Railway Bentos of Taiwan

In Taiwan, bentos are called 便當 (pinyin: biàndāng), and are easily found in railway stations, and convenient stores e.g. 7-Eleven that are located in around the vicinity.

In the major train station in the big cities like Taipei, and Kaohsiung, there is a stall which would start selling these bentos as early as 9am.

There are often only 2 variants :
(1) the normal bento - where rice is packed together with different types of meat, e.g. roasted pork, bbq chicken, charsiew, lourou (pork stewed in soya sauce and spices), cabbages, pickled and even a hard boiled egg;
(2) the vegetarian bento - where all the meat dishes are replaced with taufu dishes, and vegetarian mock pseudo meat versions.

All the bentos are already packed when they are being sold, so, you can only choose which variant you want, and not what dishes to go in it. Pricing is reasonable considering the amount of food served, a pack is usually priced at ~NTD50-60.

If you are too rushed for time, and didnt have the chance to stop and buy, no worries. The same bento company would usually still have a pushcart seller, to sell the bentos at the station platforms, after you have entered into the departing platforms. On some trains, there are also pushcarts on the train itself to sell the bentos, so, really, there should be no worry whatsoever should you fail to get one from outside. There simply are various touchpoints available, providing convenience to the commuters to get a bento set!

From the company called `Taiwan Railway Biandang" - this is the outer box, which is in a recyclable cardboard (there are no styrofoam boxes in Taiwan!)

A sumptious meal in a box - for lunch of the day!

Of course, alternatively, before entering the station itself, some 7-Eleven stores also sell bentos set (from another company), and here, you probably could have some choices albeit limited. Mainly it will be on the size of the bentos (small or big), and the type of meats (4 types vs 5 types). All others remain the same, ie it is a prepacked that won't be opened up for customers to choose, but you choose via a printed menu of which set you prefer.

All the bentos will come with a pair of disposable chopsticks, so that its very easy and convenient for the buyer to consume the food bought.

Normally, commuters in Taiwan who are travelling around mid morning, would usually just buy a bento to bring onboard the train, and have their lunch on the train itself! Unlike some other rail services in other countries, eating on board the train is acceptable and very much practised in Taiwan.

Other variants of bento set!

The birth of this blog

I never knew how to cook before I went to study in UK.

Back then (and now, as well), buying food anywhere in Malaysia has never been a real problem. There are roadside stalls everywhere, serving all varieties of foods and drinks, and like a popular saying goes, `one can never go hungry in Malaysia"!

When I left for UK, part of the cultural shock included the lack of open stalls, the lack of cheap restaurants/cafes and of course, the different types of food available even if you can find a cheap place to lunch.  A couple of months after landing in UK, the Asian economic bubble burst. Suddenly, as students, our cash reserves that we brought over shrunk overnight. Suddenly, a meal of club sandwiches and crisps was equivalent to the cost of 4 meals at home! Thats when it became more of a survival mode that kicked in, that I learnt to cook, learnt to be creative with my meals, and started packing lunch to school every day.

After many years back in Malaysia, and working in a company where there is an in-house canteen, lunch had never been a problem. However. when my company shifted our office, to a new building which has no in house canteen, and the nearest foodstalls are some distance away, suddenly people in the office started preparing sandwiches etc and bringing them in lunch boxes (or bentos) for their daily lunch.

I am also one of these people, and I have been packing my lunch every day since.

I thought of sharing all the ideas of preparing bentos for lunch in the officeplace, and one of the best way is to blog about it. Hence, the birth of this new blog of mine - My Laptop Bentos !

Indeed, every morning, the 2 essentials for me that I bring to the office is my never-leave-my-sight laptop, and now, my bentos.