“I know when to go out, and when to stay in…,” English rock star David Bowie once confidently sang in his hit single Modern Love. However, when it comes to matters of dining, the decision claimed (声称) by the singer-songwriter is more confusing than one can hope for. As for me, I agree that it is better to dine out than to stay in and order home delivery.

To begin, dining out is not simply the act of leaving our house and eating outside of it. When we set foot in a restaurant, we are immediately greeted not only by a server ready to seat us, but also by a flooding of senses. In other words, to dine out is to experience an atmosphere, one that is unique to each café and restaurant. Besides, going out for a meal can be a break from the hard boring work of domestic (家务) living. We could take it as an opportunity for self-care-a chance to treat ourselves by dressing up and arriving in style at a fancy restaurant.

Some food delivery app users would reason that it is too much of a hassle (麻烦) to dress up and go out to eat, and that it is much more convenient to dine at home. However, it is worth noting that we may not always receive our food in the most satisfactory condition when choosing home delivery. There is the risk of receiving food orders with missing items or even entirely wrong orders that cannot be sent back. Consequently, it might make more sense to make the trip out to dine out, rather than risk disappointment by ordering home delivery.

All in all, dining out can be a breath of fresh air to step outside the four walls of the house every once in a while and reap the many benefits of patronizing (光顾) a dining place.

The secret to eating less and being happy about it may have been found years ago — by McDonald’s. According to a new study from Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, small non-food rewards — like the toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals — stimulate the same reward centers in the brain as food does.

The researchers, led by Martin Reimann, carried out a series of experiments to see if people would choose a smaller meal if it was paired with a non-food item.

They found that the majority of both kids and adults chose a half-sized portion when combined with a prize. Both options were priced the same.

Even more interesting is that the promise of a future reward was enough to make adults choose the smaller portion. One of the prizes used was a lottery ticket (彩票), with a $10, $ 50 or $100 payout, and this was as effective as a tangible gift in persuading people to eat less.

“The fact that participants were willing to substitute part of a food item for the mere prospect of a relatively small monetary award is interesting,” says Reimann. “One explanation for this finding is that possible awards may be more emotionally inspiring than certainty awards. The uncertainty of winning provides added attraction and desirability through emotional ‘thrills’. The possibility of receiving an award also produces a state of hope — a state that is in itself psychologically rewarding.” In other words, there’s a reason why people like to gamble.

How might this knowledge be used to help people eat more healthily?

One possibility is a healthy option that offers the chance to win a spa weekend. Or maybe the reward of a half-sized portion could be a half-sized dessert to be claimed only on a future date. That would get you back in the restaurant — and make you eat a little less.

Cooking Robots Are Gaining Public Attention

The smart restaurant at the Main Media Center of Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games was once a hot topic during the 2022 Winter Olympics, attracting much attention online. In this restaurant, there was no chef or waiter to serve dishes. Chinese food, western food and cocktail were all prepared by robots. Customers could scan the QR code on the dining table to order, and the dishes would be transported to the table through the cloud rail system above, and then the cable would be lowered to put the dishes in front of the customer. Many Chinese and foreign journalists came to take pictures and videos of the process. Some videos shot by foreign journalists have gone viral on the Internet, making viewers around the world terribly amazed.

Yan Weixin, doctoral supervisor and associate researcher of the Robotics Institute, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, has been developing Chinese cuisine-cooking robots for over 17 years, and has developed more than 60 catering service robots. “Intelligent robot technology can operate according to a standardized Chinese food cooking process, which I believe has a promising prospect in application,” said Yan Weixin.

It’s quite accidental for Yan to start studying cooking robots. When he was choosing his doctoral research project in 2005, the one that he had planned to take was chosen by someone else. Yan’s supervisor made a joke in his office that an overweight man may be suitable for the development of cooking robots. Thanks to his words, by now, Yan has developed more than 60 catering service robots, including four types of functional components: pots and pans, other tools, firepower controllers and feeding tools, and has been granted nearly 30 patents.

Since the advent, these Chinese cuisine cooking robots have been soon used in restaurants and canteens, showing prominent advantages in using standardized cooking process, lowering labor costs, and reducing food safety risks through unmanned operation. And robots also help to inherit and spread Chinese cooking culture. “We have worked with a number of culinary masters to record their use of cooking ingredients and heat control, turn it into standardized recipes and then input them into the robot control systems so as to reproduce the culinary skills of the masters,” said Yan.

To the delight of this robot expert, a take-out company recently came to him to negotiate about cooperation in developing a series of special cooking robots so as to improve the cooking efficiency and reduce the labor costs. In the foreseeable future, the standardized Chinese food cooked by robots may reach thousands of households through take-out.