Have you ever wondered what students' lunch looks like in other countries? We're not talking about bagged lunches here, but the lunch made at school. The "hot lunches" if you will. There are many things that might be served to the students considering the fact that different countries have different traditional dishes, so while you might be eating hamburgers and milk, other schools might have miso soup or whole fried fish. If you want to see what other people eat for lunch at their schools, check out the images below.
Brazil
In Brazil, they seem to have quite a big appetite. Rice and beans, meat with vegetables, and a roll, as well as salad and select fruit, are some of the things you can expect to see there. This sounds pretty typical of a dinner at home. We wouldn't have expected to see this as school lunch, but it must be really hearty for growing kids.
If you ask us, this is what we would serve at dinner and we would have a lighter meal for lunch. But to each their own it seems.
Finland
In Finland, they have quite a few options. This person decided to take the vegetarian options at their school. It includes a portion of pasta with vegetables and a small tomato sauce, a salad with some sour cream spread on top, and a few pieces of bread with what seems to be margarine, but could easily be butter. And to wash it all down, they got a cup of milk as well.
This seems like the perfect option after a half-day of school. Pasta and a small salad also seem a bit mature for school and we are starting to get a craving for it.
Cuba
At this school in Cuba, the lunch options seem pretty minimalistic. They have rice, beans, and a helping of plantains. It also seems like they have a slice of meat and a small serving of mashed potatoes as well. We're not sure if they decided to get juice or soda, but it looks like a good combination.It's not exactly our taste, but we're not here to judge.
If there was one thing we would judge, however, it's those metal trays they use. We can't imagine that making the food taste any better than it probably is (schools, right?).
Argentina
If you thought the last one was minimalistic, then wait until you see this. This particular school in Argentina is only serving a couple of things this day. They've got some meat and a potato empanada. It's entirely possible that this is the hot lunch for the younger students in primary or secondary school, but one thing is for certain: we would need a whole lot more for our lunch.
Regardless, it does sound quite delicious. We had empanadas at our school, but they didn't look nearly as good as this one. This one just looks perfect.
France
This school in France has one of the most photogenic lunches on this list. Just look at that! They've got salmon, ratatouille, rice, something that looks like coleslaw on the side, fruit, bread and a tiny little salad that we're going to assume isn't just two pieces of Romaine lettuce, but also the veggies on the side there. There's an absolutely endless selection here!
Salmon would have been an amazing main dish if our school offered it. We're thinking we might move to France so our children can have a nice big lunch like this.
France
Elsewhere in the country of France, they have a smaller, yet equally photogenic selection of food for the school's lunch. This person chose a small salad (which we have to say looks much more like a salad than the last one), some sort of meat cut, mixed vegetables in sauce, couscous, and, of course, the signature baguette. Wouldn't be French without the baguette.
We could totally go for something like this. Couscous is a nice change of pace from the traditional rice, and the baguette is as well. You go, France!
China
Here we've got a bit more of an interesting lunch special. This school's lunch consists of an entire fish roasted over a flame, scrambled egg with tomato sauce, rice, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, and soup. We're not really sure what to say about the fish being completely whole, but we're sure it's just as tasty as it looks. Though how do you eat that with chopsticks?
We have to say, too, that the metal trays don't actually look so bad here. Maybe it's because it contrasts well with all the colorful food. Though, maybe that bowl could be changed.
Slovakia
This Slovakian school meal looks like a really healthy one at that. This student went with smoked mackerel, bread, red peppers, sliced tomatoes, a kiwi, an apple, and what we thought was bread but is actually a milk cake. And is that a cereal bar as well? Whoever this kid is, they're seriously packing in all the good vitamins and minerals that they can get their hands on.
Everything here looks so good that our mouths are literally watering just looking at it. We're going to have to take a quick break before we get back to you with some more school lunches.
Malawi
In this school in Malawi, they like to use some pretty spectacular plates. These bright colors definitely help make your food taste better. They have beans with jalapenos, carrots, and a few other greens, and also some rice. All in all, this seems to be a really good lunch. We just hope it doesn't make anyone too gassy for the rest of the day.
