好英语网餐后闲谈时光：西班牙餐桌上的特色习俗
Spain is a country in love with food, renowned for everything from tapas to trailblazing chefs to simple, elegant recipes that have endured for generations. So it may seem counterintuitive, perhaps even heretical, to say that the most important thing about a Spanish lunch is not the food. But it’s true.
西班牙是个钟爱美食的国家，其饮食文化样样出名，比如作为前菜的各类塔帕斯（tapas）、不断推陈出新的大厨们、以及代代相传简单而又精致的菜谱等。若是说一顿西班牙式午餐最重要的部分并不是吃，听起来是不是有点有悖常理，甚至怪邪乎的？但事实的确如此。
Before you spill your gazpacho, let me say that Spanish people don’t take the food part of lunch lightly; far from it. As a Spaniard in love with food in general, and lunch in particular, I for one approach the subject of where to eat with the same level of thought and research that some people put into buying a new car. Of course, I want to know whether the food is good – but I also want to know whether it’s going to be a comfortable place to spend a few hours. Steady yourselves foodies; but in Spain the purpose of going out for lunch isn’t just eating, it’s catching up with friends or family, telling stories and laughing away the stress caused by things that, with a little perspective, you come to realise don’t matter anyway. If all you want is food, you might as well stay at home and order in.
看到这里，你们先别急着惊讶喷饭，且听我把话说完。西班牙人对于午餐的食物部分可丝毫不含糊，甚至可以说是十分上心。西班牙人普遍爱美食，其中又极其看重午餐。以我自己为例，一谈到去哪里吃饭，我思虑之多，研究之广，可不亚于一些人买辆新车做的前期功课。我必会在意哪里的食物是否可口，但同时我也关切餐厅本身是否足够舒适，能让我们轻松地呆上好几个钟头。诸位吃货们，对我接下来说的可别大跌眼镜哦！在西班牙，外出午餐并不光是去吃饭，而是与家人朋友聚聚，闲话家常，自在谈笑，将烦恼压力一扫而空。午餐时谈天说地之时，你会发现所谓的烦恼忧愁，其实都无关紧要。若你觉得吃午餐只是为了填饱肚子，那你大可以在家点个外卖吃好了。
食物对西班牙人来说当然也很重要，但他们更看重的是餐饮的社交属性。以午餐为例，它并非结束于"吃"这个动作，吃完只是意味着西班牙语中"sobremesa"的开始。西语中"sobremesa"一词在英语中没有对应的单词，但它的意思其实很简单，它指的是饭罢餐毕仍在桌前停留的轻松闲聊时光。马拉加（Málaga）大都会饭店（La Cosmopolita）的主厨卡内罗（Dani Carnero）说："就个人角度而言，'sobremesa'（饭罢餐毕继续在桌前停留的时光，此文中中文译作'餐后闲谈时光'）是一种基本需求。"大都会是西班牙最出名的饭店之一。
“On a personal level, the sobremesa is fundamental,” said Dani Carnero, chef at La Cosmopolita in Málaga, where Spain’s best chefs, including Ferran Adrià, Joan Roca, José Andrés and Andoni Luis Aduriz, go to eat when they’re in town.
西班牙最好的厨师像是阿德里亚（Ferran Adrià）、罗卡（Joan Roca）、安德鲁斯（José Andrés）、阿杜瑞兹（Andoni Luis Aduriz）等人都常光临这家饭店。
“As a chef, when I see people spending time at the table after lunch, I feel that it’s a sign that everything has gone well, but oftentimes people enjoy themselves even more than during the meal itself. The sobremesa can be magical.”
他同时说道，"作为一名厨师，若看到餐后人们仍在桌前聊天，我认为这表示一切都进展顺利。通常，大家享受相处的时光多过于享受美食本身。'餐后闲谈时光'可是很有魔力的。"
When I moved to Madrid from Zaragoza, I got in touch with Ben Curtis, a British blogger who has lived in Spain for 20 years and has probably taught more people about Spanish customs than anyone else. We’d been emailing about things related to Spanish culture for some time, but we’d never met, so I suggested we go out for a beer. He wisely suggested we go out for lunch instead. It went so well that we’ve been having lunch more or less once a week for the past six years. And by lunch I don’t mean a sandwich at a food court or a fast-food burger, but a proper sit-down, three-course Spanish lunch. With wine, naturally. If there’s a better way to form a friendship than having long lunches on a regular basis, I’d like to know about it.
