One important difference between African cuisines is the effects of colonization.
We eat a lot of goat and fish and snail,” says Mashood, who, like Agwu, was raised in Lagos and who moved to the U.S. “The food from Nigeria is very authentic – what many people would consider spicy but not your average spicy – it is spicier than the average spicy to be what people are used to. “So, if we have pepper, it is a very strong pepper flavor.” “There is a common thread in all of Africa, but Nigerian food is unique because we like powerful flavors,” Agwu says. Although there are many similarities among the region’s food cultures, Nigerian food also has its distinctions. Before Mashood opened Buka in 2010, he says, he only remembers one restaurant near JFK Airport where people could be seated and entertained in groups.ĭespite Nigerians being the most numerous among West Africans in the US, it is Senegalese cuisine that seems to have a somewhat greater visibility.
“There were always Nigerian restaurants in New York, but they were not places where you can take friends because they were mostly ‘hole in the wall’,” says Lookman Mashood, chef and owner of Buka, a Nigerian restaurant in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. However, there is no Nigerian restaurant yet in Manhattan the eateries have kept to Brooklyn and Queens, where the community is residentially concentrated. New York City, according to census data, has 23,530 foreign-born Nigerians, although the community count becomes much higher when Nigerian-Americans are included. Hema Agwu (right) with business partner Folusho Adeyemo In spite of the size and upward mobility of the community, however, Nigerian food hasn’t made a splash in the New York food scene and has stayed relatively under wraps for most people outside West African communities. They also constitute one of the most educated ethnic groups, according to a 2017 Census Bureau report. has been growing quickly and is significantly concentrated in Texas and New York. The end result, he claims, leaves even those who resist spicy food asking for more. Marinated with a house-made hot spice blend, the tender meat is presented with colorful seasonal vegetables and a final sprinkling of the suya spice, which Agwu performs with a showman’s flourish. After making an initial appearance last November as a pop-up in Crown Heights, the eatery is back – permanently. The 29-year-old self-taught chef serves suya - a roasted skewer meat relished in the streets of Nigeria - at The Suya Guy. Hema Agwu, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, has found a flamboyant way of bringing the taste of his country to New York.