By 謝忠理 on Thursday, 12 January 2023
Category: 托福口說

BBC 6 分鐘英語—The hidden life of buffets 吃到飽自助餐的背後

吃到飽的自助餐對許多人來說有致命的吸引力,遇上了都會想盡一切辦法要吃回本。這樣的飲食文化會帶來什麼樣的影響?一起來聽聽 BBC 6 分鐘英語對這個話題的討論。

The hidden life of buffets 吃到飽自助餐的背後

BBC 6 分鐘英語在 2023 年 01 月 12 日播出的節目 中討論的是吃到飽自助餐。

吃到飽自助餐是一種大餐,人們可以想吃多少就吃多少。它是許多文化的特徵。BBC 6 分鐘英語的主持人尼爾和薩姆討論了自助餐和其背後的歷史,同時教導聽眾一些相關詞彙與表達方式。

本周的問題

自助餐在世界各國都有。自助餐是在哪個國家開始的?
a) 美國
b) 瑞典
c) 中國

詞彙

eyes bigger than your belly 眼大過腹
用以指某人拿取了吃不完的食物

pile up 堆積起來
把大量的東西集中到一個地方,形成一個堆積物

get your money's worth 物有所值
讓你花的錢得到等價所值

vicious circle 惡性循環
造成新問題的問題或困難情況,使原來的情況更加糟糕。

knock your socks off 讓你大吃一驚
讓人驚奇,讓人印象深刻

caterer 餐飲業者
為特殊社交場合提供食品和飲料的人或公司

中英文稿謄本

BBC 6 minute English – The hidden life of buffets

點此看英文原稿

Neil
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.

Sam
And I’m Sam. 

Neil
Have you ever been to an all-you-can-eat buffet, Sam? You know – a meal in a restaurant where you can eat as much food as you like.

Sam
Yes, I went to an Indian buffet once. I didn’t eat all day before the meal, but I only managed to finish three or four plates…well, maybe five!

Neil
It sounds like your eyes were bigger than your belly, or stomach –  a phrase describing someone who has taken more food than they can eat. In this programme we’ll be discussing buffets – a feast of many different food dishes where diners are allowed to eat as much as they want – or as much as their stomachs will allow. And, of course, we’ll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

Sam
The popularity of buffets is booming, especially in Middle Eastern and Asian countries where the variety of foods means there’s something for everyone. But feasts are big and boastful - usually too much is cooked, and buffets have been criticised for waste.

Neil
We’ll hear more soon, but first I have a question for you, Sam. The word ‘buffet’ originated from the French name for the table on which food was served, but buffets themselves don’t come from France. So in which country did buffets begin?
a)     The United States of America
b)    Sweden
c)     China

Sam
Well, the US is famous for supersizing food so I’ll guess a) America.

Neil
OK, SamWe’ll find out the answer later in the programme. John Wood, owner of cooking company Kitchen Cut, knows a lot about buffets – he used to run a one thousand seat breakfast buffet at the five-star Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. Here John shares his observations on human buffet behaviour with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain.

John Wood
There are different people that treat buffets in different ways. Some people think this is a great opportunity to try little bits and lots of everything, and we come back as many times as I like. And other people just - whether they don't like getting up and down, which is understandable from their table - just want to pile it high, and people they want to getvalue for money. So, if you're paying $100, $200 a head for a buffet, you're gonna pile it up high and take the most expensive things you can you know, and get your money's worth.

Sam
John says buffet diners want to get their money’s worth – get good value for the money they spend, so they often pile up food on their plate. If you pile something up, you gather a large amount of it into one place to build what’s called a pile.

Neil
But buffets are not just about eating until you explode - they’re also an opportunity to show off to your friends. Weddings are big in India, and usually include a buffet. The richer the people getting married, the bigger the buffet, sometimes inviting as many as five thousand guests. If each guest eats around six dishes, we’re taking about a seriously big buffet!

Sam
Sandeep Sreedharan is a wedding caterer from Goa in South India – he owns a company which provides the food and drink for special social occasions. Here he talks with Ruth Alexander, presenter of BBC World Service, The Food Programme, about organising an Indian wedding buffet:

Sandeep Sreedharan
It's a very vicious circle, I think, right? Everybody wants to overwhelm everybody around you.