几年前，从萨拉戈萨（Zaragoza）搬到马德里（Madrid）后，我约笔友柯蒂斯（Ben Curtis）见面。他是一名英国籍的博客主，在西班牙居住了20多年。他对西班牙习俗了如指掌，并且通过博客向各方介绍。我们通电邮谈西班牙文化已经有段时间，不过一直未曾见过面，因此我约他出去喝个啤酒。但他很明智地建议道，要不我们一起吃午餐吧！这次经历非常愉快。此后的六年里，我们几乎每周都要约上一次午餐。我这里说的"午餐"可不是在美食广场随便啃个三明治或是快餐汉堡，而是正正经经地坐下来，有三道菜且通常配餐酒的西班牙式午餐。常常一起吃午饭，并且一吃好几个小时，我不认为世间还有任何方式比这更有助于维系友情的了。
In my experience, avant-garde food doesn’t lend itself to a good sobremesa because too much attention gets devoted to the food itself. That’s why I prefer classic, unpretentious casas de comida, or family restaurants, where the food is home-style, made from well-cooked, simple ingredients. I know Ben feels the same way because we have often explored this important subject in leisurely chats after robust meals, the white tablecloth sprinkled with breadcrumbs and splotched with red-wine stains. My informal research suggests that the better the food, the better the sobremesa; but tellingly, you can eat mediocre food and still have a great lunch if you’re with the right company.
从我个人经验来看，一顿极其奢华丰盛的餐食可并不一定能够带来非常美好的"餐后闲谈时光"，因为太过丰盛的餐食会让人们更关注食物本身。这也是为何我更青睐在西班牙传统餐厅或家庭餐厅来一顿经典而又朴实无华的午餐。这类餐厅的食物更加贴近家庭烹饪，食材简单，但制作用心。柯蒂斯应该同我的想法一样。我们总是一顿饕餮酒足饭饱后，在白色桌布上散满面包屑，沾染红酒污渍的桌旁闲聊，共同探讨此类重要的话题。就我个人非正式探究，一般来讲，饭菜越美味，餐后的闲谈时光越美好。但这也非绝对，如果食物一般，但是吃饭的伴儿合拍，午餐也将十分惬意。
There are only a few guidelines to sobremesa. Most important is that nobody gets up from the table – urgent necessities excluded, of course. You have to stay at the table where you ate, amid the post-lunch wreckage of crumpled napkins, stray packets of sugar and the last pieces of dessert that may or may not get eaten. Sobremesa is about prolonging the lunch because you’ve had such a good time that you don’t want it to end; if you leave the table, the spell is broken.
关于"餐后闲谈时光"，有一些指导原则要遵守。其中最重要的一条是，除非有紧急特殊情况，否则不能离开餐桌。用餐者必须待在餐桌旁，即便置身于用餐后揉成一团的纸巾堆、撕开的调料包装袋、吃剩的餐后甜点这样的杯盘狼藉中，都不能起身离开。"餐后闲谈时光"本质上就是有意拖延时间，因为午餐时光太美好，你会希望时间能就此驻足。但若是你起身离开了，那餐后美好时光也就完了。
The warm atmosphere of the sobremesa can often lead to conversations that you might not have otherwise, the ones that start like, “You’ve inspired me to…” or “I’ve been wanting to say how much it means to me that you…”. But it’s also the natural habitat of the comedian. Jokes never land better than when the listener is well fed and, ideally, a little bit tipsy. All you have to do is say something remotely funny, and even if you mess it up you’ll likely still get a laugh. Actually, especially if you mess it up. My mother has a habit of telling jokes and erupting into infectious, uncontainable laughter long before she gets to the punchline. The jokes aren’t always that funny, but her delivery absolutely kills every time.
