The story behind the plate...
Bunny Chow
Born in Durban’s Indian community, bunny chow was created as an affordable, portable meal for workers: a hollowed-out loaf filled with fragrant curry that required neither a plate nor cutlery.
Its rise is also linked to segregation, when Black customers were often prohibited from eating inside restaurants.
The name likely comes from bania, referring to Indian merchants and shopkeepers, while “chow” means food.
Originally filled with beans or dhal, the bunny later evolved to include mutton, chicken and other curries—becoming an enduring symbol of Durban’s ingenuity and South African Indian heritage.
Potjiekos
Potjiekos—Afrikaans for “small-pot food”—is slow-cooked in a round, three-legged cast-iron pot over an open fire. While open-fire cooking was practised by Southern Africa’s indigenous communities long before colonisation, European settlers introduced heavy iron cooking pots to the Cape during the seventeenth century.
The pot became especially useful during the nineteenth-century Great Trek, when meat, vegetables and whatever ingredients were available could simmer slowly over a few coals.
Today, potjiekos brings together European, African and Cape Malay influences and remains a treasured South African tradition—best enjoyed slowly, around a fire and in good company.
Dullstroom Salmon Trout
Trout are not native to South Africa, but Dullstroom’s cool, clear, high-altitude waters proved ideal for them.
Fingerlings were introduced into local streams from 1916, with further stocking in 1927, helping transform this misty Mpumalanga town into one of South Africa’s best-known trout regions.
“Salmon trout” is a culinary name for trout with distinctive pink flesh—it is not a cross between salmon and trout.
Prized for its delicate flavour and tender texture, Dullstroom trout represents more than a century of local fishing and farming heritage.
Biltong
Long before refrigeration, Southern Africa’s indigenous peoples preserved meat by cutting it into strips, salting it and drying it in the open air.
European settlers adapted these methods by adding vinegar and spices such as coriander, pepper and cloves.
During the Great Trek of the 1830s and 1840s, biltong became an essential food for the Voortrekkers: nutritious, long-lasting and easy to carry on extended journeys by ox wagon. Its name comes from the Dutch words bil, meaning rump, and tong, meaning strip or tongue.
At Confluence, we continue this South African tradition by making our own biltong and using its rich, savoury flavour in dishes across our menu.
