Bunny Chow

In Durban, South Africa, Sam discovered an entirely new way of thinking about curry, Bunny Chow! Try this halved bread stuffed with spicy curry for a portable treat.

A Durban South Africa specialty, Bunny Chow incorporates half (or quarter) loaf of white bread hollowed out and filled with any variety of Indian curry the you please (though it’s normally mutton). The origins of the dish are disputed, but most believe the practice of putting curry inside a hollowed out loaf of bread originated as a method used by Indian laborers to transport lunch to their work sites. The name Bunny Chow originated with the Banias Indians who pioneered the bread and curry combination.

I had my first encounter with Bunny Chow in a restaurant in the basement of a hotel on Durban’s west side. The only non-Indians in the room, my dining companions and I decided to take the plunge and ordered a “quarter mutton.” Though this was considered the smaller of the two sizes, the meal was huge! I couldn’t believe that people would order something twice the size! That said, the curry was delicious and the use of bread a stroke of genius. As I heard over and over again, only in Africa.