Tuesday, 20 January 2009
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I Ate a Guinea Pig in Peru!
by Anne 
When traveling, I like to dabble in the culture of the country I'm in and try the foods that the locals say I should taste. It could be anything, snails, frog legs, alligator meat, or even bugs, but of course there are a few things I'm still skeptical about trying. Even though my family is from Asia and the general stereotype of Asians is that they eat dog, I'm still straying away from that, only because I used to have a dog. Maybe some day.
Anyway, when I was in Peru, many people told me to try the guinea pig meat. This was a new one for me. I'd never heard of guinea pig meat being eaten before. I have some friends who like to keep guinea pigs as pets, as do many people here in the United States. It's not uncommon to see them in a pet store, but you probably wouldn't see guinea pig on a menu in a restaurant.
I did end up trying it though. Maybe it was the way my dish was prepared, but it was quite salty and tough, but not horrible.
What foods have you eaten while traveling do you find a little bit strange? What's the strangest thing you've eaten?
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About the Author
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- From: anne
- Name: anne
- About Me: Age: 27, Location: New York, NY Favorite places I've visited: Trick question! I've been to so many amazing places, but if I absolutely had to pick, I'd settle on a couple places to shorten the list. Madrid, Spain because that's where I did my study abroad program when I was 18 and it was there that the travel bug bit me so hard it left a scar. I haven't been the same since. And Vietnam. That's where my family is from. Although, I'm Vietnamese American, I never actually visited Vietnam until I was 26. It was an awesome experience to learn about my family's history and I was quite pleased to show off my vietnamese language skills to the locals. It's quite a big deal for an american-born.
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Comments (20)
It's a delicacy in Ecuador :) They call it "cuy".
Honestly, I've tried a lot of "weird" things (that I don't personally enjoy but I wanted to say I tried it) because I'm Chinese and my grandma would just cook it. Chicken feet soup. Pig's feet (they always gave it to my mom after she had a baby. supposedly it makes your uterus contract after giving birth?). Whatevs.
I had crunchy barbecue flavored meal worms once.
When i was in china they fed us cow.pig stomach. It was the weirdest thing ever.
A close second is from tibet - yak's milk tea.
haha yum! I'm in the US and I tried "bugs" in Australia! yum! of course they were bbq-ed! haha
I've eaten peacock and horse in France and dog in Korea. I figured when else was I going to get the chance?
@Lizbeth8207@xanga - Yeah! I remember the word "cuy"
@furyyes@xanga - wow, peacock is the strangest one I've heard so far. How was it?
There is also some store near my house that sells...
Lion
Alligator
Ostritch
Elk
Kangaroo
Moose
and more...
Um. Ew.
I don't meat other than chicken, turkey, and pork/bacon. Otherwise, it grosses me out both in taste, and name.@anne - It was pretty much like the dark meat on chicken but not quite. Actually, we thought we were eating chicken but it didn't taste quite right, a little too gamey... which led to us finding out it was peacock...
i had frog legs before when i was younger and my parents have had snake.
I've never really eaten anything "exotic" like that.
And I can't really imagine eating guinea pigs because I have three of them as pets. x__x
I can't believe you actually ate one! You are much braver than me in that regard....I chickened out when I was there.
I ate "cuy" during my trip to Peru. They should have given me the option to pick which sucker I wanted, but oh well. I also had grasshoppers, crickets, and ants I found in the garden when I was seven years old.
@furyyes@xanga - What exactly does "gamey" mean? I hear it used but I have no idea what that is
I've eaten alligator. Shark isn't too exotic, but it's something different, I suppose. I think that's about it...
My friends, at a dim sum place, tried to get me to eat the chicken feet...I was feeling particularly cowardly that day >.>;;
The weirdest thing I've ever drank is snake penis wine. You ever see those bottles of alcohol with the snake still preserved inside? Well, my friend went to a village in Vietnam and brought home a similar bottle as a souveneir but instead of a snake, there were about 30 snake penises floating inside. I took a sip after being pressured when I was drunk. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
yeah, my husband drank snake penis wine in vietnam a few years ago. i wouldn't recommend it either. it did some serious damage to his breath. i couldn't kiss him for a day.
Most food coloring in America uses a color made from beetles, so I guess I can say I've eaten bugs. Oh and it's in beauty products too, so I guess I wear bugs on my face.
Don't laugh, everyone does it, they just aren't aware ^_^
Holy moly... them buggers look like a chicken without all that fur. I'll have to try it if I'm ever over there.
Strange snacks? Raw horse, donkey, snake liquor, pig blood jelly, cow tongue
Niiiice
The strangest thing I've ever ate was cactus. It was really good. But it wasn't while traveling, just right here in Tennessee.
I've never been out of the U.S., but I've eaten frog legs, cow stomach, cow liver, cow lungs, cow heart, pork stomach/liver/lungs/heart/small and large intestines, pig feet, chicken feet, chicken brain, duck tongues, chicken organs (see the ones for the cow/pork), fish eyes, fish brain, fish liver, roe, fish testicles, premature chicken eggs (the eggs were taken out of the hen before they were laid...), beef penis, chicken/duck balut eggs (the fertilized egg is allowed to develop for a few days, then it is boiled and eaten... premature chick and all!), pig blood, cow tongue, turtle...
All of the above was delicious! I actually eat most of them frequently (except for turtle. I've only eaten that once). I'm not sure if I forgot something. Anyway, I'm completely willing to try anything and everything!
I'm Vietnamese-Chinese. :)
woooooow weird. the weirdest thing i've ever seen on a table is probably pig brain... gross. most exotic is probably alligator leg. i've had sparrow before. they're very small...