Fingerlickin' fast food 'environment friendly'

Businesswoman Sue Coleclough is launching a revolutionary mobile fast food which involves no waste or rubbish. The food originates from Durban in South Africa, where it is known as bunnychow, and consists of curry served inside a hollowed out loaf of bread.

Ms Coleclough of Park Street, St Albans, came up with the idea of selling bunnychow from specially designed three-wheeled vans after living in South Africa for 17 years.

She said: "It is one of the few good things to come out of the apartheid era. "Black people weren't allowed in the restaraunts, but one restaraunt had this idea of something people could eat on the street.

"We felt it would be something different that the UK market would enjoy. "As it is traditionally eaten without cutlery, this is a food with no polystyrene involved, no plastic and no excess rubbish it is environmentally friendly.

"If you see us out and about, stop us and buy one." She has commissioned ten vehicles from the Piaggio scooter company, and hopes to franchise the business throughout Britain. The idea is to have the vehicles roaming the streets looking for custom, or being hailed by hungry pedestrians. The obvious market is in city centres after the pubs have closed, but licensing laws will stop the vans trading on the streets after 11pm. If they want to serve later, they would need licences for specific spots, rather negating the concept of a service free to serve wherever it finds customers.

Ms Coleclough says the food, marketed under the name Rafiki's derived from the Swahili word for friend is healthy as it contains no added colourings or salt. She will soon be introducing other South African foods such as boerwors (a spicy sausage in a roll), koeksisters (a syrup pastry) and a rusk for dunking in hot drinks. Two of the vehicles are now serving food in the St Albans area and she hopes customers will soon be phoning her for orders. Bunnychow can be either vegetarian or with meat, and is sold for £3.50 at lunchtimes or £4.50 in the evenings.