Not even listeriosis can stop Cape Town's legendary gatsby

The legendary Cape Town gatsby is safe from depolonisation thanks to local Muslim butchers.

Many food sellers have removed polony and viennas from their menus after the revelation that Enterprise polony was the source of the listeria outbreak which has killed 180 South Africans in what is the world's worst outbreak.

Polony is one of the key ingredients of the gatsby‚ a cheap local delicacy weighing almost a kilogram also containing "slap" chips‚ tomato‚ onion‚ and various sauces stuffed into a massive roll the length of a man’s forearm.

But halaal cafés‚ which make up the bulk of gatsby suppliers in Cape Town‚ say they have been able to stave off starvation because their polony is sourced from Muslim butchers.

Raschma Dawood from Mountain View Takeaways in Long Street‚ an important lunch stop for city centre office workers‚ said her polony supply was safe - but in any case‚ other gatsbys were more popular.

“We don’t sell a lot of polony gatsbys‚ we sell a lot of chicken and steak gatsbys‚ that’s also why we are not so affected‚” said Dawood.