Booya
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Booya is a food that is prepared like a stew, but on a very large scale. It takes many cooks to prepare the food, and it is usually meant to serve hundreds or even thousands of people. The name booya is also used to describe the event surrounding the meal, and is probably a degenerated form of the name bouillabaisse.
In the cooking of booya, one makes a base or broth to which other food can be added derived from culinary bones. Beef, chicken, and pork are popular meats for booya, and vegetables such as carrots, rutabagas, and potatoes are also put into the mix. A wide variety of seasonings are often used.
The preparation of booya often takes up to two days, generally cooked in specially designed booya kettles that can hold more than 50 gallons of the stew. Generally made for charity events, some community groups and churches have their own kettles, while other groups rely on municipal kettles. Highland Park in St. Paul, Minnesota has a shed with 5 kettles which can have a total yield of 350 gallons of booya. The kettles have been around for several decades, but as of December 2003, there is controversy regarding the safety of the burners used to heat them.
The noise a shotgun makes when fired is called booya by some. This meaning is used by the gangsta rap band Booya Tribe, a group of Samoans.
Booya is also used as a motivational utterance by many groups, such as Marines, other members of the military, and violent criminal gangs. Booya is also a word used by powerful financial minds such as Christopher Letts and Jim Cramer of CNBC.