Spanish people don’t take the food part of lunch lightly; far from it.As a Spaniard in love with food in general, and lunch in particular.
西班牙人对于午餐的食物部分可丝毫不含糊，甚至可以说是十分上心。西班牙人普遍爱美食，其中又极其看重午餐。
Lunch, for example, doesn’t end when people can’t eat another bite. That’s when the sobremesa starts. There is no equivalent word in English, though the concept is simple: sobremesa is the time you spend at the table after you’ve finished eating.
以午餐为例，它并非结束于"吃"这个动作，吃完只是意味着西班牙语中"sobremesa"的开始。西语中"sobremesa"一词在英语中没有对应的单词，但它的意思其实很简单，它指的是饭罢餐毕仍在桌前停留的轻松闲聊时光。
Of course, the all-day lunch is not an everyday occurrence. The long sobremesa is a fixture on occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries and Sundays with the family. But even during the week, many people still take the time to have a big lunch, and when it’s finished nobody is in too much of a hurry to leave. While it’s not unheard of to have a sobremesa after dinner, it’s more of an afternoon event. They say that having a big lunch instead of a big dinner is healthier, but that’s probably just a happy coincidence. Lunch is just more fun.
这种花上大半天的午餐并不是日日都能有的。耗时较长的"餐后闲聊时光"基本上是生日、纪念日、与家人共度周末等场合里的必有部分。但是在周日期间，大家还是能抽时间去享受一顿丰盛的午餐，饭罢餐后也不会急着离开。一般来说，晚餐的"餐后闲聊时光"闻所未闻。"餐后闲聊时光"大多发生在下午。大家普遍认为一顿丰盛的午餐益于健康而晚餐不宜太过丰盛。但或许这只是一个美妙的巧合。比起晚餐，午餐总是更乐趣十足。
You could look at lunch in Spain as just an excuse for a sobremesa. As excuses go, it’s a pretty good one. The food is almost always superb, which is, when you think about it, a nice bonus.
在西班牙，你可以把吃饭当做是想要享受"餐后闲聊时光"时的借口。若有借口，就尽情去享受吧!何况西班牙的食物也是超美味的，不妨把美食当作额外的惊喜。
