Here's a great way to stack up your snacks and hit the road: the backyard, the roof, your local swimming hole, or for us New Yorkers -- tonight's Philharmonic in Central Park.
Ours is from the UK's Habitat, but they are also available here in the US from Pearl River ($27.50 - $35.50).
We're not sure what these colorful convenient food carriers are called. Some just call them lunch boxes, Pearl River calls them "tiffins." Do you know another name for these?
That's a tiffin, alright, albeit a plastic one.
view Nora Rocket's profile
the metal ones at Pearl River cost less; does anyone know if there is an advantage to plastic over metal?
view Eliza's profile
In my experience metal always ends up corroded... yuk. In this case I'd do plastic and only clean on the top dishwasher rack so as not to melt or mis-shape my bits and pieces. :)
view Alice's profile
I just saw a red / blue metal version of this at a Cost Plus. It didn't seem very durable, but it was really cool looking.
view gardenjen1234's profile
It's a bento box!
view marshmallowfreya's profile
Cute idea, but these are made of melamine, which was the ingredient in tainted pet food that caused thousands of beloved pets to die. I'm just sayin'...
view poopmama's profile
That is most definitely a tiffin box or tiffin carrier. The traditional ones in India are made of stainless steel. My aunt packs my uncle's lunch in one of these every day.
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Asia/India/photo36124.htm
view smallfrog's profile
Definitely not a bento box, which is Japanese, but a Tiffin which is the Indian equivalent. The cylindrical stacking shape is the key difference.
From Wikipedia:
In other areas like Mumbai... The lunches are packed in steel or tin boxes, also sometimes called tiffins or tiffin-boxes. A common approach is to put rice in one box, dal in another and yet other items in the third or fourth. The other items could be breads, such as naan, vegetable curry and finally a sweet. This system delivers thousands of meals a day and does not use any documents as many Dabbawalas are illiterate. It has been claimed that the tiffin delivery system of Mumbai is so efficient that there is only one mistake for every million deliveries.
view hhaller's profile
I grew up in Manila and we called these stainless steel carriers -- "piyambrera" -- from the Spanish "fiambrera" or lunch box. And like in much of the Asian countries that use these tiffin carriers, the rice goes in bottom container, the stew or main dish in the middle, and the veggies in the third. Our version had a small plate on top where we put the fish sauce.
view LaHaya's profile
Even Tupperware has a version of these now!
http://order.tupperware.com/coe/app/tup_show_item.show_item_detail?fv_item_category_code=21808
view Catew's profile