Eastern Food Bazaar - Cape Town

Our guide in Cape Town, South Africa, Ryan Strauss, wanted to take us to where the locals eat. That place was Eastern Food Bazaar, built over what used to be the Wellington Fruit Growers Market between Loop and Darling Street. It serves a variety of food cafeteria style, or as they say there, "canteen-style." It includes Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern and pizza, all halal. 

The primary reason he brought us was so that we could try bunny chow. Bunny chow is a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with curry. It was created at Kapitan's Vegetarian Restaurant in Durban, South Africa in the 1940s to feed migrant Indian workers working on the sugar cane plantations. The loaf of bread served as the container to carry the curry in, the inner bread served as the cap, and the workers ate the contents with their hands. One of the best parts was the gravy soaked walls of the bread. In our case we got lamb curry including chunks of lamb. It had a wonderful taste, both the curry and the lamb chunks. There was a lot of curry, but we finished it and were stuffed. In addition to tasting great, it was very fun visually and fun to eat. 

Lamb curry bunny chow.

The innards of the loaf of bread are placed on top imitating bunny ears. But that's not how it got its name. There are a number of theories, but that's not one of them. Most of the theories relate to words that sound like "bunny," like "banya chow," banya being the name of the Indian population of Durban. 

Ryan also ordered us biryani, rice filled with other ingredients, and some lentil soup. 

Biryani and lentil soup.