Father´s Day Cuy

While far from our fathers, this year Rog and I celebrated Father´s Day with a fine meal of cuy. For those of you unfamiliar with Ecuadorian cuisine, cuy is know to Americans as guinea pig. Yes, the fine furry friends we keep as pets are gutted, skewered, and roasted over an open flame. To frame the following story, keep in mind that I have an aversion to eating meat off the bone...

In celebration of Father´s Day Rog and I were invited by our host family to dine with our host father´s parent. The 12 of us drove outside town about 20 minutes. Rog and I never would have found this place on our own. I´d characterize the restaurant as a ´cuy hut´. The restaurant was quite barren with the exception of mismatched tables and bare light bulbs in the ceiling. The only food served...cuy. First our host father introduced us to a local drink. It was a shot of grain alcohol mixed with Sprite. Not bad. After about 3 I was prepared to receive my cuy. Cuy is served spread eagle on a plate of rice or potatoes. You either get the front halve containing the head and front claws or, if you´re lucky, you receive the back half with back claws. Thankfully, another family member swapped their back half for my front half. Cuy is a hands on experience as I gathered from Grandma´s Spanish. No knives or forks. Just jump in their and rip off a leg. I must say that, for me, I did a good job of cleaning my plate. That said, I left most of the Kentucky Fried skin on my plate. I became uncomfortable with everyone eyeballing my plate as I realized the skin is somewhat of a delicacy. I was relieved when my host mother Augustina finally asked if my cuy skin was up for grabs. Absolutely! 10 minutes later and their was nothing but bones.

Cuy tastes like no other meat I´ve had before. It definitely doesn´t taste like chicken. It´s actually not bad...but I must say inclusion of head and claws was a serious turn off to my future participation in cuy cook offs.

To view some pics on Ofoto:
"Dia del Padre in Cuenca."