ARE OUR LUNCHBOXES TOO WHITE?
I don’t mean white bread physically, I mean ‘white bread’ emotionally. Why cook Korean, Indian, Nigerian and Sichuan for dinner, then pack a sandwich and an apple for lunch?
The typical lunchbox measures just 15cm x 18 cm, but holds inside its plastic walls a whole world of effort, guilt, shame and nutritional ambition. It also contains power - over parents, schools, teachers and kids alike, because it’s the one major thing from the home environment that you take into the school environment.
So many people I know had that ‘lunchbox moment’ as a child, when they realised they were ‘other’, or a bit different. It could have been the kid of a migrant family going to a largely white schoolyard, a country kid who moved to the city, one with hippy parents in a conservative school, one with conservative parents in a hippy school, or just a self-conscious child who thought the eyes of the world were on her, when they were not. This schoolyard ‘otherness’ needs reclaiming, getting flipped into something special, something to be proud of.
I love how Thai chef, restaurateur and farmer Palisa Anderson of Chat Thai describes it. “Were you ever that kid at school who was too embarrassed to bring out your lunch?” she asks on the menu of Sydney’s Boon Café. “We were those kids. But we also noticed the kid with the sandwich who always looked enviously at our lunch.” Now we are a bit older, she says, “we appreciate the value of our food heritage, and we want to make the ‘kid with the sandwich’ our version of a sandwich.” Which she does, memorably, with Isaan-inflected toasted sourdough sandwiches of stir-fried minced chicken, squid, holy basil, chilli and fried egg.
So let’s unpack the lunchbox, and fill it with things that go beyond the everyday. Whatever it is, it needs to be affordable and sustainable, in terms of money, time and effort. It needs to change often, so that neither maker nor eater gets bored. There should also be some level of collaboration with the consumer, as in ‘eat what I want you to eat today, and you can have what you want tomorrow, if it’s within the limits of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and my own parenting boundaries’.
Here are 16 ideas to shake up the kids’ lunchboxes (not literally, that would be too messy). Those without kids, or lunchboxes, feel free to adapt, adopt and enjoy.
16 LUNCHBOX LUNCHES THAT I WOULD EAT MYSELF.
Chicken cashew sandwich – shredded grilled Thai chicken, roasted cashew butter, smoked chilli jam and roast capsicum (an idea nicked off the Boon Café menu, the chilli is negotiable).
Japanese katsu sando – panko-crumbed pork schnitzel pressed inside soft white or milk bread sandwich with tonkatsu sauce, Kewpie mayo and crisp, finely shredded cabbage, the whole thing cut into fingers or squares so you see the cross-section.
Pork and egg congee – if they can heat in the meecro-wahvay (as Nigella loves to call it).
Korean BBQ wraps with red capsicum sticks, or Middle Eastern lamb and lentil wraps, or Lebanese kafta/kofta with tabbouleh. Clearly, the idea here is to cook something delicious for dinner that will leave you with enough for tomorrow’s lunchboxes. Gotta love a two-for-one.
Pumpkin hummus with roasted chickpeas and grilled pita bread.
Minced pork or chicken cooked up with ginger and soy, ready to pile into crisp lettuce cups at lunchtime as a DIY san choi bau.
Pandan chiffon cake – who’s the lucky kid with the bright green cake?
Egg noodles with miso-flavoured veggie-packed mince, a sort of cold Asian spag bol.
Felafel bowls – cook up a pile of felafel ( maybe baked instead of deep-fried) and dish out two or three a day with a hummus dip and raw veggie sticks.
Fried rice studded with peas and corn and omelette, with a little plastic fishy of soy to go with it.
Any sort of Thai rice noodle dish that would work as a salad, eg this vegan ‘pad Thai’ from Good Food, seen below.
Couscous studded with roast cauliflower and roasted chickpeas.
Gado gado Indo salad with boiled eggs, satay sauce, yum.
Tuna and hard-boiled egg empanadas - make a bunch ahead and freeze - with romesco (red pepper) sauce.
Indian thali of raita yoghurt, rice, cucumber, carrot chutney, tomato dal.
Whatever they really love eating. And if you think your kid is going to have a ‘lunchbox moment’, then give them enough to proudly share.
Vegan Pad Thai. Good in or out of a lunchbox. Thanks for reading (or liking, commenting or subscribing). I live and work on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging. Copyright © 2020 Jill Dupleix.
Thanks for the chuckle.