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["Toni Hawryluk" <tonihawr AT msn.com>]

I have heard that people can starve eating rabbit meat only - 

Is the guinea pig *that* different ??

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6281125/?GT1=5472

 

Guinea pigs to scamper onto your dinner plate

 

Peru university researchers breed new new culinary export

 

The Associated Press

Updated: 10:38 a.m. ET Oct. 19, 2004

LIMA, Peru - After 34 years of patient tinkering, researchers at Peru's most 
prestigious agrarian university have bred a new culinary export they hope 
will scamper onto dinner plates throughout America and the world: the super 
guinea pig.

The animal is a cuddly companion for millions of children in the United 
States. But in Peru, the rodent's birthplace, it remains a vital source of 
protein in rural communities, a mainstay of Andean folk medicine and a common 
religious sacrifice to the gods.

"It is well known that Peruvians eat guinea pig. Foreigners are more 
reluctant to eat it as they see the animal as a pet," said Gloria Palacios, 
director of La Molina National University's project to promote guinea pig 
exports.

"I think if they become familiar with the cuisine, maybe suddenly they'll 
give in and be tempted to try it," she said. "It is really delicious."

Peruvians consume an estimated 65 million guinea pigs each year. It is a 
dining experience that normally requires two hands to pick scant, sinewy meat 
from a bony carcass _ often with the head staring up from the plate.

But earlier this year, La Molina university started exporting the "Peruvian 
Breed" _ faster growing, plumper, tastier guinea pigs _ to the United States, 
Japan and several European nations that have large Peruvian immigrant 
populations.

The 1,000 guinea pigs shipped out weekly _ mostly to the United States _ each 
weigh nearly 2 1/2 pounds, said Dr. Lilia Chauca, head researcher of the 
breeding project.

In comparison, she said, the guinea pigs raised on alfalfa and vegetable 
peels in nearly every rural Andean household weigh between 10 1/2 ounces to 1 
1/2 pounds.

The meat is high in protein and low in fat and cholesterol and has a 
distinctive flavor, similar to rabbit. Chauca and her team of researchers at 
La Molina's National Institute of Agrarian Investigation started the 
super-size guinea pig project in 1970.

Archaeological evidence shows guinea pigs were domesticated in Peru as far 
back as 2500 B.C., and had deep cultural and religious significance. Guinea 
pigs are still a common tool of ritual healers, or "curanderos," who use the 
animals to diagnose illnesses.

A 17th century native chronicler, Guaman Poma de Ayala, wrote that the Incas 
sacrificed 1,000 white guinea pigs along with 100 llamas in Cuzco's main 
plaza each July "so that neither the sun nor the waters would harm the food 
and the fields."

>From the beginning of the Spanish colonization, the Catholic Church brutally 
>suppressed Indian religious icons. But the guinea pig was spared.

Geronimo de Loayza, the first bishop of Lima from 1545 to 1575, refused a 
request by Spanish priests to order the mass extermination of the rodents, 
fearing it would spark a rebellion.

The Spanish colonizers made Indian artists paint, weave and carve items with 
Catholic themes to decorate churches and evangelize the natives. The artists 
copied prints imported from Europe, but added Peruvian touches.

Today, churches in Lima and Cuzco still display Indian depictions of the Last 
Supper with Jesus and the 12 disciples eating roasted guinea pig.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may 
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.