用手吃饭的艺术
最近《经济学人》一篇文章写的是韩国的低头族，开头非常精彩：
In South Korea smartphone cases come with rings mounted on the back, to prevent clumsy owners from dropping them. This makes people look like they are literally married to their phones. In many of Seoul’s most Instagrammable coffee shops, couples on dates spend vastly more time looking at their screens than at each other. The Economist
这个讽刺场景让我想起自己两年多前写的一篇随笔，当时的写作灵感正是在无法使用手机的时候获得的。我作了微调，重新排版，分享给大家。
You are how you eat
Be careful when you say you don't like a particular kind of food. I learned this the hard way. Pasta was never to my liking until a balmy night several years ago in an apartment in Wudaokou where I had linguine (with tomato sauce) cooked by three Italian ladies. That was something entirely different than anything I had had before. I was in love with pasta right away, authentic home-cooked creamy pasta. For a long time, I also shunned burgers. Why would anyone eat burgers? I lamented. Yet a couple of years ago I pledged allegiance to melt-in-your-mouth meaty buns at Fatburger, a diner near the American embassy in Beijing's Liangmaqiao neighborhood.
Both cuisines have been inducted to the Gastronomy Hall of Fame in my heart. Pasta and burgers are on a par with skewered lamb, sashimi, and steamed fish head with Hunan chili pepper. Cooked right, any food can be tasty. KFC is a believer, as its proclamation goes, "We do chicken right." This tactic cleverly differentiates itself from its lackluster rivals in a conventional mass market.
When talking about food, there is more to the taste, however. Any cuisine would be so incomplete and dull without adhering to the very culture that breeds it. Sadly, many seemingly unimportant cuisine elements are missing. One thing that many get wrong yet often goes unnoticed is how people eat a certain kind of food.
Few would raise an eyebrow eating Indian food with cutlery, for instance. But eating not using the hands is clearly not the Indian way of eating. If there is a great deal of truth in "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," then your bare hands are required when eating Indian food. Oh, a kind reminder: the right hand only.
I have eaten in Indian restaurants. Whether it was at Indian Kitchen in Sanlitun of Beijing, or Pearl Indian Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, or New Delhi Restaurant in downtown San Francisco, the food was largely decent. Looking back, however, something important was absent; the experiences thus do not qualify as Indian dining. I didn't learn about this until last weekend.
My fiancée [now wife] and I were invited to dinner by two friends. The male host Amartya hails from Mumbai, India. Since he and his girlfriend experimented Indian food quite a bit, they decided to treat us vegetables and roti (pictured), a flat round unleavened bread popular in India.
dining the Indian way
Washing hands before meals is practiced in many cultures. But Amartya's reminder made me more aware of the act. It's more than a sanitary matter; it can be and is ritual. The table was set, food placed in a row, drinks poured. We started dinner. Naturally, we talked about food and the eating manners associated with Indian food. I was told only the right hand is appropriate when handling food, as the left one is considered unclean. You rip a piece of roti, shovel some broccoli or scoop some gumbo onto roti, and bring the food to your mouth. Perhaps because it was a new experience or the right hand was in direct contact with food, I felt I was more conscious of eating and the feel of food. The bond between food and I strengthened.
About 20 minutes into dinner, I tried to check my phone as I would habitually do. Just as I was about to touch my phone, I froze: my right hand is unavailable. I am eating. My fingertips feel flour. Eating is an activity that requires commitment and attention. You cannot multitask. What a surprising realization!
I couldn't take my mind off the thought. Eating with your hands allows you to be fully in the present moment. This state of mind affects everybody at the table. Smartphones stand idle at meals. Nothing is more real and important than eating. Communication is improved too. Throughout dinner, we exchanged lighthearted stories about our experience living in North America and the Netherlands. We listened to each other carefully and responded quickly. Details and diction stuck in mind. We laughed hard. It was a delightfully mindful and relaxing dining experience.
I stretched my imagination a bit. The globe has gone mobile. Every eye is glued to the smartphone. We live a rushed and insecure life. We worry a lot. We worry we are not keeping abreast with the most up-to-the-millisecond. We worry we are lagging behind. We worry missing messages. When it comes to attention, we also rob Peter to pay Paul. We are forever absent from the NOW moment.
Eating with the hand is a handy remedy. It sharpens our sense of touch. It inspires mindfulness. It helps us concentrate on the moment, not Wechat Moments. It helps divert our attention to people and their words. As a result, family members will be closer, people happier.
Though not unwelcome, eating with the hand had never seemed an appealing idea. Not any longer, thanks to the dining experience. Just as you should be cautious when you say you don't like some food, beware misgivings about eating with your hands. You are what you eat, true enough. Now, if you like, take to heart one more maxim: you are how you eat.
P.S. If you are a fan of The Economist and looking to take your English reading and writing skills to the next level, consider joining us at Read-a-thon in Shanghai on July 20th and 21st.
孟庆伟 Justin
个人微信 ID：justinqmeng
现象级英语联合创始人
《经济学人》11 年研究者
雅思写作 8 分，口语 8 分
题图：firstwefeast.com
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