Haute Cuisine: Durban South African Style!

Durban isn’t known for being a place of culinary inventiveness, but we’ve made at least one major contribution to world cuisine in the form of Bunny Chow.

Bunny Chow is a very simple affair consisting of a hollowed-out quarter, half, or full loaf of bread stuffed with any available curry, including beef, lamb, chicken, or beans. The Bunny Chow should be freshly made with mature curry and the piece of bread, or virgin, that was removed to make room for the curry, should be placed on top of the Bunny before wrapping. Some chefs add sambals to their Bunnies, but many feel this is unnecessary elaboration.

The exact origins of the Bunny Chow are shrouded in myth and legend, but one school of thought says it was invented by a chef at Queen’s Tavern.

Another theory is that it was invented for the Indian caddies at the Royal Durban golf course who couldn’t get off work long enough to go to Gray Street for lunchtime curries. The story goes that they had their friends go buy the curry for them and that they brought it to the golf course in hollowed-out loaves of bread because there were no disposable food containers at the time. The explanation that bunnies were first made in Gray Street has a bit of water because the merchants were known as banias and therefore the phrase Bunny Chow could mean “merchants’ food”.

If the origin of the bunny was on Gray Street, then a leading candidate for where it was invented is the GC Kapitan vegetarian restaurant, which operated at 154 Gray Street between 1912 and 1992. Whether or not the bunny was invented there, GC Kapitan’s beans bunny was famous and enjoyed by common people and luminaries like Indira Gandhi.

Whatever the truth, however, the Bunny Chow has earned an enduring place in the affections of Durbanites and there are many of us who could not long exist without them. The correct way to refer to Bunny Chows when talking about them or asking for directions to the nearest vendor is as Bunnies. Using the word Chow will indelibly mark you as an outsider, and a nasty one at that.

Bunny Chow should always be eaten with the fingers starting with the piece of bread, or virgin, on top. Fans treat the virgin as an appetizer for the main course and it is considered very rude to seize and eat someone else’s virgin without their express invitation. Then you need to help yourself to the curry and tear off pieces from the sides of the bread and dip them into the sauce.

The trick here is to avoid tearing off pieces of bread that are below the current sauce line, otherwise you’ll end up with a steaming mass in your lap. For the same reason, you should check to see if your Bunny Chow was made with the end of a bun or if it’s a Funny Bunny made with the middle and therefore no crust on the bottom.

A Funny Bunny is no less tasty, but you have to be careful to hold the base in case it gives way and gives viewers something to laugh about; Do you begin to see how she got the name from him?

While eating your bunny, you may sweat and blow your nose frequently, say “Whooee!!” You can’t betray that you’re in pain if the bunny is too hot for your liking. Just relax and think about those nice endorphins you’ll get when your brain finally kicks in. Steer clear of the sauce if you have real difficulties as experience has shown it to be the spiciest part of the curry – whatever the level of burn, don’t drink water, it only makes things worse!