Fortunately there are Jewish relatives here to spend holidays with, since she travels to Australia only every few years. Since she lives in Williamsburg, she has only to go to Greenpoint for Polish delicacies that satisfy those cravings.
Goldberg, whose father’s family is from Israel and mother’s from Hungary, sometimes yearns for Eastern European foods. If diners are impressed, and it’s hard not to be by the unusual, assertive flavors, and want to replicate Buka’s dishes, the new market will supply exotic spices, stocks, leaves, recipes and beauty products. Many main courses, like tilapia, red snapper, chicken and igbin (large land snails) are saucy tomato, onion and red pepper-based. And the little oil that’s used in the kitchen is palm oil. While not kosher (many Nigerians are Muslim), Buka’s halal food has similarities: no pork, no dairy. Since there’s no such thing as appetizers in Nigerian cuisine, the section of the menu marked as that, actually offers street foods like yam fries, honey bean cake (moi moi), meat pies and grilled tiger shrimp.ĭuring high school summer vacations, Goldberg visited her father who was living in Nigeria and grew to know and respect West African traditions (eating with the right hand) and cooking. More fish, this time dried, appears in egusi with ground melon seeds steamed with spinach. Oha soup is a hearty melange of beef, smoked fish and oha leaves. There are dimensions to the dishes that defy the norm. Nor do they “tone down foods to suit the American palate.” Goldberg is not kidding when she says the food is hot. New Yorkers with a sense of adventure gravitate to Buka for cow feet or goat head cooked in Igbo spices. The meaning of Buka is small, side-of-the-road restaurant, maybe lacking in appearance but totally delivering in quality.Īnd the city’s Nigerian community has embraced them, according to Goldberg, who believes 70% of their customers are from Nigeria. Unless you really knew where to go, where to find New York’s innocuous, hole-in-wall places, you couldn’t eat Nigerian food in the city, she said.
Goldberg believes their ethnic eatery featuring recipes from Mashood’s family and the country’s myriad ethnic groups, filled a void.
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