为什么只有中国人炒菜，欧美人却几乎不炒菜？他们没锅吗？ 先说结论：不是他们没锅，是他们炒不起。 炒菜这件事，看似简单，其实是一整套农业、能源、社会结构共同撑起来的。缺了哪一条，你都只能老老实实炖和烤。 第一个原因藏在历史里的燃料账。 中国古代人口密度远超欧洲，人均林地极少。一家五口做饭，柴火就那么多，烧完了就得走几里地去拾。你舍得把一锅菜炖上一个时辰吗？舍不得。炒菜的本质就是用最短的时间、最少的燃料把食物弄熟。铁锅烧热，油下去，菜切得薄薄的，颠两下就出锅。整个过程三五分钟，省柴、省时、省事。 欧洲不一样。中世纪欧洲森林覆盖率高，烧柴不心疼。所以他们敢用壁炉烤整只猪，敢炖一大锅汤从中午炖到晚上。燃料多，时间就不是成本。炒菜这种“抠门”的烹饪方式，在欧洲一开始就没必要。 第二个原因，是地里长出来的东西不一样。 中国农业以种植为主，主食是米面，蔬菜种类多，肉是奢侈品。你有一把青菜、几片肉，怎么弄？炖一锅水，菜烂了肉柴了。炒，是唯一能保留蔬菜脆嫩、肉片滑嫩的办法。而且炒菜可以一锅出，菜和肉混着炒，节省食材，下饭。 欧洲农业是农牧混合。大片草地养牛羊，主食是面包，菜是土豆、洋葱、胡萝卜。一块牛排，你拿炒锅炒试试？炒出来又老又硬。烤肉和炖肉才是对付大块肉的正确方式。他们没有“切薄片炒”的烹饪冲动，因为他们切的是整块的肉。 第三个原因，是油。 炒菜必须用烟点高的油。花生油、菜籽油、豆油，这些烟点都在两百度以上，烧到冒烟都不容易分解。欧洲传统用橄榄油和黄油，橄榄油烟点低，烧到冒烟就开始发苦，黄油更不用说，一烧就焦。你拿橄榄油炒菜，炒出来的东西一股糊味。所以地中海沿岸的人用橄榄油拌沙拉、蘸面包，就是不炒菜。 第四个原因，是吃法。 中国是合餐制。一家人围桌坐，菜摆中间，筷子伸进去。这种吃法要求菜必须切好、小块、容易夹。炒菜天然满足这个需求。欧洲是分餐制。每个人盘子里放一块肉、一勺配菜。主菜是烤的或炖的，配菜是煮的或生的。炒菜这种“混在一起”的形态，跟分餐制格格不入。 第五个原因，也是最容易被忽略的——锅本身。 炒菜必须用铁锅，而且要圆底、薄壁、能颠。这种锅需要成熟的铸铁技术。中国在战国时期就掌握了铸铁技术，铁锅普及得早。欧洲长期用的是陶锅和铜锅，铸铁技术起步晚。没有铁锅，炒菜就无从谈起。你用陶锅炒菜，锅还没热透，菜已经糊了。 但话说回来，欧美人真的不炒吗？ 其实不是。这几年炒菜在欧美越来越流行，尤其是健康饮食风潮起来之后，少油快炒被当成一种“轻烹饪”方式。问题是，他们炒的东西跟你不一样。他们炒的是芦笋、蘑菇、虾仁，用黄油或橄榄油，小火慢炒。这跟中国厨房里那种大火爆炒、油烟四起、铁锅翻飞的场面，完全是两码事。 所以问题的答案很简单。不是欧美人不会炒，是他们的历史、地理、农业、能源结构，没有把他们推向炒菜这条路。中国人炒菜，是因为在这片土地上，炒是最划算、最合理、最能把日子过下去的选择。 你说，如果中国人也像欧洲人一样有大片牧场、烧不完的木头、不心疼燃料的厨房——我们今天还会炒菜吗？

Happy to announce I built a Greek/English reader site with all the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, & Aristophanes. Multiple translations for each play; click to parse & define for any Greek word; full Greek & English search. greekdrama.johnhboyer.com

Lo más amable que hace la literatura es recordarte que tus pequeños sentimientos peculiares siempre han existido. Alguien, en algún siglo, se sintió igualmente confundido por el amor, aburrido por la sociedad, cansado de actuar y hambriento de significado.

Hay personas que llegan a tu vida sin hacer ruido, como si hubieran encontrado una puerta secreta en medio de tus días. No traen promesas, sino una manera tan suya de quedarse, de preguntarte cómo estás cuando el mundo parece haberse olvidado de preguntar. Y entonces sucede algo extraño: te abrazan sin brazos, te cuidan sin tocarte, te hacen compañía desde kilómetros de distancia y, de pronto, la soledad ya no pesa tanto. Porque hay presencias que no necesitan una silla a tu lado para sentarse contigo, ni una mano sobre tu hombro para sostenerte el alma. No sé en qué rincón del universo se inventan estas personas, pero sospecho que llegan cuando el corazón está cansado de ser fuerte y necesita descansar un ratito en la ternura de alguien. A todas esas personas,¡gracias por estar! Gracias por sus palabras oportunas, por sus mensajes, por esa forma tan bonita de hacerse presente aun cuando la distancia se empeña en separarnos. Gracias por recordarnos que no todos los abrazos necesitan brazos y que, a veces, alguien puede convertirse en refugio sin haber cruzado nunca el umbral de tu casa. ¡Qué suerte la mía coincidir contigo en este pedacito de mundo! ¡Qué suerte que, entre tanta gente que pasa de largo, tú hayas elegido quedarte un ratito! Y si alguna vez te preguntas qué significa tu compañía para mí, piensa en esas noches en que una pequeña luz basta… para que la oscuridad no te dé tanto miedo. ¡Porque así eres tú!: una forma de abrazo que la distancia no sabe deshacer. ⭐️💫

𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦, “𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 “𝘢𝘨𝘦” 𝘢𝘯𝘥 “𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦?” 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥, “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦!”

