Five Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Buka

When Lookman Afolayan came to the U.S., the only thing bigger than his dreams was the flavor in his goat pepper soup. He risked it all to build a Nigerian restaurant he could be proud of.

In this episode, I sit down with Lookman and Abiodun Afolayan, owners of Buka. As I sweat my way through a bowl of pepper soup, we talk about Nigerian food, family, and what it takes to build a restaurant from the ground up.

Read more about what we ate!

EPISODE CREDITS

Produced & Edited by Diane Bezucha

Music

• “Fela Kuti | Afrobeat Instrumental | Burna Boy-type Beat” by Amen Music
• “Top West African Drums for Powerful Rhythms: Explore the Best Djembes & Dununs” by African Drumming
• “Sprinkle of Trouble_Medium (Comedy)” by Grand_Project
• “Too Good For Punk (positive funk)” by Kulakovka
• “Cooking Food Music” by BackgroundMusicForVideos
• “Nigeria Pulse” by u_98673jp944
• “Funk” by The_Mountain
• Ethiopian Worldbeat by soundoffreedom
• “Watermarks” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Crab Shack, (2018)
• “City Limits” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album Albany, NY (2015)
• “Grey Grey joe” by Blue Dot Sessions from the album TinyTiny Trio, (2019)