Tiffin
| Part of a series on |
| Meals |
|---|
 |
| Common meals |
| Components and courses |
| Related concepts |
Tiffin is lunch, or any light meal. It originated in British India, and is today found primarily in Indian English.[1] The word originated when Indian custom superseded the British practice of an afternoon tea, leading to a new word for the afternoon meal.[1] It is derived from the obsolete English slang tiffing, for "taking a little drink or sip".[2] When used for "lunch", it is not necessarily a light meal.[3]:88
In South India and in Nepal, the term is generally used for between-meals snacks: dosas, idlis, etc.[4] In other parts of India, such as Mumbai, the word mostly refers to a packed lunch of some sort, in particular to light lunches prepared for working Indian men by their wives after they have left for work, or for schoolchildren by their parents.[5] In Mumbai, it is often forwarded to them by dabbawalas, sometimes known as tiffin wallahs, who use a complex system to get thousands of tiffin-boxes to their destinations.[6]
Tiffin often consists of rice, dal, curry, vegetables, chapatis or "spicy meats".[3]
In addition, the lunch boxes are themselves called tiffin carriers, tiffin-boxes or just tiffins.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b Michael Quinion, World Wide Words: TIFFIN
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, tiffin
- ^ a b Sarah Murray (2008). Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat (illustrated ed.). Macmillan. pp. 85–108. ISBN 978-0-312-42814-3.
- ^ Martin Hughes; Sheema Mookherjee; Richard Delacy (2001). India (illustrated ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-86450-328-9.
- ^ The Guardian. A Bombay lunchbox (June 24, 2002).
- ^ "Bombay's amazing dabbawalas". Archived from the original on 2008-02-09.
External links [edit]
 |
Look up tiffin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
 |
This Indian cuisine–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
