I keep seeing this on cookery and travel programmes and I'm always surprised and mean to bring it up.

"Tiffin" being the Indian equivilant of the English "packed lunch" (or in our house "your bait")

Things that I find worthy of note -

1 The fact that all these high flying business men, and your average man in the working world prefer their wives/mothers cooking to anything else.

2 There hasn't been a massive push by any sort of "chain food" company that has taken over from it.

3 That the wives and mothers can continually make these meals presumably giving variable selections and a balanced diet. As well as coming up with things that will carry and store well. Not to mention keeping the home looked after and the kids dressed etc etc.

and

4 The "Tiffin Walla"? (or Dabbawalla?) the bloke that takes if from the house of the cook(the mother/wife) to the person eating (sometimes on foot, by bike, by train or a collection of all) These people are the backbone of society keeping it fed and on the move. How they manage to get it all done without any mistakes (and most of the programmes I've seen say they don't make any or have only made a couple in say 20 years) is unbelievable. Most of the modern companies/business in "more modernised" countries like the UK/USA couldn't work at that pace and not get it wrong (maybe they should look into how its all done and take a few tips).

Steve

Tiffin brings back memories :-)! Not only we took tiffin to school everyday, mum had 'Tiffin' carriers, made of brass originally and then stainless steel, which accompanied us on train journeys and picnics. I had a couple of different sized ones. My little one has now disappeared (!) but I still have one large tiffin, with 4 round boxes. We used to take it on picnics. They are very handy indeed. These TRiffin wallahs are really very bright people, just never ha da chance at education. They have excellen memories and never mix boxes and are seldom late. If you copy paste this; http://www.rokiutensils.com/others.html# , you will know what I mean. Now a days, they have insulated ones like this one; http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11329003/Insulated_Tiffin_Box.html which keep the food warm very well.

Mamta

To me tiffins remind me of long train journeys in India and picnics in both India and UK!

(Indians never did work out that picnics are best suited to a different set of dishes than you'd eat regularly so they just tiffins to take their regular hot food with them!)

Hello Kav

"Indians never did work out that picnics are best suited to a different set of dishes"

Actually we did, a very long time ago. The tiffins have plates under each section that are used as picnic plates. Then there are paper and leaf plates. The food is different from everyday food. Picnic food is not everyday food.It is Aloo puri or tahri (a rice dish), many snacks, fruits, usually soft drinks, eggs, whatever. Don't you remember, every time we talked about having a picnic, your father said he was only going if I made Aloo-poori! There are many other popular dishes that are taken on and Indian picnic, including hot ginger/cardamom tea. So there!

Mum

is the original Tiffin insulated like a flask or is it just a single skinned tin?

Picnic's now theres a thought.. imagine sitting in an English park with my grandkids and pulling out a fantastic array of rice, curries and chicken pieces...mmmm.....(its got to beat the sandy cheese sandwiches I remember when I was a young boy on Morecambe Sands...)

Steve

(another thought, imagine picnic'ing at the airport in the viewing section on the grass... what a day out for the little ones watching the giant planes and eating some fabulous food..... sorry I think I'm planning out loud... )

They used to be brass, with a sort of shiny tin coating inside, which had to be renewed every year. This stopped the acid in the food from reacting with brass and copper. A Polish wallah used to come round every few months to do shiny coating on the inside of all brass/copper utensils, because food turns green in brass things. He used a hole in the ground, bellows and charcoal to heat a stick of tin he carried with him. Then he polished the pots using a white powder to help spread the polish along. I have forgotten the names of exact ingredients, it might not have been tin, but it was fun watching him make all these dull looking pots nice and gleaming once again!

My older sister had this shape; http://www.conranusa.com/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=17327&cid=KitchenStorage&language=en-US

Look at these ones from malaysia, aren't they fabulous?http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/VINTAGE-GLAZED-PORCELAIN-FOOD-TIFFIN-CARRIER_W0QQitemZ170121678063QQihZ007QQcategoryZ355QQcmdZViewItem

My dad used to have an aluminium one, where there was room to put charcoal at the bottom, to help keep the food warm. Insulation came much later. Now a days, they can be quite sophisticated. In some places, they are dying out, because companies now keep microwaves in the office and many offices have canteens. However, there is nothing like home cooked food and most Indian still take food from home.

Mamta

Seems we are all too busy these days and many traditions die out... maybe this one will carry on just getting improved on...

Steve

No, ma, you're missing my point - all the picnics we did in India, whether on train or to some sandy river beach, were always mainly hot food as opposed to other countries where they tend to be food that is designed to work well cold.

The fact that some families might reserve some dishes to be made more commonly for these occasions (such as aloo poori) doesn't change the fact that the dishes are generally same kind of stuff as hot meals. Some kind of (heated) vegetable dishes, heated breads, etc. There were a few snacks but predominantly, everything was HOT.

I do remember the tiffin lids being used as plates etc.