The Pacheco family was delivered a smallish rodent sent by a friend of theirs from the coast. The animal came via land, wrapped in bags of ice. It was the size of a small pig.
Guanta or Paca
According to Frommer’s, the animal is a forest dwelling creature that feeds on fallen fruit, nuts and leaves. With such a diet you might think it would taste good. Maybe it was the fact that I had seen the corpse hang out in the sink before trying it (see above), or the fact that I couldn’t get the idea of a giant rodent out of my head, but either way I wasn’t able to eat very much of it.
It was prepared with a maracuya (passion fruit) sauce and was roasted. The final product could have passed for beef, or possibly pork in appearance and odor. It smelled like bacon in the pan.
Nothing like a large rodent for dinner. I’m glad I can say I have tried Guanta.
Geez, I can’t say that I’m not grossed out but I bet it tastes good if you don’t think about the rodent factor! I know it’s a pig but the foot looks a bit rat like! The finished product looks good though and I bet some good Pinot Noir would be nice with that.
I really respect your open mind with this. May we try a lot of new things in life. MUCH LOVE
Andres
Yikes! I think I ate this animal in Bolivia many years ago when I was there. I was out in the countryside visiting development workers and they served it for dinner. I was hungry, so it tasted o.k. The first photo on your blog is a bit off-putting, though.
Joy
That is really a gruesome photo. I repeat: it is gruesome. On another subject: wish I could do our site as well as yours.
Once you cut off the baby hands it looked pretty good.
ummm….i am speechless…hmmm…yup, no words to explain how i felt seeing the tiny hands….
i’ve had this when i was in ecuador and i liked it. i’m a very picky eater but i thought this was pretty tasty
I am an American living in Ecuador and eat guanta often. It is delicious and you have to get beyond the fotos. It’s like any other cute animal you couldn’t imagine eating if you saw it live.