In Metro Vancouver, the key to beating inflation, staying well-fed and feeling culturally connected might just a tiffin arriving at your doorstep. Tiffin service, which has a storied history in India, is an affordable alternative to grocery stores and has a distinct advantage over subscription meal kits: You don’t need to cook a thing. In Mumbai, 200,000 dabbas, or metal lunch boxes, are delivered every day by dabbawalas wearing a traditional white uniform and Gandhi cap. They pick up the three-tier containers from home kitchens, and deliver them throughout the city using an efficient network connecting families and home-cooked food. Think DoorDash, but cooler, one fan of the dabbawala tradition noted on social media. If you subscribe to one of the Lower Mainland’s tiffin services, your daily “tiffin box” will most likely come in a paper bag, but just like in India it will be loaded with homestyle curries, cardamom-scented rice, fresh roti, naan or paratha, and maybe dal and raita — at prices ranging from $7 to $12 a meal. Gary Sidhu, who runs a bustling tiffin service from his Gastown Indian fusion restaurant, Silk Lounge, estimates there are 20,000 tiffins going out every day in the Lower Mainland from various providers, some from cottage industries, others from professional kitchens like his. Although nowhere near the 200,000 meals Mumbai’s dabbawalas deliver in that city every day, it’s a significant number. Sidhu offers tiffins in returnable metal containers, but most clients prefer the recyclable option. “It’s just too much work for most people to rinse and clean them before returning them,” said Sidhu, who sends out 500 to 600 tiffin deliveries daily in downtown Vancouver. Like most tiffin services, delivery is included in the price — it’s no wonder tiffin service has become a full-blown trend in the Lower Mainland.
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