That would definitely be the case for some of us if we ate that. We hope they have some other options for the kids if they have the same problem.
The Philippines
We're back to the seriously minimalistic lunches. In The Philippines, this school seems to keep it nice and simple. That isn't to say that the food wouldn't be filling; a whole mound of rice can really make you feel full for hours all on its own. And to complement the rice, they have Lechón kawali, which is deep-fried pork belly, and it's served with a liver sauce.
This looks like something you would find at home. If it's as good as it looks, that could mean you're eating homemade-like food for all meals of the day. Yum!
Buchach, Ukraine
This meal at a school in Ukraine consists of soup, fusili pasta, pickles, bread, and (as the poster called it) a sliced hot dog. We don't know any hot dogs that look like that no matter how you slice it. We think it's something more like ham or some sort of sausage (which would still be huge). It actually looks more like bologne if you ask us. Still, it seems delicious.
We have to say it, though, it does not look very appetizing being served like this. The plate is a tiny metal saucer and the bowl looks like something you would whip heavy cream in.
Buchach, Ukraine (For Primary and Secondary Schoolers)
And we're back to the same school, but this time it's for the primary and secondary schoolers. And yes, that means they also get to have those horrible serving dishes (we're sorry, okay?! Looking at all of these lunches with the same awful plates...we can only handle so much!). Anyways, this time they have Soup with potatoes, buckwheat, cutlets (or a sausage patty...cutlet), and a pickle.
It almost seems like the kids in Ukraine are given more good food than the teenagers. But hey, we've only seen some of the options available to them.
Belgium
At this school in Belgium, it seems like they keep everything all together on the plate with no separation. This student got some paella, which sounds like something you'd never be able to get at our school, and they've got a lot of fresh veggies thrown onto the plate as well. Tomatoes, black olives, Brussels sprouts, corn, carrots, and a helping of sprouts--this seems more like a salad than a paella.
Either way, it looks so fresh and so good. Being able to eat this between classes is one of the best things we've seen so far.
USA
Here we have our first hot lunch from a school in the USA. This one seems to be relatively healthy to some of the others we've seen, although we do know that a lot of schools have been trying really hard in recent years to be more healthy for kids. This lunch comes with a nice helping of fresh vegetables.
Oh and to top it all off there's the classic milk carton as well. Whoever is eating this isn't just healthy, they're also downright starving!
USA
This is the other side of American hot lunch. While still keeping things relatively healthy, there were a couple of things that have been switched out for some less healthy, yet still delicious, options. In this case, the student got a small salad, an apple, a fruit cup, a hamburger, and fries. Man, we would have killed to be served a burger at our school!
Oh and we almost forgot to mention the milk. Milk seems to be a staple in American school lunches for some reason. Well, that reason would be a good source of vitamin D and calcium, but still.
USA
Okay, we had to throw in one more school lunch from the US of A because this school seems to have a really good knack for organizing their lunches. In fact, this school lunch looks more like something you would find on an airplane than at school. Everything is packed so perfectly into their slots that it's hard to believe that this was not already a preselected option rather than a student's choice.
This meal includes beef and cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice, beans a la charra, strawberries, and, of course, some skim milk!.
Thailand
This Thai school serves something that we have seen end up on our own table at home, so it's surprising to see it show up in school lunch in a country halfway across the world from us. They are being served fried rice, chicken, green beans, and an egg. This is pretty much all part of a balanced lunch. Bringing us good nostalgia from our youth.
We're sure a bunch of people at this school are enjoying it just as we have. You can't go wrong with an egg, chicken, and fried rice.
Japan
Our first meal from Japan is a pretty simple one. There is, of course, a plate of rice as well as some fried fish with a small salad. One of the more interesting options we see here is miso soup. While that probably isn't such a surprise to the student of this school or anyone living in Japan, we look at this from the viewpoint of not having any soup at school, let alone a delicious miso soup.
It seems like they're also taking after the American schools a little bit as well, as this student isn't the first we'll see drinking milk with their lunch.
