Paper Palate

The tiffinwalla system of Mubmai (and many other cities in India) has fascinated me ever since a couple friends of mine worked there for a few weeks. They didn’t get a daily tiffin (a light lunch, Indian style) like rest of the office since they had no one at home to cook for them, though some kindly officemates did get their wives/daughters to make some extra lunch a few times so they were not totally left out. They told me about the famously efficient (an error only occurs once in every 8 million transactions as highlighted by Forbes Magazine in an article published in 1998 and quoted time and time again) tiffinwallas deliver the tin canisters filled with delicious, healthy and varied foods from the homes of these office workers straight to the office. The food was still hot when it got there.

I love this idea and was so pleased to see Shivani Vora cover it in this week’s NY Times Dining Section specifically delving into the demand that exists in the States and the attempts to meet said demand. There are a few ex pats here trying to mock the tiffinawalla system of India. Regretably, though, there is no concrete reference to any tiffin-like service here in New York City (although San Francisco’s Annadaata sounds incredible) and actually very few elsewhere. I did my own research online to see if I could find anything that Vora may have missed but came up pretty empty-handed; the one reference I could find to a man who made and delivered tiffins in NYC included a non-working phone number and that was it. No tiffins will be delivered to my door.

What I find really interesting, though, is just this: that the tiffinwalla system doesn’t really exist in the States despite various tries. Vora can only scrounge up one solid reference to a woman who runs a tiffin business, the aforementioned Annadaata, and I’m sure it wasn’t for lack of trying. Further, there is mention of a few other people who have tried at it and failed. The problem, I think, is that the entire system is reliant on a family cook, someone willing to wake up at 5am or 6am to begin the chore of churning out a hot and somewhat involved meal five to six days a week. Therein lies the beauty of the system. The cook only has to deal with a few meals. The scale of production is tiny, which is probably part of what accounts for Indians rabid love of their tiffins. Someone they care about who cares about them took the time to carefully prepare their meal of the day, paying strict attention to the dietary constraints, which often times are many, likes and dislikes of that person. In trying to up the scale of production (as small companies trying to mock the system seem to be doing here), you’re going to have to lose exactly that. ANd here in the US, who is going to take the time to wake up and cook a big, hot meal? Most families now rely on two working parents…who’s going to take one for the team and get up at 4am to slave away at the stove, especially when you know that there’s a fast food place down the street from the office? Most likely, its just not going to happen

That said, the fact that there are people trying to set up shop to mimic the basic idea of the tiffin is an honerable one. Indians value the healthiness of their tiffins as well as the variety they provide. Moreover, its a taste of home, and who can resist that. So carry on, I say! Keep at it! Bring on the bastardized tiffin!