This thread reminded me of tiffin wallahs. A tiffin wallah, or dabbawala, is a person who collects home-prepared lunches in a dabba, or ‘tiffin box’, from residences and delivers it office workers.
In the U.S. people bring lunch or go to a café/bistro/restaurant/fast-food place/whatever, or go without; and it seems to me that dual-income households are the norm, rather than one partner or the other staying home.
But suppose you A) have a significant other, B) do not work outside of the home, and C) lived in an area with sufficient population density (e.g., a big city that’s not too spread out), would you use a dabbawala/tiffin wallah?
For me, the conditions do not apply. I’m single and live alone, I’m employed, and I don’t live in the city where I work. But I wouldn’t mind cooking lunch for an SO and paying a small fee to have it delivered to her, nor would I mind a home-cooked lunch at the office in the opposite situation.
Oh, my. As soon as I saw the thread title I was reminded of the tiffin wallahs in India. You made me miss it so much.
In India, they bring you these metal tins, that stack on top of each other, and then the whole thing clasps shut, so you essentially have this cylinder. There’s rotis, and dahl, and a veggie, and maybe some raita or something sweet…I don’t know if they go to your home to pick it up. The only ones I ever heard of are like a delivery restaurant.
They actually will pick up food from your place and deliver it to you. If you don’t have anyone cooking for you at home, you can engage a caterer to prepare the food for you. The Tiffinwala (known as Dabbawala locally) will pick it up from the caterer.
The whole setup is fascinating and the error rate is virtually minimal. Hit the Wiki link for more info.
-maleinblack (used to live in Bombay for 24 years)
They sell little stacking towers of those tiffin tins at my local Cost Plus World Market, and they fascinate me. I’d like to buy and use them, but I already have enough food container tchotchkes cluttering up my kitchen. But I like them.
FYI, this was an article in the New York Times about a similar service in the US; Indian meals prepared and delivered to the office. The article mentions that this is available in the Bay Area, Manhattan and Redmond, Washington.
Neat. Never heard of such a thing here in the US. The working partner would presumably just grab the lunch as he/she went out the door, and would microwave it at the office at lunch time. I don’t see the usefulness in someone running by my house, picking up the lunch my spouse made for me, and bringing it to my office.
I’d totally use the service. I’ve got some tiffin-cases, which I sometimes pack in the morning and send off with my sweetie, but he’s repeatedly complained that everything’s cold by lunchtime, and because it’s metal, it can’t be microwaved.
If my SO would cook me a nice, Indian meal every day - sure! Unfortunately I do most of the cooking in the household so it’s more wishful thinking than something waiting to happen…
I’ve heard of this service, and I’ve never understood it’s usefulness.
Sure, it would be nice to have my lunch delivered to the office, but based on the
reports/documentaries I’ve seen, the lunches leave home not much later then
the worker does. Why not just carry your own lunch.
(I am very impressed by the accuracy/ontime records though. Our drycleaner needs to talk to these guys.)