Fish tea is a spicy soup in

Caribbean cuisine Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of West African,"Cuisine."
(Caribbean.
Jamaican cuisine Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavours and spices influenced by Amerindian, African, Irish, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern people who have inhabited the island. It is also infl ...

. It is similar to a fish bouillon and can take several hours to prepare. It includes ground

yam Yam or YAM may refer to: Plants and foods *Yam (vegetable), common name for members of ''Dioscorea'' * Taro, known in Malaysia and Singapore as yam * Sweet potato, specifically its orange-fleshed cultivars, often referred to as yams in North Amer ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a vernacular term for mature winter squash of species and varieties in the genus '' Cucurbita'' that has culinary and cultural significance but no agreed upon botanical or scientific meaning. The term ''pumpkin'' is sometimes u ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...

and green bananas, cooked until very soft. As much as 15 pounds of fish is added to make five gallons.Fish Tea Cookoff a big part of East End Surf Challenge
10 January 2006 Camanian Compass Carrots and

cho–cho Chayote (''Sechium edule''), also known as mirliton and choko, is an edible plant belonging to the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. This fruit was first cultivated in Mesoamerica between southern Mexico and Honduras, with the most genetic diversity ...

can also be added. It is flavored with

coconut milk Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food i ...

and seasoned with various ingredients that may include black pepper, salt, thyme, butter, scallion and season–all."Alan Ebank
Surfers find it tea–licious
13 January 2009 Cay Compass Fish tea is similar to traditional "rundown", but instead of chunks the ingredients are boiled until they are in a "soupy liquid form". Some believe it to be an

aphrodisiac An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire, sexual attraction, sexual pleasure, or sexual behavior. Substances range from a variety of plants, spices, foods, and synthetic chemicals. Natural aphrodisiacs like cannabis or coca ...

and it is associated with various legends and rumors: *"If you drink that fish tea, you’ll have to chain yourself to the bed post at night or else you’ll walk all night" (in search of adventure) *"Men who haven’t fathered children all of a sudden produced twins" *"Once you take that fish tea you won't be able to walk a straight line." According to a Cayman Islands publication "those who taste the fish tea always seem to come back for more."

References

Caribbean cuisine Jamaican cuisine Fish and seafood soups {{Jamaica-cuisine-stub

See also

References