After nearly three months in Ecuador I've finally tried one of the staples of the "comida typica." Cuy (coo-ee), or guinea pig, is a traditional dish in Ecuador, but isn't served that often because it is more like an expensive delicacy. Since coming here I've tried a number of the traditional dishes, including ceviche, mota, and other odds and ends, but hadn't gotten around to the big dog.

It seemed as though every time I was going to try it something came up. Plans in Ecuador are usually not definite until a few minutes before they're going to happen, so if you agree to do something in two days, it could likely not happen. That was the case with my attempts at eating cuy on many occasions.

Last Friday some of my students were going to bring in cuy for the pizza party, but never did. Because of this, two of my students felt bad and wanted to take me out for some cuy. Because they didn't tell me beforehand where we were going, I didn't have a camera ready, unfortunately. I was excited to try the food, even though many foreigners are known not to enjoy the food.

A lot of Americans have trouble accepting cuy as a meal, mainly because to many people, a guinea pig is a pet, and not a dish. One time in a Spanish class a group did a presentation on Ecuador. They talked about cuy being a popular dish, and most of the class groaned in disgust. My teacher Mikee, who is Ecuadorian, made a great point. It's just a difference in culture, and most people in the United States have no problem downing hot dogs, which is known to be just the rejected meat of the rest of a pig. Each culture has its own standard on what's edible and what is not.

So what was the cuy like? It wasn't that bad, and it wasn't that great. A bit gamy, it was kind of like a cross between turkey and duck. While eating it I thought it might be the Ecuadorian equivalent of lobster up north. They're both expensive and usually eaten on special occasions, and they're both a lot of work for not that much gain. It was tough cutting through the skin to get to only a little bit of meat.

With the head left on, the torso was cut into four sections, each person taking a quarter. Accompanying the meat were potatoes in a special sauce and mota, a type of corn. Sprinkling some aji on it, the spice gave it a nice flavor that played off well, considering there wasn't much of a spice on it. Before the meal was served we were given some canelaso, an aguardiente (sugarcane) liquor, to apparently ready the stomach for the food. During the meal, however, we had Coke, and after wards had the canelaso again, to settle the stomach.

I'm a reasonable person, so I understand that not all food tastes the same. The cuy was OK, but not great. But that could also have been the one that I had. It would be absurd to go to a restaurant, order chicken and assume every piece of chicken tastes the same (though essentially, it does). Sometimes you just get a bad chef. So I'd definitely try to cuy again, but it's not the kind of meat that I'm going to run out and beg my host mom to buy once a week.

When I got home my host mom made me some oregano tea because she told me that some people get sick after eating cuy for the first time. I'm not sure if the tea helped, but I felt fine after wards and went out with my host brother to a party for the engineering school. It just goes to show, you can survive from eating a guinea pig.