Trying Guinea Pig in Ecuador
“I just didn't expect to try it at some random guy's mom's house.”
One of the foods I wanted to try before leaving Ecuador was guinea pig.
I just didn’t expect to try it at some random guy’s mom’s house.
The night before, I was eating dinner at a burger place when the guy sitting at the table next to me randomly started talking to me. We exchanged Instagram and WhatsApp, and I mentioned that I only had one day left and still wanted to try guinea pig.
He gave me a few restaurant recommendations, but they were all pretty far outside the city.
Then he talked to his mom.
Apparently her response was basically, “Just come over and I’ll cook it.”
Okay.
So the next afternoon I Ubered over to the house of a guy I had met approximately 18 hours earlier so his mom could cook me a guinea pig.
Completely normal travel activities.
She served the entire thing with potatoes, and honestly…
It was fine.
It tasted pretty similar to chicken, except significantly more difficult to eat. There wasn’t much meat, and getting it off the bone felt like way more work than it was worth.
If you gave me the choice between guinea pig and a chicken leg, I’m taking the chicken leg 100 times out of 100.
But I didn’t really eat it because I thought guinea pig was going to become my new favorite food.
I wanted to try something I’d probably never eat at home, and somehow that turned into getting invited into a local family’s house and having one cooked for me.
So would I order guinea pig again?
Probably not.
Am I glad I ate one?
Absolutely.