By+Stephanie+Buck

Lunch as we know it has only existed for some 200 years. Before the 19th century， a Western lunch was defined as“as much food as ones hand can hold，” according to a 1755 dictionary entry1. But when industrialization came to major cities， people （mostly men） stayed at work for longer hours， or all day. A new meal had to be created so workers could literally2 regain strength for the rest of the days labor.

Later， technological innovations like the pocket watch and punch clock ensured workers every second was accounted for.3 And the quicker a person could bang out said meal， the sooner he could punch back in.4

“Haste seems to be a controlling factor in the luncheon of the worker，” observed Munseys Magazine in 1901.5 It named the new phenomenon the “quick lunch.”

The culture of the quick lunch originated in New York， says culinary6 historian Laura Shapiro. “New York has all the conditions that make America different from the Old World7 in terms of speed and work and the arrangement of life. In New York， the focus of peoples lives is work， and lunch is the meal that was just made to fit into the industrial， urban work day.”

Geographically， more businesses and factories clustered in lower Manhattan， making the area chaotic with congestion and noise.8 As a result， more residents moved north to quieter areas and restaurants， automats， and food carts took their place.9

Counter-service restaurants， also known as “one-arm” joints， were complicit in the culture of speed.10 Patrons could order fast food and eat it at counters standing up， packed in tightly—using only one hand.11 Restaurants encouraged the pace. Some menus even warned they were “not responsible for personal property”if it was stolen in the hustle12.

One intrepid New York Times reporter spent a month timing diners in a single quick-eating establishment in Times Square， in part because Americans had earned the reputation by this time of “gobbling food almost whole.”13 Two men stood out， he said. One finished his meal in 48 seconds； the other in one minute and 55 seconds. Of the latter， “The man simply tossed14 the food into his mouth， which was large， and swallowed it as fast as his throat could work. The putting of the food into the mouth and the swallowing seemed almost simultaneous15.”

Some people got tired of the quick lunch and restaurants monotonous16 menus. They brought bagged lunches or pails and checked out all together.17 According to a 1901 feature for Munseys Magazine， manual laborers would “sit in the half finished doorways， or prop themselves against the walls” or “even spread their luncheon on the curb.”18 He compares their “hour of luxurious ease” to businessmen who would “feed，” rather than lunch.

Office professionals fancied their own version of lunch escapism.19 A 1904 issue of Good Housekeeping chronicles one readers solution： a simple bag lunch of sandwich and a “l(fā)ittle dainty” like almonds or raisins—eaten at his desk.20 About 60% of professionals eat lunch at their desks， and about half eat alone. What would otherwise be an hour free of work obligations is spent catching up on email and punching out small tasks， like responding to Slack messages； in other words， minutiae that can survive the “distraction” of a sandwich.21 And theyve been doing it for decades. Its why we have bromidic lists titled “12 Lunch Break Ideas That Improve Your Productivity，” with flamethrower tips like “read about your industry” and “make phone calls.”22

Its New Yorks fault， really. When lunch outside the office got too crazy， people began retreating23 to their desks. Top that off with decades of increasing productivity pressures and on-demand delivery options and youve got the recipe for todays sad desk lunch， with only a greasy keyboard for company.24

Hope your productivity is worth it. （Its not.）

1. entry： 條目。

2. literally： 真正地，確實(shí)地。

3. 之后，懷表和打卡鐘這樣的技術(shù)創(chuàng)新確保了工人們的每分每秒都能盡其所用。pocket watch： 懷表；punch clock：打卡鐘，考勤鐘；account for： 解釋，說明。

4. bang out： 匆匆做出，這里指匆忙吃完（午餐）；punch in： 上班打卡。

5. luncheon： 正式午餐；Munseys Magazine：《芒西周刊》，由美國報(bào)業(yè)大亨弗蘭克·芒西于1889年創(chuàng)辦。

6. culinary： 烹飪的。

7. Old World： 舊世界（歐、亞、非），與新世界（New World，指美國）相對(duì)。

8. cluster： 成群地聚集于；lower Manhattan：曼哈頓下城，指曼哈頓南部地區(qū)，華爾街所在地；chaotic： 混亂的；congestion： 擁擠，擁塞。

