Skip the thermos. Get an electric lunch box.

If you want a hot lunch that isn’t soup, get a portable electric lunch box rather than a thermos.

A thermos is great for stew, chili, and other things you’re okay eating with a spoon out of a narrow opening. But for rice, pasta, chicken, or anything you actually want to fork into, it’s the wrong tool. The wide-mouth alternatives are better, but they’re still just thermoses with a different shape.

Electric lunch boxes are the real answer. You plug them in at your desk or in your car, and they heat your food to hot, not just “warmish.” The popular ones work by steaming or dry-heating a sealed container. They’re not fast, but they give you an actual hot meal, not a lukewarm approximation. If you have access to an outlet, this is the move.

No outlet? Then get a wide-mouth insulated food jar from Stanley or Hydro Flask instead of the classic Thermos. It won’t heat, but it will keep food edible and warm for a few hours, and you can actually eat out of it. That’s the honest backup plan.

Your lunch doesn’t have to be soup just because it’s January.