With their Nigerian takeaway AbuleTiwa, Tola and Shina Adediji have brought the feeling and flavour of their home to Dundee.
When Tola moved to Dundee in January 2022 to study a master’s in international business and HR, she quickly started missing Nigerian food.
On top of struggling to find a restaurant serving food she was used to, she moved without her husband and two children. She spent three months searching for a family home before they all joined her.
The 25-year-old says coming from Nigeria to Dundee was very strange.
“It was lonely at first. At some point, we thought ‘we need to go back home’,” she continues.
“But we decided to just see what unfolds, and it’s been amazing since then.
“We’ve made a lot of friends, and a lot of Nigerian friends. We realised that a lot of Nigerians have been coming to Dundee lately.”
The couple started posting videos online of their home cooking and trying new recipes.
Soon, they invited friends over for meals who suggested Tola and Shina start selling their food.
After securing Albert Street premises earlier this year, AbuleTiwa launched Sunday July 23.
AbuleTiwa ‘feels like we are back home’
The menu of course features Nigerian Jollof rice, with its distinctive smoky flavour.
From their native western Nigeria, the couple have brought amala and abula – a swallow food made with yam flour and soup.
Swallows are dough-like foods made from cooked starchy vegetables or grains. Abula – which means a mixture of soups – is typically eaten with amala.
Nigerian cuisine boasts a range of soups and stews, and popular ingredients are sweet potatoes, plantains and beans. Shina hopes to soon offer Nigerian favourite suya, a spiced grilled meat.
AbuleTiwa is the couple’s first restaurant, but as both their mothers work in the food industry, they have a solid grasp of what’s needed. Tola is also putting her business degree to good use with her own venture.
But most of all, the food is a great cure for feeling homesick.
“It’s amazing, it feels like we are back home,” says Tola.
“Cooking and serving food to people, we meet people who want to talk to us and it’s like a community.”
Shina adds: “We’re lucky we know about these things from our parents. It’s not like we just jumped into an opportunity for a business.
“We know how to make this food and thank God we had the background and what it takes.”
So far, both Nigerians and Dundonians have stopped by the takeaway, keeping the husband and wife team busy.
While their six-year-old daughter and almost two-year-old son aren’t old enough to be in the kitchen yet, they’ve inspired the venture in other ways.
Tola explains: “We thought of Abule as the name, but it was taken. Abule means village, and our daughter’s name begins with Tiwa.
“Tiwa also means our, so together it’s Our Village. It’s just perfect.”
Plans for expansion
The journey to opening the takeaway began in January, and it’s not always been easy.
Shina still has a job in shipping and a business in Nigeria, so he was away when Tola found the Albert Street venue.
With a kitchen secured, rent and bills started running while they navigated how to set up a business.
“We found it difficult starting up because we’re in a new country with different rules and laws,” says Tola.
@abuletiwa At AbuleTiwa, our customers are the heart of everything we do. We appreciate each and everyone of you allowing us to serve you…
“We really needed the right guidance to find out what we needed to do. It’s not been easy to be honest.
“When we started telling people about it, we met people who pointed us in the right direction.”
It’s still the early days of AbuleTiwa, but the entrepreneurs are already eyeing up a move to bigger premises.
They want to offer dine-in as well as takeaway, and expand to other cities in Scotland. All while bringing up two children and juggling work in two different countries.
“It’s not been easy, but it’s been amazing,” smiles Tola.
“It’s a busy life, but it’s good. We’re actually doing something we love doing.”
