PHOTOS: ***WARNING: GRAPHIC*** From Ecuador...believe it or not..."Guinea Pig & Corn Pizza"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Daily Slice: Guinea Pig and Corn Pizza in Ecuador

Posted by David Kover, August 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM



Guinea pig—or cuy—is considered a delicacy in Ecuador. It's on most travelers' must-try list when they visit the country, but for those unaccustomed to encountering their dinner as a whole animal (or who just balk at the idea of eating rodent), it can be a little hard to handle this:



Secret Garden Cotopaxi, a lovely hostel just outside the boundary of Parque Nacional Cotopaxi, has found a way to let foreigners do a little guinea pig tasting without forcing them to go eye-to-eye with the beast. They serve it on pizza.

Honestly, I present this to you more as cultural experience than as ground-breaking pizza-topping discovery. Ecuadorians will tell you that cuy tastes like chicken, but both times we tried it during our travels, it struck us as oddly fishy. On the pizza, it didn't help that the meat had a considerable chew to it, meaning we were left to contemplate this flavor for a little while with each bite. But then, as cuy goes, the stuff at the Secret Garden, which they raise on-site, tasted less gamey than the whole-roast version we'd tried elsewhere. And the sweetness from the corn, that also topped this pie, provided a good counterpoint.

[MrScorpio]

1. Further proof that everything tastes like chicken. nt

[MilesColtrane]

2. I'll have a slice without so much rat in it.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. The PERFECT response!

I'd forgotten about that one.

:rofl:

[Ter]

4. You try and tell me what the difference between that an a rotisserie chicken is

Or a whole roasted pig. The only difference is the taste.

[av8rdave]

5. I spent a lot of time in Equador last year

Had a lot of wonderful food, but couldn't bring myself to have the cuy.