Ruth Alexander
OK. That's the aim. They are out to impress - they want to ‘wow’ the guests - knock their socks off.

Sandeep Sreedharan
Knock their socks off. They should just go back saying,  ‘I couldn't eat even half of it!’, you know. Some people just come for eating. They don't even worry about who's wedding is it… They know that… ‘Who's the caterer? Ah, these guys are catering. Oh my God, this is gonna be great.

Sam
Wedding buffets are designed to amaze and overwhelm the guests with their huge displays of food. They need to ‘wow’ the guests, or knock their socks off – an idiom meaning to amaze and impress someone.

Neil
The problem is that no matter how extravagant and expensive one buffet is, the next one has to be even more impressive, something Sandeep calls a vicious circle – a difficult situation which has the effect of creating new problems which then make the original situation even worse.

Sam
It seems the secret to enjoying a buffet is trying a little bit of everything, without stuffing yourself until you can’t move – although in the past, I think, that was exactly the idea.

Neil
OK, it’s time to reveal the answer to my question - where did the buffets originally come from?

Sam
I guessed it was from the United States. Was I right?

Neil
That was… the wrong answer, I’m afraid, Sam. In fact buffets are thought to have come from Sweden in the Middle Ages.

Sam
OK, let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned, starting with the expression, eyes bigger than your belly, or eyes bigger than your stomach,used when someone has taken more food than they can eat.

Neil
If you pile up your plate,you gather a large quantity of food together into a pile. Sam
The phrase to get your money’s worth means to get good value for the money you have spent .

Neil
A vicious circle is a problematic situation, having the effect of creating new problems which then make the first situation even worse.

Sam
The idiom to knock your socks off means to wow, amaze or impress someone.

Neil
And finally, a caterer is a person or company which provides food and drink for special social occasions. Once again, our six minutes are up. Bye for now!

Sam
Bye!

廣播原稿中文翻譯有兩個目的。首先是幫助聽力有困難的讀者能夠快速了解原文的意思。而更重要的原因是,提供給練習英語口語表達的讀者訓練的素材。

由於每個人的知識範疇各不相同,因此碰到超出自己專長的領域,常常會啞口無言,無話可說。這對練習英語表達是一項非常難以克服的障礙。所以參考 6 分鐘英語的對白稿,既可以讓自我練習英語對話時有貼切適當的素材,同時也能順便學些道地的表達方式,實是一舉數得。

使用上,可以在聽完一、兩次原始廣播之後,試著一邊看中文謄本,一邊流利、正確地用英語說出文中的內容。多次練習之後,未來自然能夠在碰到同樣主題時與人侃侃而談。

BBC 6 minute English – The hidden life of buffets

點此看中文翻譯

尼爾
你好。這裡是 BBC 學習英語的 6 分鐘英語。我尼爾。

薩姆
我是薩姆。

尼爾
你去過自助餐嗎,薩姆?你知道的—在餐廳裡吃飯,你想吃多少就吃多少。

薩姆
是的,我去過一次印度自助餐。我在用餐前一天都沒有吃東西,但我只吃完了三、四盤……好吧,也許是五盤!。

尼爾
聽起來你的眼睛比你的肚子大,或者說是胃—這是描述一個人拿的食物比他們能吃的多的片語。在這個節目中,我們將討論自助餐—由許多不同的食物組成的盛宴,食客們可以想吃多少就吃多少—或者說,他們的胃允許多少就吃多少。當然,我們還將學習一些新的詞彙。

薩姆
自助餐的流行正在蓬勃發展,特別是在中東和亞洲國家,那裡的食物種類繁多,意味著每個人都能吃到。但是,盛宴是大而無當的—通常煮得太多了,而自助餐也被批評為浪費。

尼爾
我們很快會聽到更多內容,但首先我有一個問題要問你,薩姆。「自助餐」這個詞起源於法國對供應食物的桌子的稱呼,但自助餐本身並不來自法國。那麼,自助餐是在哪個國家開始的?
a) 美國
b) 瑞典
c) 中國

