It's guinea pig. Yes, I ate guinea pig. Cuy is a traditional dish in the Andes and is often eaten for special occasions. Elly, Ngaire, and I were directed to a restaurant up in the hills that serves only cuy. There were two choices, I think fried and roasted. They were quite affordable, about 30 soles each, or 10USD, so we got one of each. They came served with potatoes and a stuffed pepper and one had a large black stuffed something, we believe it was intestine.
We were rather nervous, but started to dig in. We quickly discovered it is quite hard to get the meat out. There are so many little bones that get in the way. The locals at the other tables were using their hands and sucking at the bones, but we weren't brave enough to do that. We managed to pull out little pieces of meat which sort of tasted like dark meat chicken.
Conveniently, as you can see, the cuy came with the head, and the organs. I popped a kidney in my mouth (after a significant amount of convincing myself) and I don't think it tasted too bad. However, knowing that it was a kidney forced me to spit it out. Elly and Ngaire both had a bit of heart which was chewy and meaty. That was definitely the most difficult food adventure I've ever had. Luckily our meal was finished off with a shot of something that tasted like peppermint schnapps. Our understanding was to settle the stomach. I don't know why you would serve a food that requires liquor afterwards.
Compared to the table next to us that simply left a pile of bones, we didn't quite finish our meal.
Notice the little claws?
We had gone for cuy for lunch, so of course it was now time for a 2nd lunch. We took the bus from up in the hilltops down towards the city. It was quite interesting. It was a small 15 passenger van basically with extra seats thrown in. It was empty towards the top of the hill, but filled up quickly. It was very cozy, especially when a little boy got on with a dripping ice cream cone and lurched towards me when the bus moved. Luckily, I was safe. Besides the driver, there is also a person who stands at the door (sliding door) to open/close, yell out destinations, and to collect money. It was quite an experience.
Our 2nd lunch was at Paddy's Pub, which is Irish. It was a bit more familiar with signs in English and familiar food. I had a large plate of nachos and tried Elly's bread and butter pudding (?) which was pretty good.
We continued to the Incan Museum which had 28 lengthy, and freezing, rooms. It started with some info on pre-Incan civilizations and moved to Incan artifacts. There was even a room with several mummies which was interesting. After seeing a significant amount of pottery, we finally made out way out. Unfortunately, picture taking was not allowed in there.
We returned back home for a dinner of ratatouille with yellow rice. Afterwards I had the pleasure of watching a spoof of 300 called Meet the Spartans. Horribly distasteful, yet delightfully funny.
I think the cuy experience was one of the funnest (most fun?) adventures I have had. I was grossed out by the thought of eating guinea pig, but I'm in Peru to experience the country and the culture, so I"m glad I didn't say no.
No comments:
Post a Comment