Our Roots @
Bunny Chow Shebeen

History

Bunny Chow - South African Shebeen is co-owned by two born and raised South Africans - Andrew Georgitsis and Gary Wolfson. Andrew started his career as Chef and head of food development at All Prepped Up, working on designing and creating international foods. With a passion for creating & cooking innovative dishes that blended flavors and textures from all over the world. Gary started his career with a small local South African cafe focusing on authentic South African food and was looking to expand the brand. Together they formed SA Franchises LLC DBA: Bunny Chow- South African Food in September of 2022. Partnering up made sense to use each of their strengths and passions to develop the first authentic South African causal dining restaurant in San Diego.They specialize in fast, fresh, hand crafted meals made from scratch.They have a causal dine-in restaurant that has take out, delivery, catering (corporate and private), and ship nation wide.

South African Food - like our nation - consists of so many influences from all over the world. It's diversity fits the mold of our rainbow nation and is reflected by the image above. South Africa's different regions all reflect the influence of the various cultures and history. From the pre colonial, through to the cape dutch and cape malay, to french cookery, Indian cuisine, Portuguese immigrants from Mozambique and local indigenous influences. We at Bunny Chow are dedicated to the art and history of South African Food and bringing you the most authentic and vibrant representation of our great nation.

Shebeen

A shebeen was originally an illicit establishment where accessible food & alcoholic beverages were sold without a license. The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to modern South Africa, many shebeens are now fully legal.

Shebeens also provided music and dancing, allowing patrons to express themselves culturally, which helped give rise and support the musical genre kwaito. .

Currently, shebeens are legal in South Africa and have become an integral part of South African urban culture, serving commercial beers as well as umqombothi, a traditional African beer. Shebeens still form an important part of today's social scene. In contemporary South Africa, they serve a function similar to juke joints for African Americans in the rural Deep South of the USA. They represent a sense of community, identity, and belonging.

Bunny Chow

Bunny chow, often referred to simply as a bunny, is a South African fast food dish consisting of a hollowed-out half loaf of white bread (think of a bread bowl) filled with a South African style curry that is spiced from 0-10 heat level. It originated among Indian South Africans of Durban.

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Peri Peri

Peri-peri (PIRR-ee-PIRR-ee) is a Portuguese style of marinating and serving sauce that is used bird’s eye chili pepper for spice and flavor. It was originally introduced by Portuguese explorers in former Southern African territories, particularly Mozambique and its border regions with South Africa, and then spread to other Southern African countries.

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Prego's

A South Africa peri peri sandwich! The bread is a specific. soft crusted bread that is cut in the middle. Then layers of Peri Peri steak or chicken or shrimp and place on the bread with layers of Peri Peri sauce between each layer. Often eaten as is or sometimes cole slaw, or tomato and onion are added. This style sandwich was always a quick grab and go.

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Bobotie

South African National Dish, made with beef or lamb, garlic, ginger, curry powder chopped onions, raisin, apricots and Mr. Balls chutney. Traditionally, bobotie is topped with an egg and potato topping and garnished with a bay leaf. Although not particularly spicy, the dish incorporates a variety of flavours that can add complexity. For example, the dried fruit (apricots and raisins) contrasts the curry flavouring. The texture of the dish is also complex, the baked egg mixture topping complementing the potato which adds moisture to the dish. Bobotie is served with "yellow rice", which is rice cooked with turmeric.

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Pies

A South Africa pie is a savory pie (not sweet) with a filling of curried or non curried meat and/or vegetable. They are then baked, to perfection with a browning of the crust. This also allows them to develop the full flavor through the Maillard reaction. We use a flaky crust non sweet crust that browns perfectly.

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Biltong

Biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern African countries. We use the finest selection of beef and cut it into strips following the grain of the muscle, then season it, air dry it, package in strips or thinly sliced, vacuum seal it and ship it fresh. It is related to beef jerky in that they are both spiced, dried meats; however, biltong uses NO sugar, NO artificial ingredients making it an extremely healthy form of protein and great tasting snack.

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Braai

A Braai (known as a BBQ) is one of South African favorite get together activities and fun food. . Generally meats, chicken, boerewors (sausage) and chops are cooked on an outdoor open grill on hot coals. The meats are spiced with salt, pepper and coriander, chicken done with peri peri and boerewors is a special sausage and seasoning from the Boers/Voortrekkers (frontierman). Braai's are a Sunday must do.

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Cape Malay

Cape Malays are a Muslim community or ethnic group in South Africa. They are the descendants of enslaved and free Muslims from different parts of the world who lived at the Cape during Dutch and British rule. Among other influences they had on South African culture was their influence on food. Bringing a combination of Indian style curry but sweetened with local fruits and chutney's. Cape Malay dishes such as Bobotie, Sosaties, koeksisters, Berdie can be found in just about every home. Cape Malay sauce is a richly layered sweet curry sauce (not spicy) curry, graham marsala, garlic, ginger apricots, raisins, mango chutney and other other spices. Great for marinating meats and/or grilling. Goes well on rice, meats and even as a dipping sauce for french fries.

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Monkey Gland

Monkey gland sauce has its origins in South Africa. It has been featured as a restaurant item since the 1930s becoming a South African restaurant and fast food staple condiment. It is a thick, sweet and tangy sauce and dark in colour. It is typically served as a topping for grilled steaks or burgers, but is also used as a marinade, a dipping sauce for onion rings and fries, or on roasted potatoes.

Despite its name, the sauce does not contain any monkey glands. The name originated with French chefs at the old Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg. South African diners added sauces such as chutney, tomato sauce, and Worcester sauce to the French dishes before eating it. Thus, the disgruntled chefs combined all the condiments to create a sauce which they named monkey gland sauce.

Boerewors

Boerewors, is a type of sausage (farmers sausage) which originated in South Africa. The name is derived from the Afrikaans words boer ("farmer") and wors ("sausage"). Boerewors contains beef and pork (all beef is available.) and spices. Not more than 30% of the meat content may be fat. No other fillers such as bread or flour or corn are added. It is all meat and spices.

Droewors

Droëwors (/ˈdruːəvɔːrs/; Afrikaans literally "dry sausage") is a Southern African snack food, based on the traditional, coriander-seed spiced boerewors sausage.(Farmers Sausage) We make it from a dunwors (Afrikaans for "thin sausage") as it dries quicker and is thus, less likely to spoil before it can be preserved. We use our own recipe for these dried sausages and it is similar to that for our boerewors, though we do not use pork, only 100% organic beef (Halal). Droewors is ideal for unrefrigerated storage and is generally snacked on. Be careful as it is highly additive due to it's yummy nature.