[wordup] Good & Bad Food Guide: Guinea Pig

[Adam Shand]

From:http://www.pilotguides.com/destination_guide/south_america/ecuador_and_the_galapagos_islands/guinea_pig.php

Good & Bad Food Guide: Guinea Pig
		
Where: Ecuador and Peru.
Tastes: Gamey chicken taste
Serving Suggestion: Served whole, with furry skin and two veg.
Where to try: A tourist novelty in expensive restaurants or try more 
cheaply from a street stall.

Andean cuisine is well known for its exotic fruits, fish and seafood, 
and innumerable varieties of potato. Travellers should be aware, 
however, that some unusual culinary traditions have survived for 
thousands of years and when you’re visiting Ecuador or Peru you’ll 
probably have the opportunity to sample an old family favorite, guinea pig.

Origins and History

The guinea pig is native to the Andes, and whether fried or roasted, 
it’s a traditional dish known as cuy, which dates back at least fifteen 
centuries to pre-Incan times. It has continued to be such a popular meal 
throughout the ages that in colonial times Indian artisans 
enthusiastically painted pictures in churches of Christ tucking into 
guinea pig at the Last Supper.

Guinea pigs are kept in pens in the corner of the kitchen until a 
special occasion, when they are killed and cooked immediately. Care and 
preparation of the guinea pig used to be a woman’s chore but raising 
guinea pigs is increasingly becoming a commercial practise, especially 
with the surge in tourism in recent years.

As well as being a source of food, the guinea pig is also important in 
folk medicine and native religion. Doctors in Ecuador use guinea pigs to 
determine the cause of illness by pressing the creature against the 
patient’s body until it squeals, revealing the source of the ailment.

Serving Suggestion

Cuy appears on the menu of many restaurants in the highland regions of 
Ecuador and Peru but as it’s considered a novelty by tourists, it’s 
often rather expensive. If you are attending a local festival you may be 
able to sample guinea pig cheaply from street stalls and hawkers.

The guinea pig is either fried or baked, and is served whole (head, paws 
and all) on a platter with potatoes and vegetables. It tastes a little 
like chicken, but with a gamey flavour all of its own. About the size of 
a large rat, guinea pigs can be rather skinny and there’s often not a 
lot of meat on them.