中国有句古话“民以食为天”，饮食从古至今都在人类的生活中占据首要地位，是人类最基本的生存活动之一。饮食既是日常生活的一部分，又是人类文明的一部分，饮食的地方性、多样性能够反映出不同民族和国家的文化特色，是历史文化的缩影。
“小餐桌”折射“大文明”。餐桌文化从另一个角度体现着一个国家的精神文明和国民素质。美国拥有丰富多彩的餐桌文化，可是别有一番情趣呢！
Here we analyze the differences between Chinese and Western food cultures from five aspects – eating concepts, eating patterns, eating habits, cooking methods and table manners.
下面我们从饮食观念、饮食结构、饮食方式、烹饪方式、餐桌礼仪等角度来分析一下中西方饮食文化的差异之处。
Good evening, everybody! I'm Mario from Hudong Center. Welcome to my column.
各位晚上好！我是马里奥，欢迎收听我的专栏。
You may have had Western food in western restaurants many times. Have you noticed some differences between Chinese eating and Western eating? Besides chopsticks vs. knives and forks, there are more differences that you may not know...
你可能在西餐馆里吃过很多次西餐，但你注意到中西饮食之间有什么不同吗？除了筷子和刀叉之外，还有很多你可能不知道的区别。
1.Chinese usually eat communally and share their dishes with others. Westerners usually enjoy individual servings.
中国人通常是“围而食之”、一道菜大家一起吃。但是西方人一般是分餐而食。
2.Chinese cooks chop everything into bite size pieces, thus people don't need knives to cut it, and just pick up their food with chopsticks. Westerners cook food in big pieces and serve it with knives and forks for cutting it up.
中国厨师一般会把所有食材都切成恰好一口能吃下的大小，这样人们用餐时就不需要用刀来切了，可以直接用筷子夹起食物就吃。
而西方人往往用整块的食材直接烹调，吃的时候用刀切成小块。
