炎炎夏日 花樣夜宵不打烊

You’ve already had dinner, and you’re fully aware that after-hours eating is probably not a smart choice. Yet you feel urged, even obliged, to say to your friend at 10pm-ish, “Let’s go get something to eat!”

雖然已經吃過晚飯，也明白過了飯點加餐不是個好主意，然而到了晚上十點多，你還是會迫切渴望，甚至覺得必須得叫上你的朋友：“走，咱們吃點兒什麼去！”

In China, summer is the season of late-night snacks, or yexiao, with all kinds of barbecue – seafood, chicken wings and stinky tofu – and spicy *crayfish dominating the menu.

在中國，夏天的夜晚最適合吃小吃和夜宵了，各式各樣的燒烤——海鮮、雞翅、臭豆腐、麻辣小龍蝦都成了夏日主打菜。

It’s not fine dining – most of the food is high in fat, and some of the restaurants have dubious hygiene, but that doesn’t stop customers from chowing down.

這樣的夜宵算不上精緻，多數夜宵都是含高脂肪的食物，有些餐館還存在衛生問題，不過這些都阻擋不了食客們大快朵頤。

“When it’s late, you don’t want to think. You just want to *gorge,” Roy Choi, a Los Angeles-based chef, told Cosmopolitan. Choi is a passionate defender of *indulging late-night *cravings. “You feel terrible, you would never do it in your right mind, but you did it. That’s what’s awesome.”

“到了大半夜，你就啥也不想考慮了，只想狼吞虎嚥大吃一頓。” 洛杉磯廚師羅伊•崔接受《時尚•COSMOPOLITAN》雜誌採訪時表示。羅伊是個支持“享受夜生活”的激進派。“你覺得糟透了，因爲如果你用正常的思維想想，就絕不會這樣縱容自己。但這正是讓你覺得最棒的地方。”

A social experience

一次社交體驗

Apart from *sating your appetite for food, late-night snacks in China are also about socializing and relaxing.

除了用食物來滿足自己，中國人吃夜宵也是一種社交和放鬆方式。

“Yexiao should be eaten outside rather than cooked at home,” Qian Maojia, a 31-year-old white-collar worker, told Shanghai Daily. “I feel so relaxed going outside late at night in the summer, in a casual T-shirt, shorts and slippers. It has become a habit of mine, and I believe many people around me in this city spend great summer nights this way.”

“夜宵一定要在外面吃，而不是在家裏做。” 31歲的白領錢毛佳（音譯）告訴《上海日報》，“我覺得夏天晚上穿着普通T恤、短褲、涼拖出去，簡直太放鬆了。這已經成了我的一種習慣，而且我相信身邊的很多人都用這種方式來消暑。”

This *impulse is shared by other places around the world. Night markets are popular in many Asian countries such as South Korea and Thailand. In Western countries, shopping malls close early, often before 6 pm, but restaurants and bars stay open until late to serve those who want to have some midnight *munchies or simply hang out with friends.

其實，世界其他地方的人們也有這樣的衝動。夜市在韓國、泰國等很多亞洲國家都很流行。在西方國家，商場很早（一般6點前）就關門了。而餐廳和酒吧通常會營業到很晚，爲那些想要吃點夜宵、或者單純想跟朋友小聚的人提供服務。

Take Spain as an example: People there don’t have yexiao, but they traditionally have a very late dinner, usually between 9 pm and midnight, which can be interpreted as a combination of dinner and yexiao. Instead of having a big *feast like Chinese people do, Spanish people like to have a lighter dinner. It often includes a small portion of fish, roast chicken or lamb, a salad and white rice.

以西班牙爲例：在那裏人們通常不吃夜宵，不過他們的傳統就是非常晚纔會吃晚餐，一般在晚九點到午夜之間，類似晚餐與夜宵的結合。不像中國人晚上吃大餐，西班牙人則喜歡吃得比較簡單。通常包括一小塊魚肉、烤雞或烤羊肉，一份沙拉和一份白米飯。

But no matter where you’re from and what you eat, night-owl cravings are real. “You have a different appetite,” Roy said in his interview with Cosmopolitan. “It’s a more *animalistic, *instinctive appetite.”

不過，無論你來自哪裏，吃什麼，夜貓子的熱忱是真實存在的。“你的胃口和別人不同，”羅伊在《時尚•COSMOPOLITAN》雜誌的採訪中說，“這更像是一種動物似的、本能的食慾。”