In Peru, Guinea Pig Gets a Place at the Table

LIMA, Peru -- Ever wonder whether a cabernet sauvignon or merlot would better complement your childhood pet?

It might be a dilemma if you visit this Peruvian capital, where chefs have turned guinea pig -- a staple protein of the Andes -- into a gourmet dish.

Five years ago, chef Marilu Madueno added cuy, as guinea pigs are locally known, to the menu at La Huaca Pucllana, an exclusive Lima restaurant popular with tourists that overlooks a pre-Inca temple.

When she created the restaurant's menu, Madueno correctly guessed that by chopping off the head and paws -- cuy is traditionally served whole in the Andes -- it would sell better.

"We're seeing cuy ordered more and more," said Madueno, who estimates she sells about 30 a week at about $14 a plate.

She slices off two thin filets of the white, low-fat meat, batters it in wheat flour and fries it until golden. The filets are served on a bed of watercress "to give it a little freshness," with cherry tomatoes, drizzled peanut sauce and bright green cilantro oil.

Despite the booming popularity of Andean ingredients abroad -- especially grains like quinoa -- cuy frites may be a few years from the menus at New York's top restaurants. But the low-cholesterol, high-protein white meat may eventually get there. It tastes a bit like a cross between rabbit and dark chicken meat.

"It was delicious. Marinated whole overnight in orange juice and garlic, and spit-roasted over an open fire," Andrew Zimmern, host of the Travel Channel series "Bizarre Foods," said in an e-mail interview. He sampled the delicacy in neighboring Ecuador last year. "Cuy should be popular in the USA once we adopt a different attitude about alternative foods, especially ones that some people keep as pets."

(Adam Goldfarb, an issue specialist in the companion animals department of the Humane Society, said he was not aware of any federal laws prohibiting guinea pig consumption in the United States, but local legislation could vary.)

Guinea pigs are native to the high Andes and have been an important source of protein for thousands of years. Today, they are common in rural Andean households as a sort of savings account -- they are so easy and cheap to breed that when a family needs money, it can sell a dozen or so.

Guinea pig is often fried or grilled during Andean ceremonies. In Peru, the birthplace of the potato, the animal is served with a generous portion of Andean tubers.

In May, Victoria Fajardo opened Senor Cuy, or Mr. Guinea Pig, a white-tablecloth restaurant in the upscale San Isidro banking district in Lima. The name speaks for itself.

"We have customers who have eaten cuy their whole lives, but we also have people who come for an adventure," Farjardo said beneath a painting of the Last Supper with Jesus and the 12 disciples depicted eating roasted guinea pig.

Fajardo, a native of the highland region of Ayacucho, says she sells up to 60 guinea pigs a week at around $11 each.