9. automat： 自動(dòng)售貨機(jī)；food cart： 食品車。

10. 柜臺(tái)服務(wù)式餐廳，又稱“單臂場所”，正順應(yīng)了這種快節(jié)奏文化。joint： 公共場所（尤指價(jià)格低廉的飲食和娛樂場所）；complicit： 串通一氣的。

11. 顧客們擠在一起，點(diǎn)一份快餐，站在柜臺(tái)前只用單手就能搞定午餐。patron：顧客，（老）主顧。

12. hustle： 推搡，擠。

13.《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》一名勇敢的記者在時(shí)報(bào)廣場旁一家速食店里蹲守了一個(gè)月，測算食客的用餐時(shí)間，部分原因就是那時(shí)的美國人已被冠以“整吞食物”的不雅名聲。intrepid： 勇猛的，無畏的；time： v. 測時(shí)；gobble： 狼吞虎咽地吃。

14. toss： 扔，投。

15. simultaneous： 同時(shí)的。

16. monotonous： 單調(diào)的。

17. pail： 提桶；check out： 下班。

18. 根據(jù)《芒西周刊》1901年的一篇專題報(bào)道，體力勞動(dòng)者會(huì)“坐在半完工的門廊里，或者倚靠著墻壁，甚至把午飯攤在路邊”。feature：（報(bào)紙、電視等的）特寫，專題；prop against： 倚靠在……上；curb： 路邊。

19. fancy： 喜愛；escapism： 逃避主義。

20. issue： 刊期；chronicle： 記錄；dainty： 美味；almond： 杏仁；raisin： 葡萄干。

21. 原本可以免于工作的一個(gè)小時(shí)則用來處理郵件或完成瑣碎工作，比如回復(fù)Slack（企業(yè)聊天工具）信息，換句話說，就是那些不會(huì)因吃三明治而分神的小事。obligation： 職責(zé)；catch up on： 趕做（尚未做或忘記做的事），彌補(bǔ)；punch out： 打孔，打掉，這里指完成一件件工作；minutiae： 細(xì)節(jié)，瑣事，minutia的復(fù)數(shù)。

22. bromidic： 無聊的，單調(diào)的；flamethrower： 噴火器。

23. retreat： 撤回。

24. 幾十年來，生產(chǎn)力壓力不斷增大，按需配送的選擇也越來越多，結(jié)果便是如今這令人難過的辦公桌午餐，留給你的只有公司里油膩膩的電腦鍵盤。top off with： 以……結(jié)束；greasy： 油膩的。

閱讀感評(píng)

∷秋葉 評(píng)

我們中國人對(duì)于一日三餐有種流行的說法是“早吃好、午吃飽、晚吃少”，是指午餐要吃得豐富而足量，這樣才能承上啟下，起到滿足一日熱量所需的中流砥柱的作用。至于這是我們中國人自古以來就有的根深蒂固的觀念，還是幾十年來的當(dāng)代說法，筆者未做進(jìn)一步的考證。

西方的詞典一般有對(duì)于一個(gè)詞匯詳細(xì)的詞源追溯。原文一開始，作者就指出，“在19世紀(jì)之前，根據(jù)一部1755年出版的詞典，西方的午餐被釋義為‘人們一只手能抓住的食物。”（Before the 19th century， a Western lunch was defined as “as much food as ones hand can hold，” according to a 1755 dictionary entry.）這部1755年的詞典當(dāng)然指的是18世紀(jì)英國大文豪約翰遜博士（Samuel Johnson）以一人之力完成的《英語詞典》（A Dictionary of the English Language）。這部詞典在很長一段時(shí)間內(nèi)影響力堪比《圣經(jīng)》，因此常被人引用。“一只手能抓住的食物”，當(dāng)然量不會(huì)很大，而且品種似乎也不會(huì)太多，這倒基本符合約翰遜所處的18世紀(jì)中期及之前時(shí)代英國人對(duì)于午餐的進(jìn)食習(xí)慣。

