Showing posts with label tiffin box. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tiffin box. Show all posts

Friday, July 11, 2014

Lunch Box




A couple of months ago I saw this lovely unbollywood Indian movie called 'Lunchbox'. In the movie lunchbox is used as a plot device to explore themes of love and longing and is set in present day Mumbai. South Indians call it "Tiffin Carrier" and the movie evoked nostalgic memories of my mother packing more than one tiffin carrier with food for our long trains trips from Delhi to Chennai. Back then, we rarely ate food made outside of home and on long journeys, except for coffee, all the food was made at home and carried in these big tiffin boxes. Food spoilage was minimized by only making those foods that could withstand two days of train travel. 

In those days, Every South Indian household had such a tiffin carrier and my mother gave me one when I got married. I brought it all the way to the US and even used it the first few years when we took long road trips. After awhile I stopped using the tall one but ended up with several smaller ones, that I now use to take lunch to work. Somehow, I never took to using plastic containers. 

Here is my collection. I am kind of proud of it.

If you look closely you will find my initials inscribed on the side









Thanks for visiting.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Tiffin Carrier or Bento?



In Tamilnadu, it is called a tiffin carrier, stack of containers used for packing lunch (typically rice, vegetables, yogurt etc). They are called "dabba" in Bombay and bento in Korea.

I asked my husband to get me one when he was visiting his family in Chennai last week. He got me three!