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For those fond of guinea pigs as little lovely furry pets, stop reading this post now. I gave fair warning; by all means, do not look at the pictures. Well, now that you did, you might as well read about how it tastes. Guinea pig (Cuy, as it is called in Peru) is not a bizarre food, or anything difficult to find around here. If anything, it might have been really special in the past, when it was one of the sacred ceremonial foods for the Incas.

You can find fried cuy in any picanteria (Spiceries), traditional eateries that serve a great variety of local comfort food, including large chunks of deep-fried pork, slow-stewed beef, skewered beef hearts, stewed pig feet, countless varieties of soup and diverse preparations of chicken. In all of these and other varieties, picanterias make a perfect use of both fresh and dry spices and, importantly, the amazing diversity of hot peppers known as Ajíes. Common side orders are rice, Quinua, countless presentations of the 3K+ varieties of Peruvian potatoes,  boiled large corn cobs (choclo), stewed vegetables and fresh salsas. Not beans, interestingly.

When I read our Lonely Planet guide’s recommendation to eat at “La nueva palomino” I immediately set to find the old one. When a popular place decides to open a spinoff, they very often try to “gentrify” the menu, which frequently means a less than dignified and unnecessary complication of the items. As it happens, “La palomino” (the original one) was around the corner from the new one, so I could have a look at both. The old place had local patrons, plastic tablecloths and a simple but enticing menu. The new one looked like a tourist trap and a place where a Lonely Planet writer would go to eat lunch, out of deeply rooted fear of food poisoning.

To start, we had one “Super Americano”, a mammoth-sized platter with many of the goodies mentioned before (chicharrones, estofado de vaca, menudo, pure de papa, choclo, arroz, and rocoto relleno). No need to explain the name, I guess. To drink, we had the local beer, Arequipeña, which is pretty lame, by the way. Then the star of the show arrived:

Behold the “Cuy chactado”. Guinea pig marinated in lime and salt, then deep-fried until crispy. Served with potatoes and the delicious “zarza criolla” (purple onion and orange ají pickled with lime, salt, black pepper and vegetal oil). Admittedly, it looks a bit like it is going to crawl out of the plate. But it is crunchy, tasty and awesome. It does NOT taste like chicken. I am sick and tired of taste-bud-deprived people saying that any uncommon white meat taste like chicken. Cuy rather tastes like a mixture of pork and rabbit. Or like a very fatty rabbit. It definitely has a pork-like quality to it. Despite being an awesome meat, it takes some work to eat one of these through. It is tender enough, but you have to be patient with the bones. I definitely recommend people to get past prejudice, and start to acknowledge where food comes from by eating an animal that looks like what it is. And coincidentally, it tastes great.

By the way, here are the poor guy´s cousins. Told you.