Saturday morning I was sitting in my Peruvian family room watching a Spanish-dubbed U.S. movie on HBO, taking it easy, when Nati, Richard and Faviola´s housekeeper in Lima, walked in with a bag (obvious full of um... something) after shopping at the market. Nati went directly to the kitchen and started talking with our housekeeper... about what? ...
CUY! Oh yes, on Saturday the day finally arrived when I was able to try this authentic Peruvian guinea pig dish.
Nati and Vicki, our housekeeper, hung the bag on a shelf in the kitchen and for the next couple hours the cuys squealed about, waiting for the inevitable, as the family´s dogs ran in and out of the kitchen barking and jumping at the bag. Then Vicki announced to me, ¨It´s time to kill the cuy!¨ To which my only response was, ¨I don´t want to see! I don´t want to see!¨This absolutely cracked Vicki up and she took the bag and a very sharp knife out to the car port to slit their cute little cuy throats (Seriously... it´s enough to make this meat-eater go vegetarian. I prefer my meals pre-killed in some far away magical place that I don´t have to think about.) Still laughing at me, Vicki then yelled out, ¨There´s so much blood!¨as I continued to plug my ears like a child in order to not hear the rodents squeal their last squeal.
... but then of course I had to go out and take a picture. Sorry it´s not a good one. I´m pretty sure I was looking away as I was taking it. Also please note that the red bucket filled with hot water and cuy blood is usually up in our shower. I´m pretty sure that Iris puts hot water in there to bathe with when she´s showering. Hmm... I´m definitely questioning how sanitary that is but it is now Monday and that bucket hasn´t been back in the shower yet.
Poor little cuys hanging out on some newspaper.
Next step in preparing cuy is apparently chopping them up into nice portioned sized bits. The little hands and feet reaching out of the bowl is enough to give me nightmares but I was happy that I wasn´t going to be served an entire cuy, head and all, like I´ve seen on TV (for Travel Chanel lovers both Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern have eaten this Peruvian delicacy and I was lucky enough to see them do it before I came down here).
Next, of course, you boil the cuy. I´m really not sure if any meat should be boiled but cuy should definitely not be boiled. It filled the kitchen with the aroma of a dirty fish tank water or a pet store. Not a good sign for how they would taste...
Then add a little flour to their hindquarters. Their little patas (paws) are still attached.
Fry those babies up!
... and serve with what else but papas and arroz.
I wish I could tell you that the cuy was delicious... it´s rare that I ever come across food that I don´t like. Seriously, I´ll eat anything. Before we sat down to eat I asked Vicki if cuy would taste like chicken. It certainly looked like chicken (except with paws) and once in sixth grade I went to a friend´s house where I was served frog for the 4th of July... it tasted like chicken. Why should cuy be any different? Vicki misled me and said, ¨oh yeah, sure, it tastes like chicken.¨ Let me set the record straight. Cuy tastes NOTHING like chicken... or at least unspoiled chicken. Cuy has a very strong, distinct taste that is somewhat reminiscent of the dirty-fish tank water smell that had filled the kitchen while it was being boiled. ...and the aftertaste lasted all day.
Anyway, I´m glad I was able to experience cuy (even if it´s something I don´t care to ever have again)... and it just so happens that I ate it on my one month anniversary. Yay! Time is flying and many more adventures await!
Ugh!!! Well, it looks tasty on the plate!!! Come on Heather, you'll have to give it another try some time!
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Fried rodent...sounds delicious. :) Did the travel channel guys like it? Did you finish it?
ReplyDeleteI will totally try it again. I thought cuy was suppose to be good and I am determined to eat some that doesn´t make my stomach do flip flops.
ReplyDeleteGotta love fried rodent, but then again that´s what rabbit is and it´s not bad at all. I´m pretty sure the travel chanel guys like it... unless they were totally faking it. Needless to say, I was completely shocked by the putrid taste. And no, I did not fisish it. In fact, the day prior I had gotten really really sick (had to go to the doctor blah, blah, blah). So when they presented me with cuy, it was the first thing I had eaten in about 42 hours besides two ¨pancitos¨ that morning. I´m really surpirsed that they expected me to eat cuy after being sick but whatever. Perhaps that´s also why it tasted so aweful to me. Who knows...
ReplyDeleteyour cuy story made me laugh. Mine was a whole animal popped in a stone oven at a gas station-looking restaurant but somehow yours is much grosser with the fish tank smell description and pre-boiling it first. I thought it tasted like evil, greasy duck.
ReplyDeleteNow whenever you go to a pet store, you can look at the guinea pigs and say hey...I know what YOU taste like! ha
Sara - I have to say that I´m kinda jealous that you had the whole animal plopped down on your plate. That would have made for fantastic pictures!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, what´s with gas station restaurants in foreign countries? When I was in Spain several years ago, I ate at those all the time. Don´t understand it... we just don´t have the equivalent in Chicago.
I thought it tasted fine when I had it in Cusco. Guess they didn't prepare it right. It helps to go to a fine restaurant when trying something so different.
ReplyDeleteI tried guinea pig again about five months after my first taste. I believe I was in Lima at the time and I have to admit that second time around it tasted much better.
ReplyDelete