For Busy Tech Workers, A Healthy Meal in a Glass
忙碌科技族 喝的健康餐
By Brian X. Chen

SAN FRANCISCO – Every night, Aaron Melocik, a software developer, follows a precise food routine. He blends together about 2 liters of water, 50 milliliters of macadamia nut oil and a 450-gram bag of powder called Schmoylent. Then he pours the beige beverage into jars and chills them before bringing the containers to work the next day at Metrodigi, a technology start-up.
每晚，軟體開發員艾隆．梅洛契克會嚴格執行一件有關飲食的例行公事。他將約2公升的水、50毫升的夏威夷豆油和一袋450公克的Schmoylent粉末攪拌在一起。接著他將淡棕色的飲料倒進罐中冷藏，第二天帶著這些容器到科技新興公司「都市數位」上班。

From 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., he sips from one jar for breakfast, and another for lunch. “It just removes food completely from my morning equation up until about 7 p.m.,” said Mr. Melocik, 34.
從上午6點半到下午3點半，他喝了第一罐當早餐，第二罐當午餐。34歲的梅洛契克說：「我上午的作息可以完全不用吃飯了，直到晚上7點。」

Boom times in Silicon Valley call for hard work, and hard work – at least in technology land – means that coders, engineers and venture capitalists are turning to liquid meals with names like Schmoylent, Soylent, Schmilk and People Chow. The protein-packed products that come in powder form are inexpensive and quick and easy to make – just shake with water, or in the case of Schmilk, milk.
身處繁榮年代的矽谷必須辛勤工作，而辛勤工作，至少在科技領域，意謂程式設計員、工程師、創投家正逐漸改吃像Schmoylent、Soylent、Schmilk和PeopleChow這樣的液體食物。這些富含蛋白質的食品是粉狀，便宜而且做起來又快又簡單，只需加水搖一搖。Schmilk則是加牛奶。

Demand for some of the powdered drinks, which typically mix nutrients like magnesium, zinc and vitamins, is so high that some engineers report being put on waiting lists of one to six months to receive their first orders. Venture capitalists have also poured money into the companies that offer the meal replacements, and investors including Alexis Ohanian, a founder of Reddit, can online forum, count themselves as fans of the drinks.
這些粉狀飲料通常加了鎂、鋅、維生素等營養素，有些產品需求量太大，以致有工程師說得等1到6個月才能收到第一批訂貨。創投家也開始將錢投入這些生產代餐食品的公司，包括Reddit創辦人艾列克西斯．歐哈尼恩在內的一些投資人都說，自己是這種飲料的粉絲。

“My dream in an ideal scenario would be if I could just pick up some at the airport, pre-made in the refrigerator section,” said Mr. Ohanian, who invested in Soylent and treats the drink as a fallback meal.
投資Soylent，把這種飲料當備份餐食的歐哈尼恩說：「我夢想的一個理想場景是，我在機場可隨手買到已預做好，擺在冰櫥區的這種飲料。」

The rise of the meal replacements mirrors Silicon Valley’s start-up froth – and includes a dose of confidence. The makers said their drinks were better than the powders that had been around for years, because those tended to have lots of sugar and overemphasized the use of protein. In contrast, Soylent and Schmoylent are both blends of nutrients that would allow one to drink only those meals and live a healthy life, they said.
代餐飲料崛起反映矽谷新興公司的泡沫，其中還摻雜了一絲自信。生產商表示，他們的粉末比已存在多年的粉末好，因為那些粉末糖分太多，且過度強調蛋白質的使用。他們表示，相較之下Soylent和Schmoylent都是營養素的混合物，人們只需要靠代餐飲料就能活得健康。

Rob Rhinehart, a software engineer, said he came up with the idea for Soylent in 2013 while working long hours at a wireless communications company and realizing he was eating poorly. So he founded Soylent, based in Los Angeles, that year and gained more than $3 million in funding from the crowdsourcing site Tilt.
軟體工程師羅伯．萊恩哈特說，2013年他在無線通訊公司工作，工時長且發現自己吃得很差，靈機一動，他想到生產Soylent。因此他在洛杉磯設立 Soylent，那一年，他還從群眾外包網站Tilt募集到逾300萬美元資金。

Orders took off quickly. The company said it had shipped more than the equivalent of six million “meals” across the United States. Mr. Rhinehart declined to share financial details but said his company was shipping “at the kiloton scale” each quarter and had attracted $24.5 million in financing.
訂單快速增加。該公司表示已在全美運交相當於逾600萬「餐」的代餐粉末。萊恩哈特拒絕透露財務細節，但表示公司出貨每季以「千噸計」，且已吸引2,450萬美元投資。

Soylent, Schmilk and some others typically taste like bland, gritty pancake batter. But while a meal generally costs upward of $50 at Silicon Valley-area restaurants, a week’s worth of Soylent or Schmoylent totals $85.
Soylent、Schmilk和一些其他產品，一般嚐起來有點像味道平淡、有顆粒的煎餅麵糊。但在矽谷餐廳吃頓飯，花費通常超過50美元，Soylent或Schmoylent一周量只要85美元。

When Pulak Mittal started working at the tech start-up Clever this year, the company let his colleagues know he was an avid Soylent user. Soon after, Mr. Mittal said, some co-workers approached him to ask whether they could try some. Still the new drinks are acquired tastes.
普拉克．米塔爾今年開始在科技新興公司「智慧」上班時，公司讓同事知道他是Soylent的愛用者。米塔爾說，很快就有一些同事找上他，問到是否能試喝。不過，這些新飲料的口味要喝得慣才行。

“I am getting sick of the taste,” Dan Sparks, a co-worker, recently told Mr. Mittal. “I am thinking I’ll have to start flavoring it.”
同事丹．史帕克斯最近告訴米塔爾說：「我已經開始厭煩它的口味了，我在想得開始調調它的味道了。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/25/technology/in-busy-silicon-valley-protein-powder-is-in-demand.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://m.cn.nytimes.com/living/20150527/t27schmilk/zh-hant/

2015-06-16聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報八版下