食物成“浮雲” 科學家發明吸入式食物機

A restaurant in Paris is offering flavours that you can inhale, instead of tasting them physically.

The act of breathing in flavours is known as 'whaffing,' which is being predicted as a futuristic way of eating.

A contraption that resembles a goldfish bowl, called LeWhaf, is wafting smoke of lemon tart flavour, which is being sampled by a food expert.

She says the lemon tart is zingy and fresh. Next, a whaf of tarte tatin fills her mouth with caramel, the Daily Mail reports.

This invention is the brainchild of a Harvard University professor and aerosol scientist David Edwards, aged 49 years.

Imagine a restaurant where, instead of sitting at a table, you walk around, he says.

Instead of eating food, you're breathing it in as you walk from room to room, each with a different flavour. Celery in one. Steak in another. Then pate.

Edwards is adamant that this smoky little bowl will go on sale in France this autumn for less than 85 pounds and quickly catch on around the world.

You can even use it to whaf alcohol. Drinks with strong flavours such as whiskeys work well, explains Edwards. To make it work, you have to pour 50 ml of the drink you want to whaf into a well in the base.

Whaffing food is more complicated. If you want, say, tomato soup, you need to buy a specially-prepared liquidised version of the dish made by Edwards's team, which contains a secret mix of its 'essences'.

To make the machine work, just press the 'on' switch. Within a minute, a cloud of tiny droplets forms in the goldfish bowl.

The cloud can be dispensed from a nozzle on the side of Le Whaf. It then stays suspended inside the glass for a minute before it sinks.

巴黎一家餐廳新近推出“吸入式食物”，食客不用動口就能品嚐美食。

據預計，被稱爲“吸食”的吸入法將成爲未來的進食方式。

這種被稱爲LeWhaf的吸入式食物機形似一個魚缸。一位食品專家用這臺裝置進行了現場展示，食物機向外噴吐出“浮雲”版的檸檬餡餅。

據英國《每日郵報》報道，體驗者表示，檸檬餡餅美味新鮮，緊接着，一股烤焦糖蘋果派的香氣吸入嘴裏。

這款裝置的發明者是哈佛大學氣溶膠產品教授大衛•愛德華茲，現年49歲。

他說，假設有這樣一個餐廳，人們都不必坐在餐桌前，而是隨便走走就能享用美食。

無需碗筷，你只要在滋味各異的房間轉轉，就能吸入美食。比如芹菜室，牛排室，還有肉醬室。

愛德華茲堅信，這種吸入式食物機今年秋天將在法國上市，售價低於85英鎊，並將迅速風靡全球。

愛德華茲解釋稱，這款裝置還可以用來飲酒，威士忌等味道濃烈的飲品效果更佳。在使用時，需要在底部容器內倒入50毫升飲品。

吸入食物的步驟要複雜些。如果想吸入番茄湯，需要購買一個由愛德華茲的研究小組特製的液體食品碟，裏面含有祕製“香精”。

只需按下開關，吸入式食物機就開工了。不到一分鐘，魚缸形的容器內就飄出嫋嫋煙氣。

食客可以在食物機一側用噴嘴吸食。煙氣可以在玻璃容器內懸浮一分鐘之久纔會下沉。

Vocabulary:

zingy: full of zing; lively; zesty; exciting（使愉快而激動的，極漂亮的）

tarte tatin: 法式反扣焦糖蘋果派

brainchild: a product of one's creative work or thought（主意，發明）

adamant: utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc.（堅決的，堅定不移的）