據(jù)《牛津英語詞典》（The Oxford English Dictionary），“l(fā)unch”這個(gè)詞最早出現(xiàn)于1580年，指的是“介于更充實(shí)的兩餐之間的一餐，也可能指一片奶酪或面包”。（A meal that was eaten between more substantial meals. It may also mean a piece of cheese or bread.）直至19世紀(jì)初，午餐往往是女士們逢丈夫不在家時(shí)結(jié)伴共享，19世紀(jì)40年代開始有了下午茶以作午餐的補(bǔ)充。我們似乎能夠想象到，這些養(yǎng)尊處優(yōu)的女士們是如何在自家庭院里的暖陽下，慢慢享用著小點(diǎn)心與紅茶并悠閑地說著話。隨著19世紀(jì)工業(yè)化的進(jìn)程，工人們要長時(shí)間在工廠里工作，中間往往有一小時(shí)的午餐時(shí)間，以便下午有足夠的體力繼續(xù)工作。這樣，午餐在英國逐漸成為了必吃的一餐。開始的時(shí)候，這些男人回家吃午餐，但后來工廠離家越來越遠(yuǎn)，他們就自帶便餐。同時(shí)，許多小飯館也在工廠附近應(yīng)運(yùn)而生，供應(yīng)現(xiàn)成食品。直至今日，英國人還常在小酒館（pub，更為現(xiàn)代的是gastro-pub）吃午餐，可能是這種傳統(tǒng)的延續(xù)。英國小酒館的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)食品是魚加薯?xiàng)l（fish&chips）等，或者英國傳統(tǒng)的“莊稼漢午餐”（ploughmans lunch），即一種供外帶的包含面包、奶酪、肉、腌制洋蔥等較豐盛的午餐?？偟膩碚f，在英國人那里，午餐是介于早餐與工作后回到家里要美美享受的晚餐之間較簡單的一餐。這與葡萄牙、西班牙等國家將午餐當(dāng)作正餐有較大差異。同樣，在美國等北美地區(qū)，午餐也非正餐，往往是一個(gè)三明治加一杯飲料或一個(gè)湯。有的進(jìn)快餐店或咖啡店，有的拿了食品飲料往露天臺(tái)階或草坪一坐，很快吃完了事。當(dāng)然，隨著“按需配送”和“第一時(shí)間抵達(dá)”的外賣時(shí)代的到來，公司白領(lǐng)的辦公桌午餐就越來越普遍了。過去影視劇中常見一些白領(lǐng)脖子上夾著座機(jī)話筒，雙手還在不停忙乎的“酷”樣，而今同樣的大忙人更是以在辦公室一邊忙于各種多媒體的瀏覽應(yīng)答，一邊吞咽著“multi-task productivity-improving luncheon”為時(shí)尚。

原文顯然對(duì)這種“多（任務(wù)）、快（用餐）、滿（負(fù)荷）、?。〞r(shí)間）、獨(dú)（處一隅）”的紐約白領(lǐng)式午餐風(fēng)格頗不以為然。其矛頭所向，顯然不是午餐豐盛程度的欠缺，而是消費(fèi)午餐的方式方法。概括起來無非是兩宗罪：一、求快（haste，quick lunch），變品嘗為吞咽（feed， rather than lunch）；二、用餐不專心、不放松，變原本該有的悠閑享受為額外負(fù)擔(dān)。這些職業(yè)人（professionals）恨不得自己能長出三頭六臂，在用餐的同時(shí)一股腦兒地處理掉頭緒繁多的日常事務(wù)。然而，這卻是一種現(xiàn)代病，導(dǎo)致抑郁癥與早衰早逝的頻繁發(fā)生。工業(yè)化時(shí)代由于勞動(dòng)強(qiáng)度的需求而讓人重視午餐，到了網(wǎng)絡(luò)化時(shí)代卻因?yàn)楹Ａ啃畔⒌母蓴_而引發(fā)“無事生非”（much ado about nothing），幾乎要取消我們更需要認(rèn)真對(duì)待的這一餐了，這確實(shí)令人遺憾。好在有消息稱，自2010年以來，即在西方社會(huì)深陷金融危機(jī)之時(shí)，人們又有了回歸到要好好享受細(xì)嚼慢咽的午餐——“three martini lunch”的呼聲。這“三杯馬提尼（雞尾）酒午餐”指的是午餐的用時(shí)至少要持續(xù)到喝完三杯雞尾酒的時(shí)間。呼吁者大概是在提議一頓完整的午餐至少需要半小時(shí)吧。誠然，做任何事往往都是“欲速則不達(dá)”，這尤其適用于像用餐這種需調(diào)動(dòng)身與心的事情。