Topics: Lunch Boxes

Some phrases don’t translate easily, don’t move well between languages.  For example, to “brown bag it” wouldn’t mean anything in Cambodia where brown paper bags are actually quite rare.  People in Cambodia do take their lunch to school or work–even more than in the United States–but they take rice and something to eat with it (“real food,” not some sandwich) and they carry it in metal containers with several compartments.

Many of the lunch boxes seen on the street have four compartments.

The various compartments sit firmly on top of each other and are held together by a handle.

This lunch box, prepared by a mother riding her son to school, has two compartments, enough for a little boy.

This woman has a three-compartment carrier. Perhaps she likes to add an extra vegetable for lunch.

Like everything in life, innovation and change occurs. This woman’s carrier has a different shape.

This carrier is different from the traditional model, too. Maybe she’s carrying food for a whole family!

Not only the style but the materials change, too, to plastic in this case.

And here is a traditional three-compartment carrier in plastic.