Cuy

Growing up in China, I have seen my fair share of bizarre food. Of course, definition of "bizarre" is quite relative. Through out history, people have been eating what is available to them to survive, from roots of plants to every part of an animal. Hey if it taste good, why not?

I have long heard the "mystical" cuy in the Andes and I just couldn't wait to try it. During my stay in Cuenca, Ecuador, I asked my Spanish teacher about cuy. The answer I've got is not something that I was expecting. So here it is, my experience about cuy.

Q: What is cuy?

 A: Cuy is a guinea pig on steroids. It is much bigger than the ones we see in the pets store and yes they are rodents first being domesticated by the Incas in the Andes in South America.

Cuy - Before

Cuy - After

Q: Why do people eat cuy?

A: Before the Spaniards, cuyes were one of the few animals domesticated for food by the Incas. As time passes, it became a tradition.

Q: When do people eat cuy?

A: Cuy is expensive in the Andes. A roasted cuy cost $20 on average. My normal lunch (roasted pig platter) costs $2, which is considered pricy here in Cuenca. For a rodent with not much meat on it, you can't really eat cuy everyday. Although my teacher told me that a cuy can feed 2 to 3 people. I find that hard to believe. My host family told me that usually they have half a cuy per person. Their son can eat a whole cuy by himself. Hence, people eat cuy only on special occasions. When we were at the restaurant,  there were another group of people there celebrating a birthday. 

Q: How do you cook cuy?

A: You roast it over fire until the skin is nice and crispy.

Cuy on a stick

Fire roasted cuy

Q: What does cuy taste like?

A: It tasted like roasted rabbits with very little meat. Maybe because I only had one of the front legs, I can not give a decent description of cuy's taste. It is on the greasy side. The skin is very crisp. The meat that I had was not dry at all. I didn't taste any gaminess in the meat but someone mentioned to me that the meat on the hind legs tasted gamey to him.

Q: What other dishes do you eat with cuy?

A: My teacher suggested a slew of typical dishes to be eaten with cuy. Here they are:

Canelazo, an herbal drink typical of the region. It is made with cinnamon, sugar, lime juice, and ataco, a local herb that gives the drink its vibrant color. According to my teacher, it helps to digest the cuy.

Cuy con papas y huevo is a very typical cuy dish in Cuenca Ecuador.

While waiting for the cuy, my teacher suggested habas con queso. Habas is  broad bean or fava bean. It is simply boiled with little salt. The cheese is fresh. I believe it is made with cows milk. The orange sauce is called aji. If made correctly, it is very tasty and spicy.

Yuka fritas and mote sucio while waiting. Mote is local white corn or hominy. The kernels are huge. Mote sucio is a very typical dish of Cuenca Ecuador. Apparently the brown color comes from burnt grease. 

Having cuy is having a feast. It is about sharing with your friends and family. It is about tradition. This experience was one of the highlight of my trip to Ecuador and I will gladly do it again. :)

Happy New Year

So it is has been a while since my last entry. It is Chinese New Year. The year of the dragon. I was born in the year of the dragon. There are a lot of tradition involved in New Year. I can't remember too many of them. For those I do remember, they have been passed down from my grandmother to my mother to me.

I remember Grandma used to make "December 8th porridge" 腊八粥. A mixture of rice and beans and some other dried goods slow cooked together. It signified the beginning of the new year celebration. My mom would make it on the regular basis after migrating to the US. The porridge has this beautiful burgundy red color that come from the chinese red beans and black sweet sticky rice. While the porridge is cooking, the aroma of cooked dates, chestnuts, and lotus seeds permeates the whole house. It is really not that difficult to make. You mix whatever nuts and grain you can find in your pantry with lots of water. Bring it to a boil and simmer until they are thick. I stopped making them not because it is too much work or anything. I stopped because I will eat the whole pot in about 2 days. We are talking about stock pot here. If I am to keep my girlish figure, I have to give up something. I gave up carbs. Yes, I am a very bad Asian.

Another tradition that I like a lot is that according to my grandmother, on New Year's day, you are not supposed to use the stove. The reason is that the stove god (灶王爺) works everyday of the year to help feed people. New Year's day is the only day he has it off. I worship the stove god! He gets his day off.

Twelve years ago i.e. the last year of the dragon, my mom send me a red belt. She told me to wear it all year to avoid bad luck. Apparently you supposed to wear red on the year you were born. So if you were born on the year of the rabbit, you supposed to wear red on every year of the rabbit. I don't know if it is true or not. I wore it. It can't hurt.


The most important tradition is that on new year's eve, you make dumplings and eat them. I don't know how the tradition started, but ever since I was little, my grandmother had always made dumplings on New Years eve. It was a communal effort. The entire family gathered around, cooking together. This year, I had that in my house. I invited my friends over for New Year's celebration, dumpling making included, just like New Years eve I had back home. Of all the ones we made, only 2 left. My mom said that you must leave some food uneaten. It will give you good luck (年年有余). I guess based on the left over I had, I will have a lot of luck this year :) (In addition to dumplings, we had pastry, hot pot, a whole fish and 2 deserts.)

Here is a fish dish that is simple to make:

1 whole flounder 1 to 1.5 lbs. Cleaned and descaled. Keep the fish as intact as possible
Salt to taste
2 Tbs Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
2 Tbs mild flavored oil (such as canola oil, sunflower oil, or vegetable oil)
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and cut to matchstick size.
1 scallion, white part only, cut to matchstick size.
1 tsp szechuan peppercorns

1. Place the fish in a heat proof platter, season both side of with salt to taste, add cooking wine, and scatter the ginger and scallion on top of the fish. Let it marinate for about 10 to 15 minutes at room temperature.
2. In a steamer large enough to fit the entire platter, add enough water to the steamer (1" deep minimum) and bring it to a rapid boil.
3. Place the plater with fish in the steamer, cover, steam for 8 to 15 minutes depend on the size of the fish and the power of the stove.
4. While the fish is steaming, in a small skillet, heat the oil with the szechuan peppercorns. Remove from heat when you can hear the peppercorn sizzle.
5. Remove the fish plater from the steamer, pour the oil over the fish. Serve hot.

Note 1: If you don't have a large steamer, use a large roasting pan across two burners. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil. Seal it well!
Note 2: I strongly recommend that you over cook the fish a bit unless you have a nice powerful steamer. You don't want to serve the fish raw to your guests (which I did).