Cuy

Looks good innit? This is a "Cuy" slow roasting under charcoal fire. It´s skin popping and crackling with a layer of hot oil brushed upon.

I tell you what, the "cuy", or guinea pig is one dish I have been looking forward to tasting, as I have seen it all over Peru, and have heard about it from other traveller´s experience.

Though most of my fellow travellers whom have tried it found it disgusting. But I was willing to give it a go to find out for myself what it taste like.

To be fair, most travellers found it disgusting because of the way the cuy was served. Everything is intact, including the head, it´s little feet with bits of hair stuck to it (as you can see on this photo - how cute!!!!), and all it´s intestine.

It was fascinating to watch the cooking process. I could smell the suckling crackling aroma (which reminded me very much of Chinese style roast pork), and choke on the smoke which fires out when the cook applied more oil.

The cuy was served after 30 minutes of slow roasting. The cook cut mine into half as I could only afford to eat half a cuy. Plus, the whole thing looks too big to consume for lunch! It was served on a plate of roast potatoes and half an egg. The sides were salsa sauce and boiled corn.

And what about the taste? Well the skin was beautiful! It tasted almost like roast pork, but less fatty, thinner and crispier. The meat was interesting. I can´t say I have tasted anything quite like it. It is white meat, taste sort of sweet and doesn´t taste fatty at all. A lady in Huaraz once boast to me that cuy has zero cholesterol so maybe that´s the reason. I must say though there were less meat in my cuy then I expected. I wanted to try it´s little feet but there was hair on it. Yuck! I also tried a little bit of the black stuff inside - either the kidney or the heart, I wasn´t sure, but that was very GROSS! Did manage to mouth it down with a bit of Fanta though!

Now that I have tried cuy I don´t know if I want to experience it again. I mean, it wasn´t disgusting, but the meat really is an aquired taste. I also think seeing those cute guinee pig throughout my trip so far has effected my taste bud. And today, having seen it prepared and served with everything intake has made it slightly harder to eat, like I had to turn the head over before starting to eat.

Maybe they should start looking at packaging cuy fillet? ;)