Bunny Chow?

South African cuisine was one of our 2010 food revelations. We had never really had it until our World Cup celebration (other than some dishes in the buffet at Boma at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge), but immediately loved the complex and interesting flavors. Since then, we have become fans of South African cuisine, loving bobotie and other fun dishes.


We were excited to try the South African food at the festival because we saw that they had bunny chow! We have always wanted to try bunny chow, including the version served from the ESPN Match Truck (still annoyed at their actions last year), and were glad to have this opportunity.


The first snack we tried was the seared filet of beef with smashed sweet potatoes and braai sauce ($5):


M didn't really like the beef here, finding it a little tough and chewy. But she doesn't really like steak, so she wasn't expecting to like it. The sweet potatoes were tasty and the braai sauce (a sweet and spicy bbq sauce) added a nice flavor.

A thought, as seems to be the case for everything, that the beef was overcooked. The braai sauce was amazing. As mentioned, it was a little sweet and a little spicy, and the full flavor was great. The sweet potato mash was a perfect accompaniment, and the dish matched so well.

The second snack was bunny chow, described on the menu board as "vegetable curry served in a bread loaf" ($3.25):


We were very confused by the bunny chow. The description on the menu board sounded similar to everything we had ever heard about bunny chow. It's a hollowed out bread loaf stuffed with curry. But that's not what we got. This bunny chow was some kind of puff pastry... with vegetable curry as a sauce. The curry sauce itself had a nice flavor, but it's not what we were expecting for bunny chow.

It looks like a visit to a South African restaurant to try some real bunny chow may be in order...

Favorite dishes at the South Africa kiosk:
A: Filet of beef
M: Bunny chow