#GetFact'd: Umgeni sand was used to build the Empire State Building!
Imagine the city of Durban being responsible for the foundation of the Empire State Building?!
Darren Maule's Get Fact'd gives you interesting information that is both educational and informative.
And it always leaves Keri and Sky intrigued...
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1.
The sand from the Umgeni River was used in the construction of the foundation of the Empire State Building in New York.
A ship known as the Sandgate Castle was loaded with the sand in Durban to balance it on a long journey.
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The sand was supposed to be dumped at sea before arrival in New York.
However, the harbour authorities radioed the ship and asked it could offload the sand at the quay from where contractors took it.
2.
The exact origins of the Bunny Chow are shrouded in myth and legend but one school of thought has it that it was invented by a chef at the Queen's Tavern.
Another theory is that it was invented for the Indian caddies at the Royal Durban Golf Course, who were unable to get off from work for long enough to nip into Grey Street for a curry at lunchtime.
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The story goes that they got their friends to go and buy the curry for them and that it was brought back to the golf course in hollowed-out loaves of bread because there were no disposable food containers at the time.
The explanation that Bunnies were first made in Grey Street does hold a bit of water because the shopkeepers there were known as banias.
Therefore, the phrase Bunny Chow could mean food from the shopkeepers.
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If the origin of the Bunny was in Grey Street, then a prime candidate for the place where it was invented is the G.C. Kapitan Vegetarian Restaurant, which operated at 154 Grey Street between 1912 and 1992.
Whether the bunny was invented there or not, G.C. Kapitan’s beans bunny was famous and enjoyed by ordinary people and such luminaries as Indira Gandhi.
Make sure you tune in Monday to Friday after 08:00 for Darren Maule's Get Fact'd. If you missed out on any facts during the week, then go listen to them all on our podcast here.
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