Long before Bella Ciao had conquered all conversations had come the existence of the the similar-sounding Bunny Chow. Both pop-culture favourites, both having strong meanings, both arising from a significant incident. Interestingly, even though Indians love to savour the flavourful Bunny Chow, it is not of Indian origin.
One can trace its origin back to South Africa, where this street food was first made in Durban. Why Durban, if one may ask? It is because Durban in South Africa had the largest community of Indians outside India back in the late 1930s and early 1940s. For the unversed, a Bunny Chow is a bread loaf which is hollowed out in the middle and filled with curries.
This may remind you of a jacket potato, but instead of a potato, it's a bread in this case. This delectable dish was invented by the Indian community living in Durban, South Africa in the 1940s and still remains as one of the most preferred street food when one goes to the country.
While this may seem like a very simple street food invention story, how does the golf theory match up to this? According to oral stories, Bunny Chow was invented for Indian golf caddies. The theory goes that due to apartheid existing in South Africa, which resulted in direct racial discrimination based on skin colour, brown skinned Indian caddies working inside the white-only gold clubs were not allowed to bring with them any cutlery or metal accessories for eating food. In return, they used to be served Indian curries in thick hollowed breads which were easily eatable, disposable, and did not need cutlery as they could be bitten into directly. However, this popular theory has a loophole. According to this, the curry was already being served inside breads, which means the Bunny Chow had already been invented. Hence, it cannot be true that they were specifically invented for this reason for the caddies.
But a second origin story comes here, which might hold some truth and is a more practical explanation for the invention. Again, due to the ongoing racial discrimination, brown skinned Indians and Africans were not allowed to sit down and dine in restaurants; they were often given curries inside hollowed breads, which could be eaten anywhere, carried along as they went about business and was not messy.
Also, one didn't have to sit down to eat it, back then. It was said to have originated from the minds of the food-sellers in the Indian community. This theory may then complement the previous one where the golf caddies were served the Bunny Chow for food.
Thus one can conclude that they were not specifically made for the golf caddies, although they could have been one of the earliest customers of Bunny Chow.
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.