薩姆
嗯,美國以超大尺寸的食物而聞名,所以我猜 A) 美國。

尼爾
好的,薩姆。我們將在節目的後面找出答案。烹飪公司 Kitchen Cut 的老闆約翰.伍德對自助餐有很多瞭解—他曾經在杜拜的五星級朱美拉海灘酒店經營過有 1000 個座位的自助早餐。在這裡,約翰與 BBC 世界頻道節目《食物鏈》分享他對人類自助餐行為的觀察。

約翰.伍德
有不同的人以不同的方式對待自助餐。有些人認為這是一個很好的機會,可以嘗試各種小東西,我們想來多少次就來多少次。而其他人只是—不管他們是否不喜歡起立又坐下,這看他們的餐桌就可以理解—只是想把餐盤堆得高高的,他們想要得到物有所值。所以,如果你為自助餐支付 100 或 200 美元,你會把它堆得很高,並拿最昂貴的東西,你知道的,就是要吃回本

薩姆
約翰說,自助餐的食客想讓他們的錢花得值—讓他們花的錢物有所值,所以他們經常在盤子裡堆積食物。如果你把東西堆起來,你就把大量的東西聚集到一個地方,形成所謂的堆積

尼爾
但自助餐不僅僅是吃到爆炸—它也是一個向朋友炫耀的機會。在印度,婚禮是大事,通常包括自助餐。結婚的人越有錢,自助餐就越大,有時會邀請多達五千名客人。如果每個客人吃六個左右的菜,我們就會有一個非常大的自助餐了

薩姆
桑迪普.斯雷德哈蘭是來自南印度果阿的婚禮承辦人—他擁有一家公司,為特殊的社交場合提供食物和飲料。在這裡,他與 BBC 世界頻道《美食節目》的主持人露絲.亞歷山大談論了安排印度婚禮自助餐的問題。

桑迪普.斯雷德哈蘭
這是一個非常惡性的循環,我想,對嗎?每個人都想贏過周圍的人。

露絲.亞歷山大
好的。這就是他們的目的。他們想給人留下深刻印象—他們想讓客人「驚歎」—讓他們大吃一驚

桑迪普.斯雷德哈蘭
給人留下深刻印象。他們應該回去說,「我連一半都吃不下去!」,你知道。有些人只是為了吃而來。他們甚至不擔心這是誰的婚禮……他們知道……「誰是承辦人?啊,這些人是做餐飲的。哦,天啊,這一定很棒。」

薩姆
婚禮自助餐的設計是為了以其龐大的食物展示來讓人讚嘆和嚇倒客人。他們需要讓客人「驚歎」,或讓他們大吃一驚—這是一個成語,意思是讓人驚奇和印象深刻。

尼爾
問題是,無論一場自助餐多麼奢侈和昂貴,下一場都必須更加令人印象深刻,這就是桑迪普所說的惡性循環—一種困難的情況會產生新的問題,然後使原來的情況更加糟糕。

薩姆
似乎享受自助餐的秘訣是每樣東西都嘗試一下,而不是把自己塞得不能動彈—儘管在過去,我想,這正是我們的想法。

尼爾
好了,是時候揭曉我的問題的答案了—自助餐最初是怎麼來的?

薩姆
我猜是來自美國。我說的對嗎?

尼爾
那是……恐怕是錯誤的答案,薩姆。事實上,自助餐被認為是來自中世紀的瑞典。

薩姆
好的,讓我們回顧一下我們所學的詞彙,從表達方式開始,眼睛比肚子還大,或者眼睛比胃還大,用在當某人拿的食物比他們能吃的還多時。

尼爾
如果你把你的盤子堆起來,你就把大量的食物聚集在一起,形成一個

薩姆
物有所值這個短語的意思是讓你花的錢有所價值。

尼爾
惡性循環是一種有問題的情況,會產生新的問題,然後使第一種情況更加糟糕。

薩姆
成語 to knock your socks off 的意思是讓人驚歎、驚奇或印象深刻。

尼爾
最後,餐飲業者是為特殊社交場合提供食物和飲料的人或公司。再一次,我們的六分鐘時間到了。跟您說再見了!

薩姆
再見!

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