I found my guinea pig at a Sunday Market in a little pueblo an hour or so from Cuenca. You can see me tucking into its liver here as the poor fellow looks on helplessly. It would be enough to make you go veggie if you hadn´t known you´d been eating bits of animals all these years. Guinea pigs are a sunday special in Ecuador and Peru but I´m not really sure why. It just tastes like stringy, greasy rabbits. I suppose they didn´t used to have rabbits out here.We didn´t used to have rabbits in Western Europe either, until the Romans introduced them. The Roman rabbits were sickly little Mediterranean things, so they kept them on an island (I think in the Bristol Channel) and bred them into super rabbits, capable of withstanding the vagaries of the British Isles. Now they´re everywhere.
This reminds me that I was meant to write something about food. I´ve not really been taking photos of my food, as that would be a bit weird - sitting in a restaurant on my own, writing and photographing my dinner. But I have made a few exceptions. This one is for Oliver Owen, to show him that Colombian food can look remarkably similar to what they serve in the Colombian restaurant in Brixton market:
And this was a rather nice spread that was served as an accompaniment to a pint of beer in San Cristóbal, Mexico:
Generally the food in Mexico wasn´t great, and mostly just gave me food poisoning (known as the Revenge of Moctesuma in those parts). Cuba was worse, usually just rice and beans, and the rest of Central America wasn´t much better. There were a few honourable exceptions though - like that tapas in San Cristóbal and mole (chicken in a kind of bitter chocolate sauce, and nothing at all to do with rodents) in Oaxaca.
The food has got a lot better in south america. Colombians in particular pile it high with plenty of fried plantain, minced beef, pork scratchings and (of course) rice and beans; while the stews, usually with unrecognisable bits of animal and bone, are great too.
The best food was in the US and Canada though. Boston baked beans, crawfish on the west coast and crab and lobster on the east, game in the bits in between. I miss it. And a good curry.
Anyway have to catch a night bus now so hasta luego. I am very much enjoying the insides of buses. Really, I am.
3 comments:
Mum...he's eating Mr Fluffy!
Your latest report seems to have been heavily censored – lots of worrying gaps. Who or what have you also eaten that “they” didn’t want us to read about? And you seem to have become so fluent in Spanish that you are now learning English phrases “I am very much enjoying the insides of buses.” Try using that in Camberwell!
much appreciated the colombian breakfast. especially now the one in brixton has been taken over by organic colombians, who are pleasant enough but don't make the wee floury potatoes like the old lady used to. ah well.
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