Maureen Andrews is one half along with Gary of the mother and son team behind Ostrich and the Egg, a South African eatery and bar in St Kilda. When you step through the door off Inkerman Street, you feel as though you are stepping into their home. Not surprising really, Maureen has always welcomed and cooked for family, friends, the community and once for 500 people at a volleyball club event. She loves it! Gary made me a cup of rooibos tea and I sat down for a lovely chat with Maureen before she got called away to cook for customers. There’s a braai out the back and Friday night is braai night on a revolving vegetarian, seafood and meat basis. And this Sunday (22nd September) you’ll find Maureen and Gary at the Foodie Trail's African Festival Queen Victoria Market’s at Queen Victoria Market.
Tell me, Maureen, did you open here last year?
Yes, next month we will have been here one year.
I read that you do mostly sweet things, particularly the South African doughnuts but I can see on the menu you have a full savoury list too.
We used to just do sweets. We started doing Koeksisters.
I saw a picture of those. So that’s a really big thing in South Africa?
Yes, especially among the Cape provinces.
Are they made with yeast?
Yes. We use yeast, potato and a mixture of four or five spices, it all depends on the individual harmony of spices; some put too much aniseed, some put too many.
And you put just the right amount?
Apparently I do. You have to get the balance right, especially for Australians because they may not have tried it before. You don’t want to put people off, you want them to enjoy the experience.
And it’s similar to a doughnut?
Yes. Except it’s made with sweet potato, other South African recipes have potato, but I use sweet potato. It gives it that colour on the inside.
That’s interesting, so the orangey colour. When did you come to Australia?
21 years ago.
Did you train to be a chef? Or is this your traditional food from home?
It’s my traditional food and my experience that comes with it.
What is your experience? All the years of cooking, I imagine!
Yes, 40 years of cooking.
What else do you make here?
We make the Milk Tart or Melktert in Afrikaans. It’s an iconic dessert, very traditional.
And it’s a custard tart?
We say custard tart for the Australians to understand but there’s no custard in it.
How do you make it…without giving away the secret?
Cornflour and milk and eggs, but the consistency is the thing. You have to stand there and get the consistency and the temperature just right. You can either overcook or undercook the cornflour. Then we have the Peppermint Crisp Parfait and the Malva Pudding too.
And you also have savoury now?
Yes, we have the traditional Biltong and Boerewors, then the Samoosas which is also a Cae Malay thing. We make a Boerewors Scroll which is our spiced sausage in puff pastry.
Do you make the sausage?
No, the butcher makes that and I just cook it. I get the mince and the sausage itself from him and we use the mince in the scrolls.
This is my full-time love job. They used to call my house the half-way house in South Africa; people would drive past and say they could smell the bacon for breakfast and we always had people there
Is it new for you to be cooking for the public?
No, I’m used to that. I was a school secretary and school teacher but I always had a passion for cooking, so when I got married I started doing everything myself. I taught myself just by eating food, tasting it. I also had seven years cooking in the canteen at the soccer club and we did catering there for functions. I have cooked for 500 people by myself. It doesn’t sound right, but it is. It was for a volleyball end of year celebration.
What did you make?
I made chicken and meatballs, a lot of things. It was 35 years ago.
When you came here, were there many people doing South African food?
No, there weren’t South African shops.
So that’s when you had to start make it yourself to remember the flavours?
At home, but we never thought of doing anything more. This all happened in 2015 when we got the koeksister van.
What made you get that van? Was that Gary’s idea?
It was more Gary than me. Sunday morning was koeksister morning, we had koeksisters and that was your breakfast. So he said, maybe we could sell this. We invited some of the foodie girls and did a demonstration at the Yarra River with somebody else and let them taste it. Once we had a following, we got the van. The van was just koeksisters and rooibos tea then.
Is that what you’re selling at Queen Victoria Market on Sunday?
No we are selling other food; the Bunny Chow (South African curry), Samoosas and Peri Peri Chicken and the Wors, the sausage.
Do you do quite a few festivals?
Not anymore, but when we first got the van, yes we went all over. We even did Lorne. I was the only one making them; 4500 of them by hand; one after the other. And I had a full-time job as well.
And now, this is your full-time job?
Yes, this is my full-time love job.
Clearly you do like to feed people and you have always cooked to feed people.
Yes, they used to call my house the half-way house in South Africa, people would drive past and say they could smell the bacon for breakfast and we always had people there.
Tell me about the name, Ostrich and the Egg.
That was another mystery. Gary just liked the sound of that and we were at Welcome to Thornbury or Preston Market or Hank Marvin and a girl said, oh so now I get it, it’s Ostrich and the Egg, looking at me then Gary.
And that wasn’t the original thought?
No. I thought, is she for real? Then ever since then, when we opened here, people do say that. Now we always laugh and think back to this girl who first said that.
How different is it working in this kind of context?
Completely different. Because we have more responsibilities now. We have outgoings that we didn’t have before. Overheads and everything has to be taken into consideration.
Does that change the love of it?
No, it makes me more determined. I just have to keep going. I don’t give up easily.
6, Inkerman Street, St Kilda