So the topics around a recent dinner table revolved around two topics: religion(Catholicism) and food(rodent). I was consuming a rather thick-cut of sirloin topped with blue cheese and mushrooms(yum) and the rest ate fish. It was a friday so guess who was the only non-practicing Catholic in the group. Religion is an easy topic to slip into. To paraphrase Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor from The Brother’s Karamosov, “give me a child for the first 6 years and I’ll have him for life.” Really, though, the only thing that could make me shudder more than sitting through another mass is the thought of eating vermin. That being said, both the Catholic Mass and rodents are enjoyed by large numbers everyday in this largely Catholic and Andean nation. Hmmm, no accounting for taste, I guess?
I’d like to think that I am adventuresome when it comes to travel, but I’m rather on the strait and narrow when sampling local cuisine and didn’t budge an inch here in Ecuador. For those traveling in the Andean regions of Ecuador such as Banos, Cuenca and Otavalo, you will eventually see one of those oversized rats being skinned, butterfly split and skewered, roasting in the open air markets. I am referring to the Cuy(a Quechua word, pronounced Kwee) or as we call them, guinee pigs.
Hailing from the same famed family of the fabled bringer of middle age European population control, the black rat, rodentia are so-called for their large incisors. The root of rodentia, the latin verb rodere, literally means to gnaw. And so it is that when you see them skinless and brazen, it’s their white shiny incisors shinning out at you that will turn your head away and shy from any inclination to adventuresome experimentation.
Now, I’ve been confronted with fertalized chicken eggs in Cambodia, crispy cockroaches in Thailand, raw chicken in Japan, from which I have always balked, so why back from a good system. It’s kept me alive thus far. Look, I know, meat is meat and the Donner party would not have shied away from eating these vermin in the stead of each other. Neither would your average starving Somalian and neither would I if it came down to munching on rat or the shank of Uncle Steve. But should you want to partake and do as those Quechuans when in old Quechua, then just say the magic words: “Kwee, por favor!”
Anyhow, when not being roasted, Cuys will be found roaming around the homes of Andean People. They are said to bring good luck, heal the sick and help keep the house warm. A survey amongst most who have eaten Cuy is that it tastes like(Yes, you guessed it, chicken, albeit very oily and chewy chicken). A plate is popularly served up with potato and cholclo(corn) and the meat is actually very healthy and low in fat, though in some areas they do deep fry it which sort of nullifies that nutritional fact.
A plate will set you back from 5 to 10$ depending whether you eat on the streets or in a restaurant.
For a bit more on cuisine in Ecuador check out these related articles:
Uncle Ho’s: West meets East way down south in Quito’s Mariscal
Don Carbon—A Vision for Restaurants in Montanita
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A rabbit is also a rodent , enjoyed by Europeans and some Americans.
Calling a cuey a rat is not accurate.
Well John, Some people eat rat. I wouldn’t. Some people eat pigeon. I wouldn’t(flying rats). Some people eat Rabbit. I wouldn’t. Some people eat Cuey. I wouldn’t . Why? Because they are all from the family Rodentia, so called because of the they’re forward pointing incisors. As you and I are from the primate family and gibbons and bonobos too, So I call us all monkeys. And cuey, rabbit, rat, well, they are all filthy rats to me.
Hey but thanks for the comment and happy New year.