Eating Guinea Pigs – Like Eating Your Favourite Childhood Pet!
Today’s ‘out there’ travel photo is provided by Justin who runs True Nomads. It’s about Eating Guinea Pigs in Cusco, Peru! You can follow @truenomads on twitter and Facebook. This appeared on my 52 Tips for Weird Food and Drinks!
Anyway check out the photo below. This was taken by Justin as he was waiting for for a bite to eat. I hope not too many of you are eating a meal if you are reading this. I really don’t want you to vomit all over your computer screen!
Just says “Ya, it was lunch. A Korean girl that I met in Loki hostel and I wanted to try them, but when she saw this, she ran away. I still did, and it turned out pretty good. Kept thinking about my childhood pet guinea pig named Peeti though..”
You’re so right there. I’ve tried eating guinea pig before when I went to Peru, and I must admit, I don’t think they’re great value for money in terms of taste and volume of meat. Guinea pigs are part of the staple diet in Peru and are bred the same way for meals as we in the west breed cows for our burgers. However, the meat is pretty thin and guinea pig can often taste dry and salty. I’d rather tuck into a very large steak in Argentina for sure!
I’m a big believer in trying out new things, hence, while I found the idea of eating an animal that I used to have as a young child growing up a bit confronting, I’m glad I did it just to see what it was like. Even though when a cooked guinea pig comes out to greet you on the plate, it’s teeth are still pointing towards you..
After scoffing down on a meal eating guinea pigs, I guess you could wash it down with a bit of Frog Juice later on! Yummo. Not!
Anyway, check out more at The Food and Cooking of Peru: Traditions, Ingredients, Tastes and Techniques in 60 Classic Recipes. I’m guessing that guinea pigs must appear in here somewhere…
We plan on ordering it in Peru just to say we’ve tried it and the photo opp it has! About how much is a “plate/meal”? we will be in Peru October 2013 on our upcoming RTW trip we leave in 105 days!!!
from memory it wasn’t expensive. You’ll find cuy everywhere!
Oh my. I definitely could not do that! And I never had one as a child, but it still just seems so, er, wrong…
Maybe it does seem wrong in our culture, but in South America, eating guinea pig is like us eating a hamburger!
A friend of mine visited Peru a few weeks ago and posted photos of the Guinea Pig cuisine. It still looked like a Guinea pig on the table!
Oh yeah! A bit hard to eat when they’re facing you!
This seems wrong and cruel. These little guys shouldn’t be food.
Scientific studies say the guinea pig meat is 0% cholesterol and is very healthy… so eat up!
OMG, guonea pigs have always been my best friends! i cried for few days when my last one died, to est guinea pig would be like eating my best friend! why eat them,,its not like there is nothing else to eat, we have a choice, and i would never ever even think of eating those cute creatures! they have rigth to live, and not to be eaten because of curiousity!