at school are the kids who don't have anyone to eat with," she wrote on Mark Bittman's blog, which is no longer active. "Socially, eating alone is not a sign of our strength, but of a lack of social standing."

她在马克·比特曼的博客上写道:“从第一天起，我们就学会了和别人一起吃饭。我们很快就发现，那些在学校里一个人吃饭的孩子，其实是没有人一起吃饭的孩子。在社交方面，独自吃饭并不是我们力量的标志，而是缺乏社会地位的表现。”

The culture of eating alone

独自吃饭的文化

Eating together is one of the few near-universal cultural habits. (Photo: Milles Studio/Shutterstock)

The act of eating is a shared one across cultures. In fact, in Thailand, eating alone is thought to attract bad luck, and in South Korea, many restaurants discourage solo dining.

饮食行为是跨文化的共同行为。事实上，在泰国，一个人吃饭被认为会招来厄运，而在韩国，许多餐馆都不鼓励独自用餐。

"For Koreans, eating is an extremely social, communal activity, which is why even the Korean word 'family' means 'those who eat together,'" Professor Sung-hee Park of Ewha University told CNN.

梨花大学教授Park Sung-hee在接受CNN采访时表示:“对韩国人来说，吃饭是一种非常社会化、群居的活动，这就是为什么韩国单词‘家庭’的意思是‘一起吃饭的人’。”

But the stigma of eating alone isn't unique to Asian cultures.

但独自吃饭的耻辱并非亚洲文化独有。

"Our restaurants just aren't made for people who want to eat alone," writes Radhika Sanghani in British Newspaper The Telegraph. "The entire restaurant culture is built around eating with companions, sharing and talking."

英国《每日电讯报》的Radhika Sanghani写道:“我们的餐厅不是为那些想要独自用餐的人准备的。整个餐厅文化都建立在与同伴一起吃饭、分享和交谈的基础上。”

According to the 2006 American Time Use Survey, 58 percent of Americans regularly eat on their own, but there's a difference between eating alone at home and dining solo in public.

根据2006年美国人时间使用调查，58%的美国人经常自己吃饭，但是一个人在家吃饭和一个人在公共场所吃饭是有区别的。

"There's an idea here that you're overindulgent if you go out to dinner alone," says Joe Yonan, food editor at The Washington Post and author of the "Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One." "People in other cultures seem more comfortable eating out alone."

《华盛顿邮报》的美食编辑、《自便:为他人做饭的夜间冒险》一书的作者乔•约南说:“这里有种观点认为，如果你一个人出去吃饭，你就太放纵了。在其他文化中，人们似乎更喜欢独自外出就餐。”

Yonan says he'd feel more comfortable dining alone in Europe than in America, noting that Europeans "appreciate that you want to go out primarily for the food and not necessarily for the company."

Yonan说，他觉得在欧洲独自用餐比在美国更舒服，他指出，欧洲人“欣赏你出去主要是为了食物，不一定是为了公司”。

Of course, not all cultures are as solo-diner friendly.

当然，并不是所有的文化都对单人用餐者友好。

"Dining alone in Korea will draw stares from others that enter the restaurant," writes Daniel Gray on Korean food blog Seoul Eats. "It might be seen as rude for you to take up a table by yourself and you eat all the side dishes (banchan) and main course by yourself."

丹尼尔•格雷在韩国美食博客“首尔美食”上写道:“在韩国独自用餐会吸引进餐厅的其他人的目光。如果你一个人占一张桌子，吃所有的配菜和主菜，可能会被认为是不礼貌的。”

However, others say dining alone in Korea isn't nearly as uncomfortable as some would make it seem.

不过，也有人说，在韩国独自用餐并不像有些人说的那么不舒服。

"Eating in Korea is hugely cultural, but it's becoming easier to find places to get food for one as more Western-style restaurants emerge," said Corey Wright, an American who teaches English in Korea.