Japan
This student also got themself some milk. However, while this school has a similar lunch to the last one, they seem to have a bit more of an upgrade over the traditional miso soup. They have an udon soup (and the noodles come prepackaged in a plastic casing!), a cheese-stuffed chikuwa (which is a fish sausage), and a frozen Mandarin orange. It's quite the meal if you ask us.
And it just gets better from here. We have some other Japanese lunches to share with you after this one. So if you like them, get ready for the next one.
Japan
In Japan, a lot of families will buy or package for their children a bento, which is basically just a word for what they call these boxed lunches. They're meant to be single portions, and they can be decorated in all manner of fun ways. Parents love to make their child's lunch seem special, so there is a real art to all the ways they can have their lunches prepared.
This may not be a bento, per se, but it sure looks like one. They have rice w/ith konbu (a sweet seaweed), nikkujagga (beef with veggies), an omelette, sausage, a potato puff, and an apple.
Japan
When we said that you could decorate a bento in certain ways, we meant something a bit more like this. That's not to say this is the extent of such a thing, but this is a little closer than the last one. See how there's that strip of fake grass behind the patty? And that orange slice is so perfectly prepared that it almost looks too good to be true.
This lunch contains a tofu hamburger, pasta, a fishcake, fried potato with ketchup, some kind of potato salad, a wiener, and mikan (tangerine). Honestly, some of this stuff must be hiding somewhere because we don't see all of that there.
Haiti
The silver tins are back back back again. At this Haitian school, the children are enjoying a big helping of rice and beans. Rice and beans are a really easy meal that is both really good for you and really filling. By the look on the kids' faces, they really seem to be enjoying it. That, or they are amongst some really good company. We like to imagine it's both.
We'll have what they're having. If we could eat this and be as happy as they are, we'd definitely have this every day of our lives.
Singapore
Here we have a plate of food from a school in Singapore and it's one of the more interesting plates we've seen so far. They have fried anchovies (yum?), an omelette, cabbage stir-fry with tomato and beansprouts, and chicken chop. It's hard to really differentiate what's on there, and we still have yet to see those anchovies (are they the things on the fork?) but we trust they listed what they were eating.
We can't say we love the spread, but we're sure that whoever selected this probably has a pretty goo hankering for whatever is on their pllate and that's good enough for us.
South Korea
Our first meal from South Korea is actually quite the mouthful. They have mixed grains and rice, stinky bean stew (wondering how that one smells and tastes), stir-fried chicken and vegetables, steamed green beans (which is apparently also known as simmered seaweed), and kimchi. All and all this looks so good and we won't even mention what might be ruining that.
The amount of culture in the lunch here is so interesting to us. Each dish is such a specific thing rather than, say, rice and beans for example.
South Korea
And if you wanted another look at some of what this school has to offer, then we are happy to oblige. On this tray, we have pumpkin soup, rice, kimchi, some sort of pancake, blueberries, and something unidentified in the corner there. It seems standard that this school has some sort of soup as well as kimchi, which is, after all, a staple in Korea.
We're not exactly sure what the point is of having only six blueberries, though. We hope they ate some before taking this picture because that amount of berries just seems unsatisfying.
India
India also makes its students traditional dishes from their culture. Here they are served rice, sauce, lady’s finger curry with some masala. We did notice that there is quite a bit more rice than the other two options here, but it does look like they might have eaten quite a bit of it already. And who can blame them? Indian food is some of the best food out there.
Being able to eat this for lunch whenever you want to must be a dream. Then again, they're probably pretty used to eating this anyway, huh?
UK
This is a lunch from a school in the United Kingdom. The poster says, "Contents: Potato, peas, some sort of pudding, and your guess is as good as mine on the last item". We just had to directly quote this one because there was no other way to put it. We're honestly not even sure if they were referring to the yellow thing as some sort of pudding because we have no idea what that is either!
Regardless, we do have to say that this looks really good. Although we may never find out some of the contents of this meal, we hope the person who received it enjoyed it thoroughly.
