What WON'T Two Gringas Do For Cuy?

Catchy title, eh?  Well, you probably don't think so if you, like the majority of the people reading this blog, don't know what "cuy" is.  I didn't either when I first ventured to Peru.  However, I soon discovered that cuy is the Spanish word for guinea pig, which is quite the delicacy in Peruvian culture.  As it turns out, they don't just slice it up and put it on the grill.  Oh no, they pop the whole dang thing in the oven and go to work.  Thus, when one orders cuy for dinner, they get the entire guinea pig, head and all.

So, of course, like any other crazy, food-aventurer gringa, I had to try it.  However, since Cusco is so touristy, most restuarants around the area demand upwards of twenty dollars to try it.  Caroline and I weren't willing to take that risk.  We wanted cheap and traditional.  And that desire led us on a crazy adventure...

We had heard that there were a few tiny towns just outside of Cusco that specialized in certain foods, like bread or cuy for instance.  So we busted out our map, got some directions, and hopped on a colectivo.  Okay, so what's a colectivo?  Well, it's more or less like a bus but crazier.  For one, there are way more people, think sardines in a can.  Also, there is almost like a doorman, who allows people to get on and off while the driver maneuvers the crazy streets.  There is yelling and shouting constantly.  Makes for an interesting ride.  Our colectivo was cramped, loud, hot, and incredibly cheap - about fifty cents.  Anyways, so we get on this colectivo thinking the town we were headed towards, Tipon, with the guinea pig would be just down the road, perhaps twenty minutes.  But ohhhh no... we were on that colectivo for at least an hour while constantly asking the other Peruvian passengers how much further until Tipon.

Before we know it, we are out in the middle of the countryside, hoping to find Tipon/guinea pig and not get stranded all at the same time.  Eventually we made it.  We get off the colectivo and before we can even look around, a typical Peruvian lady starts asking us if we want cuy and how much we were willing to pay.  She must have seen us coming... We assume that they don't have gringas coming to town just for fun.  They come for one thing and one thing only - guinea pig, of course.  Thus, Caroline and I looked at each other and thought what the heck, let's do this.  So we followed this little Peruvian woman up the hill to her "restaurant" where we chose to split the ten dollar guinea pig.  And split it we did.  Not more than fifteen minutes later our guinea pig split right down the middle arrives at our table.  (Just wait for the pictures!)

Well, here goes nothing... And we went to work, at first unsure about how to approach the situation... I guess I can probably describe it as eating your freshmen biology (cooked) fetal pig, or at least that's what it kinda looked like with the insides, claws, and head all there on the plate.  The texture is comparable to pork I would say.  However, the taste... indescribable... interesting... strange... I'm not sure there is a word to describe the flavor.  To be quite honest, it really was not an enjoyable experience, more like a fascinating one.  Unique, absolutely unique.  Do I regret eating guinea pig?  No, although it made me think of my pet guinea pig, Cinnamon, I had while we lived in Florida.  Would I eat it again?  Absolutely not.  Unless it was cooked in an entirely different manner and I wasn't able to see the head etc.  Maybe guinea pig stew... but "cuy al horno," as it is called, never again.

Although Caroline and I will never eat guinea pig again in that fashion, we did not regret our little Peruvian guinea pig adventure.  Now we can say that we ate cuy in Peru.  It all adds up to just another Peruvian experience, just another notch in our belts.  I will say, however, that Peruvian food on the whole is absolutely delicious.  While we have been in Cusco, we have had some AMAZING dishes, like aji de gallina and other specialties.  In comparison to Chilean cuisine, Peruvian takes the cake.  Flavorful, delicious, and varied.  However, cuy does not make it on the list of "Best Of's"...

Never again...