"餐后闲谈时光"中营造的温馨氛围通常也会引出一些可能你平日里说不出口的话，像是"你知道吗？你曾激励我……"；"我一直没机会说，但之前你对我所做的对我来说意义有多么重大……"等。这种情境也是喜剧演员的天然演练场。说笑话最好的对象莫过于酒足饭饱的听众。若是听众还有点微醺就再好不过了。此时说个笑话，即便说砸了，也能引得对方捧腹一笑。其实，没讲好的笑话反而有笑点。我妈妈就特爱说笑话，通常还没到抖包袱的点，她就自己狂笑起来，特别有感染力。她讲的笑话其实并不是那么好笑，但她的表达方式总是让时光过得特别快。
The sobremesa often lasts as long as the meal itself – sometimes, if it’s going well, even longer. I was born in the south of Spain, where the blazing hot summers encourage particularly epic sobremesas. Going outside would be madness, so it’s best to stay put. In my family’s luncheon lore, my favourite story is about a lunch my father once had with a good friend where the sobremesa lasted so long they eventually got hungry again and stayed for dinner. I have yet to achieve the lunch-dinner double, a feat that I like to call the Legendary Enchainment, but one day, one day.
"餐后闲聊时光"可能跟吃饭本身一样久，甚至有时候更长。我在西班牙南部地区长大，那里的炎炎夏日总是让"餐后闲聊时光"异常地长久。因为外面热到爆炸，所以特别鼓励人们享受悠长的室内餐后闲聊。我们家族的午餐故事中我最喜欢的是，有一次我父亲和他朋友一起吃午餐，他们"餐后闲聊时光"聊得实在太久，以至于他们最后聊饿了，结果留下来再吃了顿晚饭。我目前还没体味过这种"午餐晚饭连轴吃"的乐趣。我称之为一种"神奇的羁绊"，这太叫人神往了。我相信总有一天我也会拥有的。
Of course, the all-day lunch is not an everyday occurrence. The long sobremesa is a fixture on occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries and Sundays with the family. But even during the week, many people still take the time to have a big lunch, and when it’s finished nobody is in too much of a hurry to leave. While it’s not unheard of to have a sobremesa after dinner, it’s more of an afternoon event. They say that having a big lunch instead of a big dinner is healthier, but that’s probably just a happy coincidence. Lunch is just more fun.
这种花上大半天的午餐并不是日日都能有的。耗时较长的"餐后闲聊时光"基本上是生日、纪念日、与家人共度周末等场合里的必有部分。但是在周日期间，大家还是能抽时间去享受一顿丰盛的午餐，饭罢餐后也不会急着离开。一般来说，晚餐的"餐后闲聊时光"闻所未闻。"餐后闲聊时光"大多发生在下午。大家普遍认为一顿丰盛的午餐益于健康而晚餐不宜太过丰盛。但或许这只是一个美妙的巧合。比起晚餐，午餐总是更乐趣十足。
I like a big lunch so much that, even when I don’t have the time for it, I like seeing people having a big lunch. I’ll be on some mundane errand and turn the corner and glance through the window of a neighbourhood restaurant, and there’s a table of four older ladies, laughing and gossiping as a waiter in a bow tie serves them their decaf coffees. Sometimes, especially on a holiday, you’ll see a table of 15 or 20 men, raucous and into their second round of sobremesa gin and tonics, singing songs and generally being too loud, but having such a good time you can’t help but smile. Children have pretty much free reign during the sobremesa since the parents are enjoying themselves too much to do any effective policing. It’s a win-win for all concerned.
我太爱丰盛午餐这项活动了。即使有时我自己没时间参与，看着别人吃午餐也是一种享受。素日忙些闲事的间隙，我会拐角到附近的餐厅去窥一窥别人的午餐。一桌坐着四位老太太，她们在一起聊八卦，笑得乐呵呵。打着领结的服务生在一旁给她们的杯子里续上无因咖啡。偶尔，特别是在假日时候，我还能看到一桌子的大男人们，他们十几20来号人，坐在桌前，喧哗着笑闹着，享受"餐后闲聊时光"。他们酒过二巡，大声唱歌。即便稍微有点吵闹，看到此情此景，旁人也会忍不住会心微笑。大人们在享受"餐后闲聊时光"时，基本上不会太多干涉他们的孩子，这时候小孩子就乐得"为所欲为"。这对大家来说，真是各得其所。
You could look at lunch in Spain as just an excuse for a sobremesa. As excuses go, it’s a pretty good one. The food is almost always superb, which is, when you think about it, a nice bonus.
在西班牙，你可以把吃饭当做是想要享受"餐后闲聊时光"时的借口。若有借口，就尽情去享受吧！何况西班牙的食物也是超美味的，不妨把美食当作额外的惊喜。
