# 夕食を兼ねて料理を食べた



## mdbvma

"大山らと菊水料理に夕食を食べにいったが、軍人、軍属の外には出入り禁止だというので支那街に出て夕食を兼ねて料理を食べた。"

Could someone please explain to me the meaning of this sentence? What does "夕食を兼ねて料理を食べた" mean in English in this context? It's from the diary of a Korean man working in World War II in Singapore and Burma.


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## wind-sky-wind

Strictly speaking, it's not appropriate to use "...を兼ねて" in this context.
I understand what he meant, though.
He just meant "... ate some food for dinner," regardless of what "...を兼ねて" means.


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## mdbvma

Thank you.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

The sentence itself doesn't make sense.
I need the previous sentence or sentences in order to make sense.
Could you show it (them) to me?

Are there any time description when they took the dinner?


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## mdbvma

Unfortunately no. It's a quote from a diary entry from a book, so there are no other sentences to provide context.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Fortunately the mighty Google shows us everything. 
I found the context.

file:///C:/Users/tomita/Downloads/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%BB%8D%E6%85%B0%E5%AE%89%E6%89%80%E7%AE%A1%EF%A7%A4%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%AE%E6%97%A5%E8%A8%98.pdf


According to the reference, it's a Japanese translation of a diary written in Korean.
I believe the translation was not proper or the writer intentionally skipped something.
If you have questions about that translation, you may ask the writer through email.

I personally think that the presumed corrected version of the sentence might be;
"大山らと菊水料理に夕食を食べにいったが、軍人、軍属の外には出入り禁止だというので夕食を兼ねて支那街に出かけて、そこで料理を食べ(慰安婦を抱い）た。"

Of course, it is merely my guess, but my interpretation is an answer why 兼ねる was used in this context.
If 支那街 was very popular with the prostitution,  the abbreviation of the direct mention for the prostitution might be reasonable, although I don't know at all about 志那街.


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## wind-sky-wind

OK, I understood this "兼ねて."
They usually ate dinner at "菊水料理店," but that time, they couldn't, so went to "支那街."
They could have a light meal there, but then there was no other way, so they ate the food that also served as dinner.
Partly, they might not have eaten lunch yet.


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## frequency

うわ今日は忙しいな。

md, they ate something (料理） and that 料理 was good timing for their dinner. I mean they ate it around 6 pm or 7 pm, so it well worked as dinner for them lol. I'm serious.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

もしオリジナルの文章が
『大山らと菊水料理に*昼食（またはおやつ？）*を食べにいったが、軍人、軍属の外には出入り禁止だというので支那街に出て*（遅くなってしまったので）*夕食を兼ねて料理を食べた。』
であれば＃８の解釈で何ら問題はないと思います。
でも『菊水料理に夕食を食べにいったが』とかかれているのに、後半の文章に再び”『夕食』を兼ねて”と出てくるのは解せない感じがします。


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## SoLaTiDoberman

#7の解釈は納得できました。

"菊水料理店"　は「夕食」と呼ぶにふさわしい本格的な料理を提供してくれる料理店であるが、その一方、"支那街"は、例えば縁日の屋台のたこ焼きとか、いか焼き、とかいうふうな、きちんとした食事とは呼べないような、粗末な、腹の足しにもならないような『軽食』にしかありつけないような場所である、という背景が行間に隠れている、というわけですね。

"大山らと菊水料理に*（本格的な）夕食*を食べにいったが、軍人、軍属の外には出入り禁止だというので（仕方なしに）支那街に出て*夕食を兼ねて（粗末な）料理*を食べた。"

この場合の『夕食を兼ねて』は『夕食として』とほぼ同義語でありますが、『夕食としては役不足の感は否めないがそれでも夕食として』というニュアンスがあると思います。

We ate the （junk） food *as the dinner, even though it didn't seem to be worth for a dinner.*


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