Connecting Through Flavor

Texas is far away from East Africa, but all you need to do is head to the Texas Farmers Market at Mueller on any given Sunday to grab a bag of crispy, spiced sambusas. Aromatic and delicious, Habos East African Cuisine makes this beloved comfort food in three varieties: beef, chicken, and potato. The dough is paper-thin and gluten-free, fried perfectly if you want to buy them ready-to-eat there, but you can also purchase them frozen to make later. 

Other savory offerings include baajiye (bah-jee-yay), which are fried savory patties made from ground chickpeas mixed with spices. There are also wraps. They are mouthwatering (I had the potato one) handcrafted flatbreads filled with either organic chicken spiced in a Somali blend, halal beef, or spiced vegan potatoes and veggies from local farms. 

But if you’re in the mood for something sweet, try the fluffy, cardamom-spiced buur. Reminiscent of beignets, they come covered in brown sugar or powdered sugar. Everything is prepped in-house and then fried to a perfect golden brown on-site.

A Family Story 

I spoke with Nemo Yusuf to learn more about how Habos East African Cuisine came to be. She told me, “My inspiration came from moving to Austin in 1999 and craving my home food.” Being Somali from Ethiopia, she didn’t see a lot of cuisine that was familiar to her when she came to America. To feel closer to home, she decided to try to recreate her grandmother’s crispy sambusa recipe. “I missed being at my family’s house, and I spent a long time trying to recreate her recipe.” 

Nowadays Yusuf’s children, their friends, and her nieces and nephews all come over to enjoy sambusa and other Somali/Ethiopian cuisine. They enjoyed it so much that they encouraged Yusuf to start her own business so other people could taste their culture’s cuisine. With her family’s help, it took about 3 months to establish everything and set it up properly. She applied to start an LLC and began working in a commercial kitchen.  

Eventually, Yusuf began selling at the Texas Farmers’ Market in Bell (originally Lakeline) in December of 2023. It was successful, and she expanded to vend at Mueller in February 2026. Yusuf says, “My best-selling products at Mueller are the Beef Sambusa (a crispy, flaky dough stuffed with spiced ground beef, onions, jalapeno pepper, cilantro, and green onion); the Chicken Wrap (a chapati wrap with spiced chicken, peppers, and onions with a side of cucumber salad); and the Potato Fatira (flatbread with egg, mozzarella, and potato sambusa filling).” She praised the customers she comes into contact with at Mueller, commenting that everyone is genuinely so kind and welcoming. “If I see someone once, the next time I run into them at the market, it’s like we are family.”  

Somehow, that doesn’t come as a surprise, as the name “Habo” means “aunt.” And as a wonderful aunt, everyone would come to Habo’s house to eat and gather. It’s a sweet reminder that the market at Mueller truly is built on community. “Sharing my food with Austin makes me feel closer to the community, like I’m sharing what home feels like to me through food,” Yusuf says. 

If you miss the food on Sunday at Mueller, you can find it at the Bell Market on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Their frozen sambusas are also available at Shahi Foods, International Foods, and Al Zaytoon Market. 

I recommend stopping by Habo’s East African Cuisine and watching Yusuf do what she loves—cooking her beloved food to share with all of us.

Carmen Gray has lived in Austin since 1992. She is a retired teacher, published author, and freelance writer.