Ok, here it is, the post you've been waiting for. Yes, we did eat guinea pig while in Peru. There the little guys is, legs all splayed open and deep fried. I started using my knife and fork on him, but the waiter told me to just pick it up and eat him right off the bone. Sure enough, he had a lot of bones, and tasted like dark meat chicken. Being breaded and deep-fried, I'm sure, helped with the chicken analogy...Redneckhunter got alpaca - also a cute and cuddly animal. We saw many of them in our journeys usually led on a leash by equally cute kids in colorful shawls wanting 1 sol for a picture. My impression of alpaca was a bit stringier than beef, but not as stringy as goat. It was served in a nice cilantro sauce.
This was at the Plaza restaurant in the lobby of the Plaza Hotel, right on the main Plaza de las Armas, the main square in Puno, on Lake Titicaca. We had walked up the Calle Lima - the main drag in Puno - full of restaurants and souvenir shops, but decided to opt for something quieter.After dinner we walked across the square and had coffee at the Cafe in La Casa del Corregidor. Set in the former 17th century colonial home of a Spanish official, the place is part cultural center, part gift store, part cafe. With an airy little central courtyard. I loved the local feel - when we went early on a Saturday evening, the woman working at the cafe was watching lucha libre (pro wrestling) on the TV with 2 other patrons who didn't seem to eating or drinking much of anything, just hanging out cheering on the masked luchadores. I had wanted to go back the next afternoon to take a picture of the place in the daylight... but after a long day on Lake Titicaca, I just crashed out with an altitude headache.
La Casa del Corregidor
Deustua 576
Never seen it deep fried! Rock On!
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