"J’ai eu mon premier enfant à 40 ans, le second à 45. À 50 ans, j’ai joué dans un film de James Bond. Et je ne troquerais rien de tout cela pour revenir à mes 20 ans. Quand on est jeune, on possède la beauté du diable, comme disent les Français : une beauté brute, inconsciente, presque dangereuse. Mais à 50 ans… c’est une autre forme de beauté qui naît en soi. Une beauté qui n’a plus besoin d’approbation, ni de maquillage, ni de regards extérieurs. Une beauté qui puise sa force à l’intérieur. Et cette force n’a rien à voir avec le corps. Elle tient à la liberté, à l’expérience, à l’amour de soi." Monica Bellucci

Is there a more romantic moment in literature than when Captain Wentworth writes, “I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I may have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes?”

"El amor no tiene lógica ni razón: es un acto de fe en lo desconocido, un salto al vacío con los ojos cerrados". - Isabel Allende.

Mi cuaderno de viaje de Irlanda del Norte. No os imagináis cómo he disfrutado descubriendo estos lugares con mi cuaderno, parando el tiempo en cada pincelada y saboreando el viaje sin prisa. @DescubreIrlanda #IrlandaSinPrisa #IrlandaMasQueUnViaje #AmoIrlanda #watercolor publi

No matter how advanced society gets, humans will always just want to sit next to a large body of water and stare at it.

「秋晴れ」 #watercolor #水彩画 #透明水彩 #旅の詩 #光を運ぶ者

"Deberíamos tratar de ser los padres de nuestro futuro, no los descendientes de nuestro pasado". Miguel de Unamuno

Franz Kafka, en uno de sus fragmentos más íntimos y vulnerables, a Milena: «Estoy cansado, no puedo pensar en nada y solo quiero recostar mi rostro en tu regazo, sentir tu mano en mi cabeza y permanecer así por toda la eternidad».

Here is a translation of his Korean version of Home: There are places where we each feel a certain sense of comfort, right? A cafe, a restaurant we go to often. There are all sorts of places like that But home is just that. Home And in English, the word home has a very special meaning, doesn’t it? It holds the way I move through my daily life, the furniture I like, the level of lighting that makes me feel at ease. Things like that They say you can get to know a person by looking at their home So these are all things that make me feel comfortable. And while this is of course different from my actual home, I think the overall mood is pretty similar There’s one thing that’s a little different though There’s a painting by Son Sang Ki. It’s a painting of a living room, with another painting hanging on the wall inside it. So it’s a painting within a painting. And the work is called Irony from his Artificial City series Son Sang Ki lived in very difficult circumstances, in a house that was practically falling apart in Ahyeondong, an area of Seoul that was undergoing redevelopment at the time He also had a disability & was very short in stature. And he was always painting these towering walls of Seoul. White walls. These impossibly high walls that seemed to stretch endlessly above him. He painted them a lot. But this particular work is unusual. It depicts what is very obviously a wealthy person’s home, a beautiful house furnished with expensive-looking European furniture. And there, hanging on the wall, is one of his own paintings. He’s painting the irony of that And I had this work hanging in my own living room. Whenever I looked at it, I felt a little uncomfortable, a little called out, I suppose. I’d find myself wondering, am I becoming just another boring, stuffy rich guy? And whenever I have thoughts like that, I look at this painting I’m a creator, too. And of course, I’ve worked hard & I’ve been fortunate enough to earn the things I have. But this work constantly reminds me to think about how I use what I’ve been given & what I should be creating from here on That’s what this work means to me And then there’s the book by Guston displayed next to it. Philip Guston has been getting a lot of renewed attention lately. People call him an artist’s artist. Things like that. But originally, he was working in Abstract Expressionism, like Rothko. And then, around the time of the Vietnam War, he suddenly returned to figurative painting, in this very cartoon-like style. And he got so much criticism for it. Really, a lot Even his fellow painters turned their backs on him. Critics said he was making these ridiculous, almost joke-like figurative paintings. But what really stays with me is his decision to abandon this whole artistic world he’d built, a world in which he’d already flourished & to be born again as an artist There’s something he said around that time. It was along the lines of: with the Vietnam War going on out there, I don’t know what I’m doing, waking up in the morning just to go and paint red over blue again He said something like that. So he abandoned the world he’d created for himself & began bringing social issues into his work And I find myself wondering, would I ever be able to make that kind of decision? Could I one day walk away from the world I’ve been a part of? It’s something that keeps me a little on edge I think things like this can be part of a home, too. Because a home isn’t something fixed. It’s something we can move on from, something that can change So I think I’ll continue to love art, to love visual art, for a long time to come. Um, it’s very much a home. It really is But at the same time, it constantly makes me uncomfortable. It keeps pushing me, again & again, out of my safe zone, out of my comfort zone That’s the role it plays for me