cuye

I've talked to the kids about the foods of Ecuador for a long time. One of the foods that peaked their interest was cuye (coo-i-e) or guinea pig, they've been interested in trying it.
Today was destined to be the day. We started out by going to the Otavalo animal market where the people come from all over to barter for pigs, sheep, cows, dogs, chickens, rabbits, cats and cuyes. We had to be there early, before the hotel opened their kitchen, so we took along some warm bread. The boys hardly ate it, just held on to it for comfort as they witnessed all sorts of animal shoving and selling. It was packed.
They really liked the rabbits (those are familiar and almost always look clean and not agressive). They also were facinated with the little cuyes. I was agasp at how the little creatures were picked up and shoved in potential buyer's faces, "Estas son muy grandes, no son pequenos. Tome lo! No son los pequenos. Y un buen precio, te doy las tres para tres dollares cada uno. Son grandes. Lo ve?" ("These are big,not the small ones. Take it! They aren't the small ones. At a good price too. I'll give you three at three dollars a peice. They're the big ones. You see?)
Well they sure looked small to us.
Tonight, for dinner at Hacienda Chorlavi in Ibarra, we tasted for ourselves. It was served with the head and claws and all, on a bed of rice and hominy with potato on the side. They tasted small to me. A good experience for a mediocre taste.