Prague, Czech Republic
This might also be one of the more interesting lunches on this list because of the presentation of things. Not only do they have a nicely decorated tray to bring their food out on, but they also get to use glass cups for their drinks. This specific lunch includes some type of soup, rice, chicken with gravy, a chocolate dessert (with an egg on top? maybe a custard), juice, and hot tea.
This seems really special. Not only does that dessert look delicious, but they also get to have some tea! We never had anything as fancy as that, and definitely no glass cups.
Czech Republic 2
Here's another look at lunch in another school in the Czech republic. They have ham, dumplings, what looks to be a similar soup to the other one, a fruit (this time a red pear), and also what we think might be a spinach dish, but it wasn't labeled or named. It also seems that they have themselves a tea as well, and if that's a staple in Czech schools we think we can get on board.
Compared to the last one we seem to have a switch in presentation. The plating isn't as fancy, but some of the food is more well organized.
Honduras
This girl in a Honduran school is proudly holding up what she has for lunch. It doesn't look like much, but a bowl of porridge can actually be quite filling, and even healthy at that. Although we would expect to see a bigger meal, she does seem a bit young so it's possible she didn't want much. We also don't know what other options there are either, but she seems to like it!
Some of us here use to eat oatmeal "porridge" before school. Whereas that was a more sweet breakfast, this porridge is probably more of a savory and heavier dish.
Malaysia
This Malaysian hot lunch looks like something you would take away from a restaurant. It is noodles with prawns, fish-cake and eggs, and the student also got a carton of vegetable and fruit juice (which, let's be real, is only "fruit" juice because of the tomatoes), and an apple. We're not sure what kid would willingly grab the vegetable juice, but we hope they enjoyed it.
We think this looks like a really good meal for a day at school. We would love to be able to eat something we're used to seeing in restaurants. We're sure it's really yummy.
Taiwan
Taiwan's got a lot going on with their school lunches. Here we have from left to right sweet and sour pork with pineapple, radish, carrots, and green pepper; vegetable stir fry with garlic; fish ball stew with cabbage, carrots, and wood ear mushroom; and seaweed and egg drop soup. This is quite the amount of food and we would love to be able to get a bite of all that.
Also, interestingly, this is the only school we've seen so far use placemats as well as their serving trays. We guess they really like to keep it clean in there.
Tanzania
In this Tanzanian school, they typically make some traditional African dishes. They have ugali (a dish described as a stiff maize flour porridge), chicken (which we thought for a second was deep-fried frog legs and that this was a French meal), green veggies, a dipping sauce, and, interestingly, a watermelon salad. We definitely want to try that one out for ourselves. That and the ugali.
All in all, this seems like a really hearty meal. It's perfect for when you need to get a good amount of food in your system.
Sweden
Over in Sweden, they have a pretty modest lunch for themselves. They've got a chicken salad, cottage cheese on knäckebröd, shredded carrot, and some sort of sauce. This is a pretty good meal if you ask us, especially since they're rocking the cup of water. We have to hand it to them for being able to eat a pretty healthy meal like this, and we think that chicken salad looks rockin'.
This seems like something we'd be willing to take with us on our lunch break. Though we aren't sure what knäckebröd actually tastes like, we love the thought of cottage on rye.
Sweden
On the other side of the country, you've got something a bit less modest looking. This school in Sweden is serving potatoes, cabbage, beans, and potatoes with crackers and lingonberry juice. There's also some sort of vegetable mix in there as well, but we have to say that the thing that's most interesting to us is that lingonberry juice over there. We've never tried it before and we think it's an interesting mixup for the juice selections.
And again we have a school that uses real plates and glass cups. We don't know how they can trust their students to not break the kitchenware, but they sure are lucky.
Sweden
And lastly, if you were interested in seeing one other side of Sweden (still rocking the real kitchenware, of course) we've got another one, just for you. This school served their students chicken, meatballs, salad, a noodle dish, and cottage cheese with spices. This looks like the student chose a little bit of something from every country being represented at the buffet. It's certainly an interesting mix of choices.
You do have to cover all your bases when you're hungry. As the Ball Park hot dog company once stated: "Hunger get what hunger want!" We couldn't agree more.