Township Sandwich · Soweto Original

Kota

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It was born as a way around apartheid segregation — Black mineworkers barred from many cafes and given no lunch break needed food they could carry and eat fast underground.

A kota is a hollowed-out quarter loaf of white bread stuffed with a hearty, customizable mix of fillings, classically slap chips, polony, atchar (spiced mango pickle) and cheese. Vendors build it to order at township stalls, wrapping the loaded loaf in paper for eating on the go.

Why it's made this way: Its name comes from township slang for the "quarter" loaf it's built from, and it emerged from the apartheid-era migrant labor system, when women sold cheap, filling carb-heavy sandwiches to mineworkers who had little time or few legal places to eat.