The bian dang or Taiwanese bento, is boxed, takeaway food, typically rice with meat and vegetables, and soup on the side. The best ones – and they can be very good – you make up yourself from a wide range of dishes sold in cafeterias. The Taiwan Railways has been selling their 'famous' version on station platforms and from carts on trains for decades: rice, pork, vegetables, an egg, and a slice of Japanese style yellow pickled radish. No choice of meat or veges, no soup.
'Famous' perhaps, but their meals are a bunch of overcooked crap that is in no way improved by the hours it sits stuffed in the box before anybody eats it (lunchbox photo). Unfortunately, it has always been hard to convince Taiwanese that fame and quality are not synonyms. The pull, if there is one (and let's face it, unless you bring your own food, once you board a train their bian dang is the only game in town), of the railway lunch boxes is a nostalgic appeal that harks back to days long gone when the country was poor, life was simpler and riding the rails with a box of takeaway food on your lap was an event to be treasured.
Now according to this story Taiwan Rail have updated their lunch boxes, promising nutritious food, and even choices. That is good news but still I hope they don't ever completely nix the classic lunch box. I have been Taiwan-side long enough to know that the Taiwan train journey would not be the same without that second-rate traveller comfort food.
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