Actress, producer and TV personality Abida Dixon-Mohamad has hit the streets with her tasty meals by opening her own halaal food truck in Maitland.
You might have seen Abida make a few appearances in Suidooster, Arendsvlei, Skemergrond or star in Bloed Betaal 2 as Sonja, Dagbreek as Fa-eeza or Tietie Ous in the TV drama series Witsand or the hostess of her cooking show called Proe.
For the past couple of years, she has also sat in as one of the Daily Voice’s pickled fish competitions as a judge.
However, after doing acting for 13 years as a part-time job, she has also been a voluntary producer and presenter for 16 years but says that she doesn't get paid or sponsored for her cooking show.
Abida has now resorted to opening her own halaal food truck kitchen three weeks ago as a way to generate an income after losing her job at the radio station on 1 August 2024 where she worked for two decades.
She explains: “At the moment, I am the breadwinner in the house so I had to do something to put food on the table. I started the food truck because I noticed that it has become a trend. Whenever we attend festivals or events there are always food trucks, so I decided to get one as well.
"We have only been selling food for three weeks so people still need to get used to us so these past few weeks have been a bit tough but we are getting there. This week went much better as it was pay weekend.
"I just started this business so at the moment we are not selling a lot of things but as time goes on, I will definitely be adding more dishes to the menu.”
For now Abida is selling boerewors rolls, chip rolls, samoosas, coffee, tea and cooldrink. She said that in the following weeks she is looking forward to making curries with rotis and rice, chicken wraps, soup, maybe a lekker fish and chips sale.
Despite falling on hard times, she also has a heart for community work and has a feeding scheme which she has been running with her family for 25 years working with about 2500 people.
She adds: “During the year, anyone who comes to ask for food at my house I will make sure they leave with something to eat and if I cannot assist, I will make sure to send them to someone who can.”
You can find Abida at GAS SA no 515, 8th Avenue, Voortrekker Road in Maitland every Monday to Saturday from 8.30am to 4pm.