美国国家公共电台 NPR Like Moths To A Flame: Why Modern-Day Guests Always Gather In The Kitchen

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Across the country, people prepare for holiday parties, set out candles on the mantel, fold a blanket over that stain on the couch. But for all the work that's done to try and make a beautiful, welcoming living room, many guests just wind up in the kitchen. From Portland, Ore., Deena Prichep explores why.

DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE¹: Twinkly lights frame the doorways², and the living room table is filled with flowers and little bacon-wrapped appetizers³. Patrick Donaldson's holiday party is full-on festive⁴.

(CROSSTALK)

PRICHEP: But people keep leaving the comfy couches and drifting back to the kitchen. And it's not a big kitchen.

PATRICK DONALDSON: It's about 10 by 12, I would say - small. Sometimes I've been at parties where the kitchen is even smaller than this, and everybody is pinned in there.

PRICHEP: As an architect, Donaldson is well-aware of this tendency.

DONALDSON: Every time we do a remodel⁵ for somebody and we touch the kitchen, we are opening up the wall and connecting the kitchen to the living space.

PRICHEP: Donaldson even cut some squares into the wall separating his tiny kitchen from the living room to make them feel more connected. Guests can still see the party lights as they duck in to grab a bite of the ham he's carving⁶...

(SOUNDBITE OF ELECTRIC KNIFE CARVING)

PRICHEP: ...Follow friends or drop off some napkins in the trash.

FAITH DURAND: In the kitchen, you can relax. You can bump up against a counter. You don't have to worry about putting that glass of wine down. There might already be some mess.

PRICHEP: Faith Durand is editor-in-chief of Kitchn, a website about cooking, kitchen design and gatherings⁷.

DURAND: That polish and that social media beauty that we do want to create in our homes sometimes can have this weirdly⁸ cold effect for our guests. And I think people want to be where there's warmth.

PRICHEP: And that's the kitchen. But Elizabeth Cromley, an architectural historian, says go back 150 years, and this was not the case.

ELIZABETH CROMLEY: The kitchen would be this very separated place. And nobody else would want to go in the kitchen because you don't socially mix with your servants.

PRICHEP: Also, it didn't smell very good - a trifecta of poor refrigeration, inefficient⁹ cleansers and primitive¹⁰ plumbing¹¹. Cromley says more modest homes and tenements¹² would have central kitchens. But household labor¹³ was surprisingly common until it wasn't.

CROMLEY: As industrialization takes hold in the later 19th and early 20th century, if you had been a servant and you could get a factory job, you would make a lot more money.

PRICHEP: Households - housewives in particular - essentially¹⁴ became their own domestic labor. And the field of domestic science developed to tell them how to do it best, which meant smaller kitchens.

CROMLEY: One ideal was that the housewife could stand in the middle of her kitchen and reach everything. She would revolve¹⁵ in place.

PRICHEP: This tiny kitchen has since expanded to make room for more than one person and become more of a living space, with open windows and comfy chairs, because people want to spend time there, including at parties.

DONALDSON: After they have a couple drinks, they'll end up in here, next to the ham (laughter).

PRICHEP: Patrick Donaldson acknowledges it's not just his partner Jex's tamarind-and-honey-glazed ham that draws people in. They want to help out or hide from a couch full of people they don't really know or just feel that warmth. Editor Faith Durand has published her share of stories on how to shunt guests out of the kitchen. But if people do end up there, next to a sink full of dishes and wadded-up tinfoil¹⁶, that's fine.

DURAND: We've all been to those parties that feel a little magic. There is some swagger. There's pretty flowers. The lights are dim. The candles are going. But you also just feel comfortable.

PRICHEP: And that comfort and connection are the reasons we gather in the first place, even if it happens in the cozy¹⁷ mess of a crowded kitchen. For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRENDA LEE SONG, "ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 doorways   

n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The houses belched people; the doorways spewed out children. 从各家茅屋里涌出一堆一堆的人群，从门口蹦出一群一群小孩。 来自辞典例句
• He rambled under the walls and doorways. 他就顺着墙根和门楼遛跶。 来自辞典例句

3 appetizers   

n.开胃品( appetizer的名词复数 )；促进食欲的活动；刺激欲望的东西；吊胃口的东西

参考例句：

• Here is the egg drop and appetizers to follow. 这是您要的蛋花汤和开胃品。 来自互联网
• Would you like appetizers or a salad to go with that? 你要不要小菜或色拉？ 来自互联网

4 festive   

adj.欢宴的，节日的

参考例句：

• It was Christmas and everyone was in festive mood.当时是圣诞节，每个人都沉浸在节日的欢乐中。
• We all wore festive costumes to the ball.我们都穿着节日的盛装前去参加舞会。

5 remodel   

v.改造，改型，改变

参考例句：

• Workmen were hired to remodel and enlarge the farm buildings.雇用了工人来改造和扩建农场建筑。
• I'll remodel the downstairs bedroom first.我先要装修楼下那间房间。

6 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

7 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

8 weirdly   

古怪地

参考例句：

• Another special characteristic of Kweilin is its weirdly-shaped mountain grottoes. 桂林的另一特点是其形态怪异的岩洞。
• The country was weirdly transformed. 地势古怪地变了样。

9 inefficient   

adj.效率低的，无效的

参考例句：

• The inefficient operation cost the firm a lot of money.低效率的运作使该公司损失了许多钱。
• Their communication systems are inefficient in the extreme.他们的通讯系统效率非常差。

10 primitive   

adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物

参考例句：

• It is a primitive instinct to flee a place of danger.逃离危险的地方是一种原始本能。
• His book describes the march of the civilization of a primitive society.他的著作描述了一个原始社会的开化过程。

11 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 tenements   

n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Here were crumbling tenements, squalid courtyards and stinking alleys. 随处可见破烂的住房、肮脏的庭院和臭气熏天的小胡同。 来自辞典例句
• The tenements are in a poor section of the city. 共同住宅是在城中较贫苦的区域里。 来自辞典例句

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

15 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

16 tinfoil   

n.锡纸，锡箔

参考例句：

• You can wrap it up in tinfoil.你可以用锡箔纸裹住它。
• Drop by rounded tablespoon onto tinfoil.Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.用大餐勺把刚刚搅拌好的糊糊盛到锡纸上，烘烤9至11分钟，直到变成金黄色。

17 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。