Guinea Pig: The other, other white meat.

[Sub Atomic]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6281125/

Guinea pigs to scamper onto your dinner plate

LIMA, Peru - After 34 years of patient tinkering, researchers at Peru's most prestigious agrarian university have bred a new culinary export they hope will scamper onto dinner plates throughout America and the world: the super guinea pig.

The animal is a cuddly companion for millions of children in the United States. But in Peru, the rodent's birthplace, it remains a vital source of protein in rural communities, a mainstay of Andean folk medicine and a common religious sacrifice to the gods.

"It is well known that Peruvians eat guinea pig. Foreigners are more reluctant to eat it as they see the animal as a pet," said Gloria Palacios, director of La Molina National University's project to promote guinea pig exports.

"I think if they become familiar with the cuisine, maybe suddenly they'll give in and be tempted to try it," she said. "It is really delicious."



Segundo Quispe (left) and his nephew Maximo Quispe eat guinea pig in a restaurant in Lima, Peru on Oct. 18. Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million guinea pigs each year

[Placebo]

1. Mmm...Guinea Burger.

*drools*

[Worst Username Ever]

2. I bet it is a lot like rabbit n/t

[sui generis]

3. put it right up there with eating dog

tastes like chicken!

[punpirate]

4. For a funny look at guinea pigs as food...

... look for Secrets of the Tsil Cafe by Thomas Fox Averill.

[LibertyLover]

5. Guinea Pig

My stepdaughter left her two guinea pigs with us when she moved to her own house. She thought that our 2 year old daughter would like them as pets. When stepdaughter moved in with us about a year ago, the older of the 2 pigs, Miss Margarita, was skin and bones and looked to be on death's door step. After living with us and getting a young companion piggy, the Divine Miss M, as we now refer to her, is huge. I think some of her DNA must be in these new supper pigs. In fact, Miss M got so heavy so soon after changing her digs that we even took her to the vet to see if she was pregnant (my husband's ex-wife had had the pigs for a while and let Miss M roam freely with her son's male guinea pig so a pregnancy was not altogether out of the realm of possibility)or had developed a tumor. Nope - just one large, fat, happy, sassy guinea pig. I (jokingly) offered her to one of my collegues at work who is Peruvian as dinner, but Fiorella just laughed and said that she had been in the US too long and couldn't eat guinea pig now because she knew too many of them as pets.

[sui generis]

7. I used to have a couple as pets when younger

they were quite a pair of characters! Very affectionate little critters, and yes they get huge (and happy) if you overfeed them.

[Bunny]

6. I loathe rodents. Flat out despise them. All of them.

The absolute LAST thing I want to do is EAT them!!!

:puke: