The lunch box low-down

The lunch box has undergone a makeover. The luxury of dabbas— full of home food sumptuousness has now gladly been traded for light, convenient pleasures like healthy meals, soups, salads, wraps or sandwiches, that come to your desk in neat little boxes.

Keeping that as the central idea, Ristic Milos, head chef, Zenzi Mills, wanted to put together a tempting Chinese food box, similar to what he’d seen in American movies as a kid. “We were looking for a nice, small meal that was easy to handle; one you could eat alone without having to sit at a table,” he says. And so, the ‘China Box’ was born.

The box, the price of which varies from Rs250 to Rs400, offers you everything from chicken teriyaki to garlic beef to pepper shrimp calamari to tofu long rice noodles to pepper broccoli paneer. With portion size for one, the disposable box comes with chopsticks and a beverage. “The meal contains everything you need to power you up for the rest of the day,” says Milos.

The Elbo Room offers you a version of the Japanese Bento box (which is a single-portion home-packed meal that traditionally packs in rice, fish or meat, and one or more of pickled or cooked vegetables) called the O Bento box. It is priced at Rs400 (vegetarian) and Rs480 (non-vegetarian), and  comes with a Kingfisher Blue beer.

American corn tossed in lime and Cajun spice; vegetable or chicken spring roll; mixed seafood stir fried with rice and rolled in egg omelette; bamboo, eggplant and cabbage stir- fried with rice and rolled in rice pancake; charbroiled chicken in barbeque sauce; charbroiled cottage cheese, mushrooms, bell pepper, baby potatoes; and a sweet peach pie are available in the Bento box spread.

Kebab Korner, InterContinental, Marine Drive, too, has a healthy Indian Bento box for those looking for a quick bite. Paul Kinny, executive chef of the restaurant, says, “We wanted to do away with the masks of butter, cream, gravy and present a great Indian lunch.” The lunch Bento box includes a soup, salad and a whole-wheat kebab wrap priced at Rs750 and soup, salad and high protein grill priced at Rs850. All the meals come with the choice of either a fresh fruit cup or infused green tea.

“The ‘Carb n Fibre’ lunch priced at Rs950 comes with a choice of salad, biryani and probiotic yoghurt raita while the ‘Keep it Low’ lunch, priced at Rs950, is served with buttermilk, roquette and grilled broccoli salad, and our special low glycemic index biryani,” adds  Kinny. 

The need to create a quick and healthy takeaway meal prompted La Patisserie at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers to create a lunch box. “The lunch box aptly contains a healthy salad, a puff, a scrumptious sandwich, and a delicious pastry,” says a Taj spokesperson. Although meant to be eaten immediately, the meal can be eaten three hours later as well. The lunch box is pre-set, and one can choose between a vegetarian lunch priced at Rs325, and a non-vegetarian lunch priced at Rs395.

The lunch boxes are ideal for those on the go, and who want a nutritious and filling, but,  quick meal.