'ItвЂ™s a Hausa word, and it means on the side of the road, or local joint, where you can take friends, where everybody knows you can get good food. Like, a Nigerian will come here sometimes and itвЂ™s too white, and theyвЂ™re like, вЂI want to go to a Nigerian restaurant,вЂ™ and IвЂ™m like, вЂThis is a Nigerian restaurant.вЂ™ '

When you come here on Saturday night, you will not even imagine this is a Nigerian restaurant. I am surviving in business because of the support of whites or Americans who are not afraid to start something new. Mashood said the makeup of his clientele is about '45 percent Nigerians and 55 percent everybody else. Whatever we cook, itвЂ™s very distinctive - that, colonialism has not been able to change! So, IвЂ™m very proud to say I present Nigerian food as it should be, in New York.' We always bring the flavor out of anything we cook, whether itвЂ™s fish, whether itвЂ™s beef, whether itвЂ™s chicken. 'Anybody can cook goat anybody can cook beef but when a Nigerian man cooks beef for you, you will see the difference. ItвЂ™s not the same as Ghana, or Ethiopian,' he said. вЂњThereвЂ™s no food compared to Nigerian food. Mashood spoke to VOA recently and showed off his cooking skills in the kitchen, stirring a pot of Egusi soup made with ground squash seeds, goat meat and dried fish, among other ingredients. But Buka may well be the most popular Nigerian restaurant. Mashood said itвЂ™s now the most popular African restaurant in New York, which is debatable - there are at least 50, including many specializing in Senegalese and Ethiopian food. About five years ago, he and his girlfriend, Australian architect Natalie Goldberg, opened their own restaurant in Brooklyn - Buka New York - featuring Nigerian food. Lookman Afolayan Mashood immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 1996, first working at a Brooklyn restaurant as a dishwasher, cook and manager.

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