Retro Taiwan lunch boxes milk nostalgia for slow train journeys

South China Morning Post
Date: 12 September, 2016
By: Agence France-Presse

Meals of meat, pickles and rice once a staple of rail travel are a comfort-food choice for fans today – even if they’re not travelling, they can buy one when passing a train station or at a convenience store

Once served as no-frills sustenance for train passengers in Taiwan, simple rice lunch boxes are selling in their millions across the island, a food trend fuelled by nostalgia.

Known as railway biandang, which means “convenience” in Chinese, the meals have changed little over the decades.

Traditionally a pragmatic combination of braised or fried meat and pickles piled onto steamed white rice – ingredients designed to endure long train journeys – they are now seen as an enduring symbol of the “good old days”, when rail travel trumped planes and cars     [FULL  STORY]