Who likes curry? The BUNNY CHOW
Here is a way to eat it like never before. Its history is quite colourful.
It is very nice as I lived on these when I was younger living in Durbs. http://www.congocookbook.com/c0192.html
Bunny Chow
It's not food for rabbits. It's not made from rabbits. Bunny Chow is the result of an only-in-South-Africa combination of Asian curry,
European bread, and South African apartheid.
durban, south africa
What you need
* unsliced loaf of white bread (the kind used for making sandwiches or toast, baked in a standard 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch (22 x 12 cm) loaf pan [one loaf
for every two servings]
* curry of your choice
What you do
* Cut the bread into two halves, by cutting halfway between the ends of the loaf. Put each half on its end, pressing down a bit to make it stand
upright. From the top of each half (where you made the cut that divided the loaf into halves) scoop or cut out the soft middle of each half and set it
aside. Fill each half with curry. Put onto a bowl or plate (if desired) with the soft bread that was scooped out.
* Serve immediately. Use the scooped-out bread to sop up the curry. Then eat the remaining curry with the bread it was served in. Use a spoon if
needed.
Enslaved Asians from Indonesia and Malaysia were brought to South Africa soon after the first Europeans arrived. Later, servants and workers from
India arrived. And more than any other African country, South Africa was the destination of European migrants, who grew European grain and made
European bread. Malay and Indian influences became a fixture of South African cuisine, and by the early 1900's curry restaurants were found in
every South African city. An inexpensive meal was a bowl of curry served with a few slices of bread. Over time, apartheid laws were tightened to
enforce strict segregation of black, colored (Malay, Indian), and white people, and many restaurants were not allowed to seat black patrons. They
could sell take-away (carry-out) food to anyone, but this was before disposable plates and bowls. An enterprising restaurateur in Durban hit upon the
solution: put the curry inside the bread -- the bread doing for the curry what the cone does for the ice cream. Somehow this "bread bowl"
of curry came to be called bunny chow. (Why? Putting curry into half a loaf of bread hardly makes it look any more like a rabbit than it did before it
contained the curry. Or is it that half a loaf of bread looks like a bun?) Bunny chow became a tradition in South African take-away food. And though
the apartheid era is over it is still a popular item, especially in Durban.
[Edited on 27-9-05 by mangogrooveworkshop]
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