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New ZealandFlavors · Johannesburg
A quarter loaf of sliced white bread hollowed out and layered with fillings: fries, sausages, mortadella, a burger, cheese, achar and sauces. It’s the street food of Johannesburg’s townships, like Soweto, and of the whole Gauteng province.
Traditional dish from Johannesburg, Gauteng
Also known as: spatlo, sphatlo, kota sandwich
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Kota — Johannesburg, South Africa
Kota comes from quarter, the English word for a quarter: the base is a quarter of a white loaf of sliced bread, hollowed out. Inside go layers of filling. The classic version has slap chips, the thick fries, mortadella (polony), thick sausages called russians or vienas, sometimes a burger, cheese, achar, the spicy Indian-origin pickle, and tomato, barbecue or sweet chili sauces. In parts of Soweto, the kota may include ground beef with mashed potato.
It’s the street food of the townships, the neighborhoods created for the Black population during segregation, and it is sold in small neighborhood shops, spaza shops, and in eateries, usually in a clear plastic bag. Cheap and filling, it became part of Soweto life, the large township southwest of central Johannesburg. Gauteng’s tourism body presents it as Johannesburg’s answer to Cape Town’s gatsby, and Soweto holds an annual kota festival.
The origin is not documented. The organizer of the Soweto festival says the kota began in Orlando East, in Soweto, around 1959, under the name township sandwich or township burger, as an inexpensive way to make a burger. Others see a relationship with Durban’s bunny chow, also served in hollowed bread. According to a Johannesburg chef, the first kotas used cheap cuts of meat, and today’s version spread through the townships from the 1990s onward.
You eat it with your hands, holding the bread, which softens and warms from the chips and fried items. In some places the kota is also called spatlo.
Johannesburg , Gauteng
Street food of Johannesburg’s townships, like Soweto, where there is an annual kota festival.
Quarter of a white loaf of sliced bread, slap chips (thick fries), mortadella, russians or viena sausages, burger, cheese, achar and sauces; in some versions, ground beef with mashed potato or a fried egg.
By hand, holding the whole bread; often served with a soft drink. It’s takeaway food.
All year round, at lunch or as a snack.
Your questions
A quarter loaf of sliced bread hollowed out and layered with fillings such as fries, sausages, mortadella, cheese, achar and sauces. It is the street food of Johannesburg’s townships and of Gauteng.
Kota comes from quarter, the English word for a quarter, because the base is a quarter of a loaf of sliced bread.
Both are served in hollowed bread. The kota, from Johannesburg, includes fries, sausages, mortadella and cheese; the bunny chow, from Durban, contains curry.
There is no definitive record. The organizer of Soweto’s kota festival says it began in Orlando East, Soweto, around 1959; others see a kinship with Durban’s bunny chow.
Flavors of South Africa
Stew of mutton or lamb with waterblommetjie flowers, an aquatic plant native to the Western Cape, onion, potato and sorrel. It is a winter dish, made in the short season when the flowers are harvested from the province's lakes and marshes.
Cracked white maize (samp) slow-cooked with beans until creamy, seasoned with onion and butter or fat. It is the everyday dish of the Xhosa of the Eastern Cape and was Nelson Mandela's favorite.
Minced meat seasoned with curry and spices, mixed with bread soaked in milk and dried fruit and baked under a milk-and-egg topping. It is a well-known dish of Cape Malay cuisine from Cape Town, served with yellow rice and chutney.
A long roll filled with fries, meat, fish, or chicken, salad and sauce, cut into pieces for sharing. It originated in a fried-fish shop in Athlone, in the Cape Flats, and is Cape Town’s sandwich.
Fried dumpling with a soft dough, seasoned with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, fennel and tangerine peel, dipped in hot syrup and coated in coconut. It is the Sunday breakfast of Cape Malay families in Cape Town.
A hot amber-colored beverage made from the oxidized leaves of a shrub that only grows in the Cederberg mountains and surrounding areas. Clanwilliam, at the foot of the range, is the center of cultivation and processing, and the name rooibos has a protected geographical indication.
Curry served inside a sliced loaf of white bread cut into a quarter or half and hollowed out, with the removed crumb placed on top. Created by Durban’s community of Indian origin, it’s the dish the city uses to introduce itself.
Homemade fermented drink made from the juice of marula fruits, from January to March. In Limpopo, the season opens with the festival of the first fruits, and Phalaborwa hosts the annual marula festival where the drink made by local cooperatives is served.
Pinotage red wine, a grape variety created in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from crossing Pinot Noir with Cinsaut (which in the Cape was called Hermitage). It has a dark color, aromas of red and dark fruits, and soft tannins.
