Yep, that’s right, I ate a guinea pig. In Peru cuy is something of a local delicacy.
Usually it is served like this:
I cheated and went to a posh restaurant. Had it confit:
Looks much more appetising, doesn't it?
Looks.
You can’t get away from the fact that guinea pigs just aren’t that tasty, no matter how you cook them. Most people I spoke to said they tasted like chicken, but if I were a chook I’d be mightily insulted by such a comparison,
“What’s that you say? Them cuy got no meat on ’em baby. All skin and bones. Ain’t got nothing on my breasts and thighs.”
People tend to say ‘tastes like chicken’ to describe any meat that doesn’t have a distinct flavour, which is a bit unfair, because a good free range roast chook is tastes fantastic and guinea pig, well, doesn’t.
Cooking meat confit means cooking it slowly in fat, usually its own, and a lot of it. And everyone knows fat equals flavour. But even this was not enough to save the cuy.
Now I love crab, but unless it is one of those big ass mothers, like the ones at Golden Century Seafood restaurant in Sydney, I find them a lot of work for very little return. But at least what you do get is worth the effort. Cuy is a lot of effort but when you do manage to prize a morsel of meat away from the bones it is thoroughly disappointing.
The cuy came with the skin on and I asked whether I should eat it. The waitress said “Yes, it’s the best bit”. That is what I would say if someone from Mars asked me whether they should eat the skin on a chicken. And I would be right. But she was wrong. Imagine bacon rind that has been cooked, but not crisped, minus half the fat and all of the flavour. That’s it.
I know cuy it is part of Perus’s cultural heritage, as explained on Wikipedia:
Traditionally, the animal was reserved for ceremonial meals by indigenous people in the Andean highlands, but since the 1960s it has become more socially acceptable for consumption by all people.
But if it is no longer tied to tradition, then why bother? Is it just for the tourists I wonder. It certainly has no other merits.
The sauces should have brightened things up a bit, but only did so visually. The yellow chilli sauce was colourful and looked promising, but was actually quite bland, tasting vaguely of mais and not much else. The panca sauce was the better of the two, but didn’t pack a punch. Aji panca is a Peruvian chilli and the sauce, like the chilli, was mildly spicy with a smoky flavour.
The best part of the meal, if I am honest, was the garlic mash – smooth, creamy and well seasoned with a nice touch of parsley. With such little meat on the guinea pig, I wished there was more.
It didn’t come cheap either, well not for Peru anyway. I was still hungry when I finished, but as a backpacker coming to the end of a long trip I couldn’t really justify ordering another main course. Instead I went and got a cheese and salad sandwich from the markets. It cost me 2 soles (about 40 pence). It was simple, but tasty, salty and satisfying. And it did what it was supposed to, it filled me up. I can’t even say that of the cuy.
