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For the right texture, you can't put too much water too much seasoning. “You have to care for it a lot so that it doesn't burn. That's the same way you cook Jollof rice,” she explains. “It's like watching new born babies for them not to choke. Asked how she makes her version of Jollof, Ogbe says it’s not that hard. Ruth’s version is coated with spice bloomed oil that leaves your mouth warm and wanting more. Made across Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal, the matter of who makes the best version of the tomato-laden rice dish is an active topic of debate among West Africans. Unsurprisingly, the most popular item at Ruth’s Buka is the West African staple, Jollof rice. “We eat it fresh back home not like here where everything is frozen,” she explains. Ogbe is also buying and breaking down whole cows and goats for her restaurant and catering customers. “Basically, all our ingredients come from different parts of Nigeria because we serve different parts of Nigeria not just one culture,” she says. To bring these flavors of Nigerian cuisine to Oakland, Ogbe has vendors back in Nigeria who ship her ingredients over here. Ogbe carries this same spirit of regional diversity at her buka, providing diners with dishes from Nigeria’s delta region, as well as Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba specialties. At bukas, the menu is a visual one - pots simmer with different specialties from across the nation and folks make combinations as they please from what is in front of them.

In Nigeria, a buka refers to casual dining spots that function as social hubs as much as eateries, often spilling out of open-view kitchens into the street. First cooking out of her home and later running a catering business out of a commercial kitchen in Oakland, she has served at weddings and parties for the Nigerian and larger West African community in the Bay Area.Īt Ruth’s Buka, she’s had the autonomy of space - a kitchen all her own where she can maintain her catering business while her customers can dine in and socialize in the front. Though Ogbe’s restaurant is only one of three Nigerian restaurants in the East Bay (Miliki is nearby in the Laurel and Golden Safari in neighboring Hayward), it doesn’t necessarily account for catering-only and informal kitchens that folks run out of their homes in the area. “I always had it in my mind like when I'm ready, that's what I'm gonna do,” she says. When Ogbe first moved to Oakland from Lagos in 1998, she couldn’t find any Nigerian restaurants to eat at when she didn’t want to cook, so she eventually opened her own to fill that hole. Opened five years ago in October of 2015, Ruth’s Buka sits on the corner of a quiet stretch of Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland in a neighborhood of homes, mosques and churches. Either they knew their order by heart or Sunny Ogbe, Ruth Ogbe’s husband who helps manage the family-run Nigerian restaurant, knew exactly what the customers came in to eat.įor those not as familiar with the menu at Ruth’s Buka, you’d see a list of specialties from all over Nigeria starting with the crowd-pleasing Jollof rice to a variety of stews from Egusi to bitter leaf and pepper soup featuring your choice of fish, chicken, beef or goat. Images by krixsssyeats on Instagram.OAKLAND (KQED)-During the hour and change that I was at Ruth’s Buka last Wednesday, not a single customer looked at a menu when they ordered their food. This Black-owned restaurant/food biz list is now searchable.Ībesha, Addis Ethiopian, Alamar Kitchen, Alem’s Coffee, Asmara, Barcote, Blue Nile, Brown Sugar Kitchen, Burlap Coffee, Cafe Colucci, Cafe Dejena, Cafe Romanat, Caroline’s Creole Kitchen, Chef Smelly’s, Cupcakin’ Bake Shop, Devaughn’s Cajun Kitchen, Dixon’s, Drexl, Elve’s BBQ and Soul Food, Ensarro Ethiopian, Everett & Jones Barbecue, Fat Man Super BBQ, Flip N Soul, Fort Green, Gourmet Puff, Grandeur, Gregory’s Gourmet Desserts, Home of Chicken and Waffles, Horn BBQ, Hot Dog Co., It’s All Good Bakery, James and the Giant Cupcake, Jusla Eats, Kefa Coffeee, Kingston 11 Cuisine, Kopia Delices, Lane-E Kefa Coffee, Lena’s Soul Food Cafe, Little Giant Ice Cream, Lois the Pie Queen, Malibu’s Burgers, Mela Bistro, Messob Ethiopian Restaurant, Mexiq, Mi Granny’s Kitchen, Miliki, The Miranda, Miss Ollie’s, Monifa Dayo, Oeste, Red Bay Coffee, Red Sea, Reaschelle’s Cheesecakes, Roderick’s BBQ, Rush Bowls, Ruth’s Buka, Selam, Jusla Eats, Shewat, Smokin’ Woods BBQ, Sobre Mesa, Souley Vegan, Southern Cafe, Sugarsweet, Super Juiced, Teni East Kitchen, The Cook and Her Farmer, The Hatch, The Veg Hub, Uncle Willie’s Original BBQ and Fish, Vegan Mob, Suya African Grill. The SF Chronicle’s food critic Soleil Ho put together a crowd-sourced list of Black-owned food businesses in the Bay Area in response to the civil unrest after the death of George Floyd by police.