“中午吃什么？”和“中午去哪兒吃？”大概是很多職場(chǎng)人士每天都會(huì)重復(fù)的兩句話。沒錯(cuò)，對(duì)于單位沒有食堂的職員們來說，午飯的確是個(gè)讓人頭疼的問題。以致于有人都患上“午飯恐懼癥”了。

Lunch phobia is a new buzzword widely spread on the Internet. Symptoms include: not knowing what to eat and not knowing who to eat with.
“午飯恐懼癥”是網(wǎng)絡(luò)盛行的流行詞匯之一，主要“癥狀”表現(xiàn)為：不知吃點(diǎn)什么好，更不知道該跟誰吃。

Many employees have to eat out for lunch because their companies don’t provide canteen services. “Where?” and “what?” become two of the most spoken words at the time. What’s more, some employees are not as social and spend most lunches eating alone. For them, lunch time is not interesting but a little embarrassing.
很多單位沒有食堂，員工需要在外面解決午飯。于是，“去哪里”和“吃什么”已經(jīng)成了很多人午飯時(shí)間的固定對(duì)白。另外，有些員工因?yàn)闊o法融入團(tuán)體，只能選擇在午飯時(shí)間單獨(dú)用餐。原本很期待的午休時(shí)間不再那么美好，甚至讓他們有些尷尬。

為了避免“午飯恐懼癥”，首先，我們要找一些“飯友”。

一般來說，只要有寫字樓的地方，周邊就會(huì)有很多餐館，而且不論菜品好壞，到了午飯時(shí)間，公司白領(lǐng)們都會(huì)三五成群地前去捧場(chǎng)。我們管這些結(jié)伴一起吃飯的人就叫做 “飯友”或“飯搭子”，更可愛一點(diǎn)的說法是“飯飯小組”，英文叫meal pal。

This term, meal pal, refers to office workers who lunch together during work days. Many white-collar workers are seeking lunch pals via the Internet to share high prices as well as the delicious dishes in nearby restaurants.
飯友（meal pal）指上班的時(shí)候一起吃午飯的公司職員?，F(xiàn)在，很多白領(lǐng)都通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)尋找飯友，這樣不但可以分擔(dān)高額的午餐消費(fèi)，而且還可以共享公司周邊的美食。

For example:

That Thailand restaurant is great, it's my meal pals' favorite.
那家泰國(guó)餐館很棒，是我那些飯友們最喜歡的一家餐館。

上個(gè)世紀(jì)特別流行的一種交友方式“筆友”在英文里是pen pal，這里的meal pal估計(jì)就是由此類推出來的吧。

如果外面的飯不合胃口，又找不到人一起吃飯，不如自己勤快一點(diǎn)，每天帶飯上班吧。看看網(wǎng)友們分享的各種午餐照片，已經(jīng)開始流口水了。

 

（中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 Helen）