My first taste of both beetle and guinea pig all within the same half hour! What a day for me! I take the spoon and she holds out a small beetle to show me what I’m getting into. I find a few more of these, the only reminder really that I’m eating guinea pig.Īfter I finish my cone, Maria offers me a taste of another kind of ice cream she’s created. It’s a bit of fat that apparently didn’t get rendered out. I take another lick and notice a texture. Today, it’s not on every menu, but it’s eaten on special occasions by both the indigenous and the colonial Ecuadorians.

Long before pigs existed in South America, the indigenous people used guinea pigs as a much needed source of protein. The animal started out as food over 4000 years ago. Ecuador, and neighbouring Peru, have been eating guinea pig for a long time. It reminds me that in Ecuador they traditionally serve guinea pig in a peanut sauce. On top of the ice cream are some peanut bits. She then mixes in the cream and some fruit, then freezes it. It is then blended with some of that rich guinea pig water until it’s pretty much a pate. To make guinea pig ice cream, you simply boil a guinea pig (minus the head and fur) until it’s incredibly soft. Cars started rolling into the old dental office, and instead of looking for a teeth cleaning, they were looking for something to rot their pretty little chompers. The newspapers picked it up, the news stations came by to shoot a segment. Her husband thought she was nuts and probably considered drowning her in a vat of milk. It took her a whole 6 months to get the recipe right. While other people were probably focused on dog walking apps or something, Maria’s idea was simple: guinea pig + ice cream = guinea pig ice cream. She was encouraged to come up with a new idea that she could market. I made sure to smile and nod, for the inventor’s benefit.Īfter the company she had worked for went under, Maria decided to take a business course. But still my stomach twisted as I took my first lick.

I took it, and she quickly sat down far enough away to not be noticed but her eyes remained on me as I considered the treat. She left and came back with a scoop of ice cream sitting atop a cone. She knew what I wanted and quickly ushered me to a giant empty table. I recognized her from a photo I had seen in an article I had read. This was Maria, the genius(?) behind guinea pig ice cream. I hesitated, but a welcoming smile got up and met me. There were a group of people sitting at an outdoor table eating lunch. I went to the only building that had forms of life at it. Instead of a face there was just a hole, waiting for someone who was feeling a bit more pumped about the whole situation to put their head in for a quirky photo. I passed a cardboard cut out of a guinea pig with its arm around a cowboy character. Nonetheless, I had made this long journey and I wasn’t going home without some rodent dessert. It was confusing, very bizarre, and even a little eerie. Without the sign, I would have thought I was at some sort of dental office complex. Thank you little guinea pig.Īfter a short walk, I reached a complex with another sign telling me that I was in the right place. It pointed me down the highway, telling me I was only 100 metres away. It did not looking promising, but then I spied a tiny little sign with a picture of a guinea pig holding an ice cream. I decided to go via the bus system – which seems to be unorganized and unreliable in Ecuador, at least for a newbie to the country.Īfter 2 and a half hours I reached the bus stop that I had somewhat randomly decided had the most potential to be close to a guinea pig ice cream shop. With only “on Ruminahui highway between bridge 5 and 6” for my directions, I ventured out to find the ice cream parlour. One day my inbox was flooded with articles about guinea pig ice cream. I have a Google Alert on the words “Ecuador food”, so I get an email whenever these words are published in a news article. A Food Lover’s Guide to Vietnamese Food.The India Chronicles – 28 Days/28 Videos.Myanmar: The People, The Culture, The Food.Along the Yangtze: Chongqing to Shanghai.

Cream of weet guinea pig