Nick Hamman

A hollowed-out loaf of white bread, filled with curry and eaten with your hands. The exact origin story is still debated, but the most consistent history points to Durban’s Indian community around the 1940s, linking the word “bunny” to the Bania or Baniya, merchant class. What is not up for debate is that this was food born out of ingenuity, exclusion, community, and deep flavour. A portable meal that turned limited resources into something iconic. And that is why searching for a great bunny chow outside of Durban is dangerous work. People are protective for good reason. So yes, Joburg has a lot to prove here. But these five spots seriously did. Nick Hamman is a South African broadcaster, storyteller, and food-culture creator. He is the host of 5FM’s national breakfast show, 5 Breakfast, and the creator of Hammy Eats, a platform dedicated to discovering the people, places, and stories behind South African food. Follow Time Out Johannesburg on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram! While you're at it, sign up for our newsletter to receive even more of the best of your city.

There are plenty of places to get a warm drink in Johannesburg. These aren't those places. This list isn't about latte art or cafés that look like they were designed for first dates that will never go anywhere. This list is about places with stories. Places where a cup of coffee, tea or chai comes with culture, history, community and, more often than not, actual value for money. Johannesburg might be one of the best cities in the world for warm drinks. Within an hour you can drink Ethiopian coffee, Taiwanese milk tea, Chinese jasmine tea, Turkish coffee, masala coffee and a township cappuccino without ever leaving the 011. Not every great warm drink in Johannesburg comes from a trendy café with exposed brick walls and a R70 flat white. Some come from Chinese tea rooms hidden in Cyrildene, Ethiopian restaurants in Milpark, Turkish cafés in Fordsburg and ambitious young entrepreneurs building something special in Alexandra. So before you order another forgettable flat white, consider this your invitation to explore. Nick Hamman is a South African broadcaster, storyteller, and food-culture creator. He is the host of 5FM’s national breakfast show, 5 Breakfast, and the creator of Hammy Eats, a platform dedicated to discovering the people, places, and stories behind South African food. Follow Time Out Johannesburg on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram! While you're at it, sign up for our newsletter to receive even more of the best of your city.

Johannesburg is South Africa’s real global African city. Gold pulled people here in 1886. Since then, people have arrived for work, safety, school fees, second chances, family, faith, love, and survival. After the nineties, Joburg opened itself again, this time to more of our neighbours from the African continent. I think one of the best ways to understand Johannesburg is to eat with the people who came here to build new lives, carrying the knowledge of what they ate back home. Food travels when people do. Recipes survive borders. Restaurants become a communal space where people can connect around a shared understanding of a plate. So, for Africa Month, I wanted to share the places in Joburg where you can taste the continent without leaving the city. Go respectfully. Ask questions. Pay properly. Eat with your hands when that is how the food is meant to be eaten. And remember that someone’s everyday lunch may be the thing that teaches you more about Joburg than you ever thought possible. Below are 11 of my favourite places to experience African food in Johannesburg. Nick Hamman is a South African broadcaster, storyteller, and food-culture creator. He is the host of 5FM’s national breakfast show, 5 Breakfast, and the creator of Hammy Eats, a platform dedicated to discovering the people, places, and stories behind South African food. Follow Time Out Johannesburg on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram! While you're at it, sign up for our newsletter to receive even more of the best o

Youth Month in South Africa can become a performance very quickly. The speeches are polished, the posters go up, and the same people who failed young people all year suddenly start speaking about their future. I do not have much patience for that. What I do have time for are the young people building anyway. The ones with no perfect conditions, no big safety net, no waiting room full of investors, just a skill, a plan and enough stubbornness to keep opening the doors. That is what took me to SouthSide Grills in Protea Glen, Soweto, to meet 24-year-old, Hloni Motaung. Protea Glen is one of those places that tells you a lot about Johannesburg if you are willing to look properly. There are new houses, backyard businesses, food spots, families trying to move forward and the usual township frustrations sitting right next to the progress: power issues, service delivery problems, bad roads, rising costs. It is not easy ground to build on. But that’s not stopping Hloni. His story starts with his mother, Constance. After she was retrenched, she gave him her last R10 000 so he could start something of his own. Soon after that, she passed away. That R10 000 meant everything to Hloni. It carried trust. It was his mother saying, “I believe you can do something with this,” at a time when she had every reason to hold onto it herself. You can really feel that sense of responsibility in the way Hloni works. Nick HammanSouthSide Grills in Protea Glen, Soweto When I arrived, the weather was m