Marian Bechtel sits at West Palm Beach’s Bar Louie counter by herself, quietly reading her e-book as she waits for her salad. What is she reading? None of your business! Lunch is Bechtel’s “me” time. And like more Americans, she’s not alone.

A new report found 46 percent of meals are eaten alone in America. More than half(53 percent) have breakfast alone and nearly half(46 percent) have lunch by themselves. Only at dinnertime are we eating together anymore, 74 percent, according to statistics from the report.

“I prefer to go out and be out. Alone, but together, you know?” Bechtel said, looking up from her book. Bechtel, who works in downtown West Palm Beach, has lunch with coworkers sometimes, but like many of us, too often works through lunch at her desk. A lunchtime escape allows her to keep a boss from tapping her on the shoulder. She returns to work feeling energized. “Today, I just wanted some time to myself,” she said.

Just two seats over, Andrew Mazoleny, a local videographer, is finishing his lunch at the bar. He likes that he can sit and check his phone in peace or chat up the barkeeper with whom he’s on a first-name basis if he wants to have a little interaction(交流). “I reflect on how my day’s gone and think about the rest of the week,” he said. “It’s a chance for self-reflection. You return to work recharged and with a plan.”

That freedom to choose is one reason more people like to eat alone. There was a time when people may have felt awkward about asking for a table for one, but those days are over. Now, we have our smartphones to keep us company at the table. “It doesn’t feel as alone as it may have before all the advances in technology,” said Laurie Demeritt, whose company provided the statistics for the report.

While coffee is the morning drink for many Americans, many Brits prefer to go for a cup of tea. You won't often see us carrying white cups of coffee across the street during rush hour. Instead, we sip (饮；喝) tea at home, a tradition that starts the day properly.

In my home and many other homes in the UK, the first person to wake up has to make the cups of tea for the family.

Tea has become part of our culture and one of popular stereotypes (模式化形象) about British people is that they often have afternoon tea with sandwiches and cakes.

In reality, tea is a drink British people can have any time of the day to help them wake up, warm up, or relax.

When I first came to China and ordered tea, I was in for a big surprise and was introduced to a whole new world of tea. In the UK, it is common to drink black tea, which is imported from Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. It is very strong and bitter, a taste which British people don't often enjoy, so people often add milk and sugar to create a sweeter, less strong flavor.

In China, however, there are wider ranges of tea available and each is enjoyed without adding anything. There is no tea bag, and certainly no milk or sugar, in these beverages (饮料). And people love it. However, for someone who is used to tea being sweet, it takes some time to get used to tea without sugar and milk.

While black tea is still the most popular, green tea has been getting more popular in the UK because people are becoming more aware (意识到的) of its health benefits. But the tradition of the tea bag is still going—it's harder for us to have loose tea leaves than to give up sugar and milk when drinking green tea.

The baguette, a long, thin French bread, is being added to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. UNESCO experts gathering in Morocco this week decided that the simple French bread—made only of flour, water, salt, and yeast—was worth U.N. recognition, after France’s culture ministry warned of a “continuous drop” in the number of traditional bakeries(烘焙坊), with some 400 closing every year over the past half century.

The UN cultural agency’s chief, Audrey Azoulay said, “the decision honors more than just bread; it recognizes the ‘graceful skills of bakers’ and ‘a daily ritual (仪式)’.” Azoulay added, “It is important that such baking knowledge and social practices can continue to exist in the future.”

With the bread’s new status (地位), the French government said it planned to create a baguette day, called the “Open Bakehouse Day”, to connect the French better with their heritage. Bakers in France seemed proud, if unsurprised. “Of course, it should be on the list because the baguette symbolizes the world. It’s universal,” said Asma Farhat, a baker at Julien’s Bakery. “If there’s no baguette, you can’t have a proper meal. In the morning you can toast it, for lunch it’s a sandwich, and then it accompanies dinner.”

Despite the decline in traditional bakery numbers, France’s 67 million people still buy baguettes at a variety of sales points, including in supermarkets. According to France’s “Bread Observatory”, the French eat 320 baguettes of one form or another every second. The problem is, observers say, that they can often be poor in quality. “It’s very easy to get bad baguette in France. It’s the traditional baguette from the traditional bakery that is in danger. It’s about quality not quantity,” said one local resident, Marine Fourchier.