在韩国教英语的美国人科里·赖特说，“在韩国，饮食文化非常丰富，但随着越来越多的西餐厅出现，韩国人找地方吃饭变得越来越容易。”

She says takeout is also popular, and many restaurants offer traditional Korean foods like kimbap to go.

她说，外卖也很受欢迎，许多餐馆都提供像韩式寿司这样的传统韩国食品。

"I'm used to the solo dining experience," Wright says. "Other teachers, especially those out of college, might experience more difficulty. One friend told me she equates kimbap with loneliness."

“我已经习惯了独自用餐的体验，”赖特说，“其他的老师，尤其是那些大学毕业生，可能会遇到更多的困难。一位朋友告诉我，她把韩式寿司等同于孤独。”

Is one really the loneliest number?

1真的是最孤独的数字吗?

What is it about eating alone in a restaurant that makes us feel so out of place?

为什么一个人在餐馆吃饭会让我们觉得很不自在?

"We're ingrained to believe that meals are communal activities," Lenzer writes. "We're so accustomed to constant distraction that the act of … sitting quietly in an intimate environment like a restaurant leaves us feeling exposed. With no one sitting across the table to keep us occupied, we wonder what those others sitting in the room make of our solitary status."

“我们根深蒂固地认为吃饭是一种公共活动，”伦策写道。“我们已经习惯了持续的分心，以至于在餐厅这样的私密环境中安静地坐着会让我们感到暴露。没有人坐在桌子对面让我们忙个不停，我们想知道坐在房间里的其他人是怎么看待我们的孤独状态的。”

Taking this discomfort out of eating alone is the idea behind Eenmaal, a restaurant in Amsterdam that only has tables for one.

Eenmaal是阿姆斯特丹一家只有一人用餐的餐厅，它的理念就是将这种不适从独自用餐中消除。

"Through Eenmaal I wanted to break the perception that eating out alone isn't very attractive," Marina Van Goor told The Guardian. "Solitary dining can actually be an inspiring experience."

玛丽娜·凡·古尔在接受《卫报》采访时表示:“通过Eenmaal，我想打破那种认为独自外出就餐没什么吸引力的观念。独自用餐其实是一种鼓舞人心的体验。”

Ichimen, a ramen house in Seoul, South Korea, offers private seats for diners and a service that allows them to order, eat and pay without ever seeing another person.

韩国首尔的一家拉面餐厅Ichimen为就餐者提供私人座位，并提供一项服务，让他们可以在不看别人的情况下点菜、就餐和付款。

In Tokyo, the Moomin Cafe lets solo diners share a table with giant stuffed hippopotamus-like creatures inspired by Finnish picture books.

在东京，Moomin咖啡馆让独自用餐的人与巨大的填充河马类动物共享一张桌子，这些动物的灵感来自芬兰的图画书。

Other inventions that take the shame out of solo dining are more technological in nature.

其他让独自用餐蒙羞的发明在本质上更技术化。

Websites like EatWith.com have sprung up, acting as a meeting place for solo travelers looking for dinner company.

像EatWith.com这样的网站如雨后春笋般出现，成为寻找晚餐公司的独自旅行者的聚会场所。

In Korea, eating broadcasts — live streams of people eating and chatting — have become popular.

在韩国，吃饭直播——人们吃饭和聊天的直播——已经变得流行起来。

Park Seo-Yeon, a 33-year-old woman who goes by the name of "The Diva" who you can see in the video above, makes more than $9,000 a month from simply allowing people to watch her eat.

朴世妍是一位33岁的女性，她的名字叫“Diva”，你可以在上面的视频中看到，她每月从仅仅允许人们看她吃饭的情况下赚了9000多美元。

She thinks her broadcasts are popular because lonely people can virtually join her for a meal — and it helps that she has a healthy appetite.

她认为她的节目很受欢迎，因为孤独的人实际上可以和她一起吃饭——这有助于她保持健康的食欲。