Meet the man who is elevating kota, a popular street food made out of a quarter loaf of bread, to the next level.
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00:00Introducing Soweto's favourite street food, the kota.
00:09What makes this simple staple from the township so unique?
00:14Kota goes back to the industrial world where you had miners working long shifts and of
00:20course they weren't getting paid a lot of money.
00:23So it was really food for the people you know.
00:26Here is the man who wants to build a kota empire and this is the home where it all began.
00:33Tabanele Duaba started selling kotas in the heart of Soweto.
00:37What started in a garage is now a business with three food trucks in Soweto and the CBD
00:42of Santon.
00:46So now we're making our famous Nemo seafood kota.
00:51So now we're going to spice up the seafood.
00:57I think now we can go to the flat top and start grilling a little bit.
01:09Okay, so most of our kotas when we assemble, we try and keep the least amount of bread
01:17around the kota.
01:19So it's sort of like a sly on each side.
01:24We'll start with the base of chips.
01:28And there you have it, one of Tabanele's decadently different seafood kotas.
01:48I ate a prawn kota.
01:51I've done a lot in my life but that changed it.
01:55It was fabulous.
01:57It's probably one of the most amazing kotas I've ever had in my life.
02:00But before we find out why this kota has conquered the suburbs, let's take a closer look at the
02:06origins of this popular street food.
02:09So the bread was used as a container.
02:11Literally it's like the easiest way to take your meal because then you could just eat
02:16the bread also afterwards as part of the container.
02:19So initially when the kota started or when they used to take like maybe their leftover
02:25supper so they'd have meat or whatever they were eating the night before as like the protein.
02:32They would take it inside the bread.
02:34And the name kota?
02:36Kota is really just a loaf of bread that's been quartered to four quarters of course
02:41and that's where the word kota comes in.
02:44And I grew up having the kota with cheaper ingredients and to be quite frank it was delicious.
02:51It was good and still till today I still have it.
02:54I think you know things have changed.
02:56I've got people who've grown up in the townships enjoying the kota and have moved to more suburbia
03:01and their palates have grown as much as their lifestyles.
03:05And what we've tried to do is try and match that.
03:09So people who would rather have fresher ingredients, more quality ingredients we've put into a kota.
03:16We've tried to cater for different taste profiles and I think that's what makes us special.
03:23There's even a vegetarian version.
03:25Most township kotas are generally made up of chips, acha and some processed meats.
03:31But Thabane's special menu boasts ingredients that are a far cry from the kota's humble beginnings.
03:38Think calamari, fish, avocado and you've got the picture.
03:43A lot of people don't like evo which is criminal.
03:46Thabane's also very hands on in his business and loves making these unconventional gourmet kotas.
03:54In 2017 I got a job and a few of my friends weren't working.
03:59And where we started in Protea North, Mama Sly had a kota business.
04:04And she closed down and I think she was getting tired as she was aging.
04:09So I thought, you know what, with the little money that I'm making, let us try and open up this kota business.
04:16With the idea that I had to sort of bring in the kota and put it next to the more established food brands.
04:25It deserves some sort of respect and awareness.
04:28And we thought, you know, let's bring the kota and see how far we can take it.
04:34Thabane's kotas might be two to three times the price of a traditional kota.
04:39And his kitchens are pumping out kotas.
04:42But this wasn't always the case.
04:45What were the biggest challenges when he started taking the kota out of the township?
04:50We still had to teach, get people to learn and unlearn and then relearn.
04:56And to understand what we are trying to bring into the market.
05:00So I think that was really our biggest issue because we would sell really little.
05:06But that few people that knew what we were trying to do, who appreciated what we were doing, would support us.
05:12So in terms of revenue, we'd sell but not really make the gross profit that we need to sustain it.
05:18We had to do a lot of deliveries.
05:21As I said, working here in Sandton, I'd walk around, get people from different companies to order.
05:28And we'd get bulk orders and we would transport them here.
05:32So that was a way of tapping into this market.
05:35This was about five years ago.
05:37And slowly but surely, the love starts to build.
05:41Born out of necessity during apartheid, this iconic street food has taken on a modern twist through Thabane and his team's innovative vision.
05:50Even with calamari or prawn, people continue to embrace their daily bread.