In SA, most restaurants I’ve been to serve a full English breakfast (eggs, bacon, sausage, tomato and mushroom). There will usually also be an eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce, avocado toast, croissants, pain au chocolat and other French pastries. Patrons get the option of rye bread, ciabatta and sourdough, but I’ve never been offered dombolo or vetkoek, popular breads eaten regularly by most South Africans.
The availability of some foods and invisibility of others has led me to wonder how all this affects the collective and individual psyche and self-esteem when the food you eat in your home or community is never represented on mainstream menus.
In the 1980s SA psychiatrist and psychologist J Dommisse wrote several widely published works on the profound psychological and mental health effects of the apartheid system. “The notorious governmental policy of apartheid affects the people psychologically, as well as politically, socially, economically and medically,” he wrote. “It does so in a variety of ways, including: the humiliating effects on blacks and arrogance inducing effects on whites”. His work was vast, from migrant labour breaking up family life to police torture and how the laws and practices of segregation, exclusion and oppression affected the mental health of South Africans.
When European and global trends are the preference, it affects how we feel about African food within SA — or food associated with South Africans of colour, as well as South Africans with roots in other parts of Africa.
This invisibility and lack of representation of cultural food affects one’s sense of belonging and perception of what belongs. It influences and reinforces our ideas of inferiority, superiority, worth and the value of the seen and unseen.
And it’s not just in the food context, it’s in nature too. All around us, our forests and outdoor spaces are filled with pine trees, oak trees and eucalyptus. We value rose gardens and lawns instead of waterwise indigenous fynbos and succulents.
With language too, many of us are so Eurocentric and unable to speak African languages. It is not enough to sprinkle “yebos” and “haibos” everywhere. But it is a beautiful magic to witness the effect of saying Sawubona/Sanibonani (Hello in isiZulu), Molo/Molweni (Hello in isiXhosa) or Unjani (How are you in both). Sawubona means “we see you”, me along with my ancestors. That is the essence of what I love about SA culture — connection, warmth and healing through seeing each other.
So today I look at the bunny chow and kota as vehicles to heal the collective self-esteem of SA. Both these culinary delights emerged after the introduction of white bread in SA in the 1940s. The bunny chow is a curry-filled loaf of white bread, originating in Durban Indian communities and was designed as a convenient and portable food for workers. The name probably comes from bania (the word for the merchant class of people who sold them) and chow is a local word for food. The kota emerged in Soweto, Johannesburg. The name comes from the English word for quarter as it is sold as a quarter loaf filled with ingredients like fried chips, eggs, cheese, polony, Russian sausages and atchar designed to feed labourers who had little time to eat and weren’t allowed in many establishments due to apartheid.
Here I have mixed the bunny chow’s curry tradition with the kota’s fry-up tradition to inspire you to look at your own breakfast tables, personal tastes and desires. Our heritage and history, good and bad, is baked into our brains, our aspirations, our values, our physical landscapes, and food cravings.
Breakfast Kota-Bunny for two
With baked bean curry, Russian sausages, fried eggs and mango atchar.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp garlic and ginger
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 can tomatoes
- 1 can baked beans
- 2 Russian sausages (or polony)
- 2-4 eggs
- Mango atchar
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Oil for cooking
- 1 loaf uncut white bread
- Green chillies and coriander (optional)
Method:
- Cut a quarter of the loaf from each end.
- You should have two quarters, both with a “butt”. Keep the other middle half for your future food ideas.
- Cut out a square from the inside of both quarters.
- Toast these bread inners in a pan and then set aside
- In a pan, heat oil and caramelise the onions.
- Add ginger, garlic and spices and stir for 5 mins
- Once brown, stir in tomatoes and cook for 5-10 mins
- Once chutnified, add baked beans and cook for 10 minutes.
- Fry your sausages (or polony) and eggs separately.
- Then assemble each portion :
- One hollowed bread quarter on a plate
- Scoop half the bean mixture into the hollow of the bread, then add Russian (or polony).
- Then add the fried egg/s and a tsp of mango atchar to finish it off.
- Add the toasted middle on the top of this stack or on the side.
- Garnish with chopped green chillies and coriander. Bismillah!
Parusha Naidoo is an artist, cookbook author and a Wanted food columnist.
