The Tiffin Lunch Box

Forget about brown bagging it! Bring a fantastic meal with you in a tiffin! Why waste paper and plastic to bring a lunch to the office or school? Re-usable food containers such as the tiffin are environmentally friendly, and stylish to boot.

The tiffin lunch box is a stacking stainless steel food container which has been used for years in India to bring healthy and delicious home-cooked meals to millions of businessmen and office workers across the country. The tiffin lunch box is similar to the Japanese bento box which has enjoyed wide-spread popularity throughout the world in recent years.

I love packing lunch in a bento box, but when I'm in the mood for a heartier meal, or one that includes stews or soups, the Indian tiffin lunch box is my top choice. Tiffin lunch boxes are available in a wide variety of sizes and shapes suited to pack a lunch for one, or a picnic for the entire family! The tiffin keeps everything organized, cleans up easily in the dishwasher, and won't hold stains or odors like yucky plastic containers.

Thanks to psd on flickr for sharing this photo, CC licensing.

Tiffins are a stylish options for bringing an eco friendly lunch with you wherever you may be headed. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of yours...

• The top tier in the tiffin is the least likely to leak. If you are packing soup in your tiffin, you should try to put it on the top.
• In an insulated tiffin, hot food will stay hot for several hours. If you typically pack a lunch that needs to be kept warm, an insulated tiffin will work the best for your needs.
• To keep cold food cold in a tiffin, fill the lower tier with ice cubes or reusable ice packs, and your salad will stay crisp and cool until lunch time rolls around.
• Keep the tiffin upright! I have had very little trouble with liquids leaking, but if you toss it in a backpack on its side, full of soup, well, that could get messy!

These cookbooks are a great source for recipes for your tiifin lunchbox. Sometimes a little inspiration is all I need to get out of a lunchtime rut.

There is a website that I found that carries some really neat tiffin lunch boxes and tiffin sets called Happy Tiffin

The following videos demonstrate a few of the products that they sell. The big pyramidal tiffin is unlike any others that I have seen for sale. How about bringing one of those on your next picnic?

The large pyramid tiffin in the video holds an enormous amount of food! I think it's really nice how each tier of the tiffin has a lid which can double as a plate.

Traditionally, tiffins are not insulated, but I have recently stumbled across a variety of new designs that are coming onto the market. I especially love the double walled stainless steel tiffins because they keep hot food hot for several hours...

The Dabawallas in India deliver over 200,000 tiffin lunches everyday, with an error rate of less than one in a million!

Considering that most of the workers in the cooperative are illiterate, it's absolutely amazing what fantastic service they provide. The cost? About $5 USD per month.