Todays trivia is all about Tiffin, or more specifically the word Tiffin.
The word is defined in the dictionary as being synonymous with lunch, or the eating of lunch. Specifically we note that it appears to be first introduced around 1775-85 as a variant of tiffing, equivalent to tiff to sip, drink.
Tiffin (Indian English)
Food served in the popular tiffin tins
In India, we learn that tiffin refers to a midday meal, though we imagine that you could infact eat tiffin at any time of day. Tiffin does not have to be specifically a savory dish, it could be sweet as well. However it is all tiffin. Including the term for the tins it is served in, also tiffin.
In India food cooked at home with care and love is considered to deliver not only healthy (and relatively cheap) food but also divine contentment. So much so that there is a growing trend of eating home cooked food at work. Workers can pay to have food cooked at home delivered to their workplace rather than eating out at lunch time.
Dabba-Wallah
This trend is gaining popularity, particularly in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Workers often have to leave home early in the morning before there is time to prepare food, and squeeze into packed trains. Instead they can pay (200Rs = £2) to have their food collected from their home at 10am by a Dabba Walla, literally a lunch box delivery man.
The tiffin is then delivered using a combination of bicycle, train and on foot to the recipient in their place of work by lunch time, still hot and ready to eat. They then return the tiffin tins to the household in the evening.
Once arrived at the station, tiffins are sorted and loaded onto the comparatively quiet 10AM train
This impressive hot food service is provided throughout the sprawling city by the the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association. A charity which has been operating for the last 120 years and employs 4,500 dabba-wallahs, many of whom are semi-literate.
A key characteristic of the service provided is its high reliability. Out of 200,000 tiffins delivered daily maybe once or twice a month one of the dabba-wallahs might make a mistake. This staggeringly high level of reliability is a sign of pride among the dabba-wallahs, many of whom have a limited level of education. One customer is quoted as preferring to return his daily wage home in the empty tiffin, rather than in his pocket on the train home because he trusts the dabba-wallah delivery network so much.
Code
tiffin routing code
To achieve such a sophisticated delivery network in a complex city is commendable. The workers do all of this without maps, GPS or navigation aids, relying solely on a code system written on the top of each tiffin which informs them:
- Source: A dabba-wallah will know each customer in their group area. The dabba-wallah will be part of a group number.
- Transit: Once tiffins arrive at the source station, they are sorted and loaded onto the train. At the destination station they are unloaded and handed off to the delivery team.
- Destination: The delivery team will sort and hand out tiffins to groups who know the delivery location.
With the use of color coding and alphanumerics the tiffen can reliably make round trips across the city to its intended recipient.
Tiffin (Scottish)
Tiffen as per the Scottish is a Christmas time dessert. Resembling a chocolate cake-like confectionary commonly comprising of crushed digestive or rich tea biscuits (cookies), cocoa powder, golden syrup and dried fruit with a top layer of melted chocolate.
Said to originate in the 1900s in Troon, Scotland, I was sadly unable to verify this fact. However the interesting part is that we know the same word tiff was in use in the Scotish dictionary from around the same period.
Recipe
There are lots of variations on this recipe, here is an easy one which uses Maltesers:
- 200g milk chocolate (I use Lindt milk chocolate)
- 100g unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 125g digestive biscuits
- 135g bag of Maltesers
For the topping:
- 200g milk chocolate
- 25g unsalted butter
- 1 tsp golden syrup
Method (condensed):
- Melt chocolate, butter and syrup together
- Crush Maltesers and mix into melted chocolate
- Pour into greased baking tin
- Melt topping chocolate, butter and syrup
- Spread over the mixture in the tin
- Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours
Eat.
References:
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