I was in Bolivia, we were in a funny little restaurant, about 15 of us, with a huge bread basket shaped like a reed boat from Lake Titicaca which we later took and tied to the front of our truck - but that is another story...
Guinea pig (Cuy in Bolivian Spanish) - the chicken of the Andes - as our waiter told us. Turned out all those "chicken" stews we had eaten on the islands in Lake Titicaca weren't chicken at all. They were guinea pig.
So I decided that I would order a whole one. My friend was horrified, she used to have a pet guinea pig. I never did, I had hamsters so was pretty relaxed about ordering a rodent for dinner. I have mentioned before that I will eat anything and that is pretty much true so I took great delight in tormenting people with the concept of the dish that was winging its way to my plate.
So dinner is served. It came with chips and rice (everything in Bolivia pretty much comes with chips and rice). It looked like it had been run over and then sent sky diving. It was kind of flat... but ok, there was no need to be Cuy about it (sorry) - my friend moved chairs she was so repulsed by my dinner. So I tried chopping it up with my knife and fork... surprisingly little meat on it... I always thought guinea pigs were kind of fat.
Well fat is one thing they have, the meat was greasy, and hard to get off the bone. I ended up having to virtually dismember the beast and eat it like it was chicken wings. I felt somewhat repulsed.
After putting that much thought and effort into my meal, I was very disappointed by the result. I also ended up being sick, which I firmly accused the guinea pig of, but my friend put down to tequila and cuba libres.
I still blame the little beast for a batch of food poisoning, but it also made some great memories!
