A Return to Paradise and its People - Durban

AS WITH MOST ASPECTS OF LIFE IN DURBAN, THERE
is no specific style that defines the food we eat, although
if you combined Californian, Indian and African cooking,
you might arrive at some vague approximation.
In eThekwini, fusion is the dominant force and eclecticism
the order of the day. The political freedom that arrived in
the ’90s has had a spillover culinary effect and South
African cuisine has blossomed in the last decades, as
minds have opened and the global grocery store has arrived
on our shelves. At the same time, a wide variety of smallscale
local producers have emerged, from cheese sellers
to small organic farmers to local microbreweries, reflecting
the international trend towards recognising food production
as craft rather than industry.
So in Durban you can sample the planet’s menus and
also discover entirely new genres of food. Sushi meets
roti. The burrito meets Zulu spinach. The samoosa encases
a filling of cheese and bacon. And dhall gets poured into
an Italian pasta sauce.
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EATING
SHISA NYAMA is the isiZulu word for ‘hot meat’, and is a staple of
local African cuisine. The meat, usually chicken or chops, is cooked
to well-done on either a gas-top stove or a fire. Shisa nyama spots
can be found on the streets of Durban and in townships and taxi
ranks, and often form the centre of social activity. And like much
African cuisine, its working class roots in no way discourage the
black middle-class from partaking in the slightly charred meat.
TASTE IT AT: Warwick Junction, City Centre
THE BUNNYCHOW consists of thick, delicious Durban curry
spooned into a hollowed-out half loaf of bread and is widely
thought to have been invented as a response to apartheid.
Under the old dispensation, seating areas in restaurants were
reserved for white people. With takeaways becoming
something of a necessity for most of the population of the
old South Africa, the self-contained bunnychow was invented.
TASTE IT AT: Cocos in Mathews Meyiwa Road, Morningside