Cuy became a local Andean staple as a result of the need for a high protein diet, and, no doubt, due to a certain abundance of guinea pigs. This is great for hungry Andeans, but to a couple of Westerns who grew up with guinea pigs as pets... it's slightly less than appetizing.
When we were kids, my friend Judy had four guinea pigs, and wanted to give two of them away. Having never met an animal I didn't like, I quickly volunteered to take them in. We were assured that both of the rodents were boys, so procreation shouldn't be a problem. A few weeks later, the black and white one had a litter of babies. We guessed one of them must have been a girl. We were wrong. A week or two after that, the OTHER one had babies! Now we had half a dozen guinea pigs, and to be honest, they're not exactly stimulating pets.
We decided to thin out the herd by sending a few to live in the wild. Now we know where they ended up -- in the Andes, providing healthy meals to the native population. We didn't know at the time that we were committing such a benevolent act.
Bean is flat out refusing to try cuy, but I think I will give it a go. It might help me work out some of the resentment I feel toward Judy and her hermaphroditic guinea pigs. I'll let you all know how it turns out.
