Ramola Makan, who is a chef for Elba Appliances hosted the demo creating the perfect “Designer Bunny Chow” consisting of, chick peas in a saffron infusion potato with spring onion and hick peas with saffron infused mashed potato, she then went to describe the story behind how the standard Bunny Chow came about.
This is the story…
During the Great Depression in 1933 Indians, whites and Chinese in Durban, South Africa, suffered hunger like everyone else. The kids then discovered that the cheapest curry they could buy (for a quarter penny or half a penny) was made by a vegetarian Indian caste known in Durban slang as the Bania. It was made from dried sugarbeans (no meat). The children didn’t have plates, and one kid got the bright idea to hollow out a quarter bread, asked the seller to put the bean curry in the hollowed-out bread, and then used the broken bread he’s taken out as a sort of eating utensil. Chinese food was called “chow”. Somehow the two words came together: Bania Chow. In time it simply became known as Bunny Chow.
Bunny Chow was what the Indian sugar plantation workers took as their day’s food to the lands -curry in hollowed-out bread halves. Cheap and practical!
Today it does not matter what your skin colour or station in life is – Durbanites and people from the Kwa-Zulu-Natal province love their bunny chow!
Should you wish to attend one of Hirsch’s cultural cooking Demo’s, kindly contact Warren on 084 513 0911.
