Peru: Kusikuy Restaurant
There's no way you can go to Peru and NOT eat guinea pig (called kuy in Spanish). It's basically a requirement for all tourists. You can't escape it. There are guinea pigs listed on menus. There are guinea pig plushies at the souvenir stalls. There are guinea pig carcasses hanging out in baskets at the market.
Can't unsee that last one.
We figured instead of eating kuy at a market, we should probably play it safe and eat it at a restaurant. When we still hadn't had kuy by our last night in Peru, we knew it was time to do or die. So we called up Kusikuy and made reservations for dinner:
Located midway up the most unnecessary flight of stairs ever, I was huffing and puffing when we finally made it inside:
Turns out we really didn't need reservations. The place was pretty empty. Regardless, the decor was quirky and fun and we enjoyed that.
After the arduous hike to the restaurant, the first thing we ordered was a pitcher of limonade (S/.15 or $5):
The limonade was fresh and minty and I ended up chugging my glass.
We started our meal with some tomales:
They were slightly sweet, but a bit too try for my tastes:
We saw rocoto relleno (S/.30 or $10) on the menu, so we gave it another shot:
These hot peppers were stuffed full with meat and veggies and then deep fried:
I liked it a lot more than the one we had in Arequipa, but probably only because it was fried so well. Well, at least I enjoyed it up until the heat built up and my tongue caught on fire.
We figured we should order something besides just guinea pig, so we decided to give alpaca another try. The grilled alpaca (S/.33 or $11) came with two sides:
The fried potato thingies were so freakin amazing that we asked for an additional order:
Think fried mashed potatoes. So. Good.
Asking for an extra order turned out to be a major mistake because our kuy came with more than we could finish. It also came with an extra rocoto relleno.
Before we could process all the extra food we weren't expecting, we had to take in the glory of the kuy (S/.65 or around $22) itself:
I actually felt a bit sorry for the little guy. Not only was he roasted, he had to suffer through such indignity after his demise. That didn't stop me from ripping into his tiny body though.
Guinea pig doesn't really taste like anything. To me, it was just a lot of work for very little meat. It's not fatty at all, just basically skin and bones. My sister seemed to really enjoy it though. She practially ate the whole thing.
With the kuy out of the way, we had to deal with the extra rocoto relleno and fried potato thingies.
CK didn't believe me when I previously told her the pepper was hot. She cut into the new one and was taken aback by the kick this pepper had. Pleased by how spicy it was, she gave a bite to her husband. It would later come back to haunt him. (I'll explain in my next post.)
We tried our best, but we couldn't finish it all. We took the leftovers home, but forgot all about them in our refrigerator, which was devastating because we were all looking forward to having more potato thingies.
If you want to try guinea pig in Cusco and you're looking for some dramatic flair, Kusikuy is the place for you. It's definitely geared for tourists, but you're paying for the quirky atmosphere and the presentation. The food isn't bad either.
Kusikuy Restaurant
Amargura 140 Cusco, Cusco, Peru
+51 84 262870
Can't unsee that last one.
We figured instead of eating kuy at a market, we should probably play it safe and eat it at a restaurant. When we still hadn't had kuy by our last night in Peru, we knew it was time to do or die. So we called up Kusikuy and made reservations for dinner:
Located midway up the most unnecessary flight of stairs ever, I was huffing and puffing when we finally made it inside:
Turns out we really didn't need reservations. The place was pretty empty. Regardless, the decor was quirky and fun and we enjoyed that.
After the arduous hike to the restaurant, the first thing we ordered was a pitcher of limonade (S/.15 or $5):
The limonade was fresh and minty and I ended up chugging my glass.
We started our meal with some tomales:
They were slightly sweet, but a bit too try for my tastes:
We saw rocoto relleno (S/.30 or $10) on the menu, so we gave it another shot:
These hot peppers were stuffed full with meat and veggies and then deep fried:
I liked it a lot more than the one we had in Arequipa, but probably only because it was fried so well. Well, at least I enjoyed it up until the heat built up and my tongue caught on fire.
We figured we should order something besides just guinea pig, so we decided to give alpaca another try. The grilled alpaca (S/.33 or $11) came with two sides:
The fried potato thingies were so freakin amazing that we asked for an additional order:
Think fried mashed potatoes. So. Good.
Asking for an extra order turned out to be a major mistake because our kuy came with more than we could finish. It also came with an extra rocoto relleno.
Before we could process all the extra food we weren't expecting, we had to take in the glory of the kuy (S/.65 or around $22) itself:
I actually felt a bit sorry for the little guy. Not only was he roasted, he had to suffer through such indignity after his demise. That didn't stop me from ripping into his tiny body though.
Guinea pig doesn't really taste like anything. To me, it was just a lot of work for very little meat. It's not fatty at all, just basically skin and bones. My sister seemed to really enjoy it though. She practially ate the whole thing.
With the kuy out of the way, we had to deal with the extra rocoto relleno and fried potato thingies.
CK didn't believe me when I previously told her the pepper was hot. She cut into the new one and was taken aback by the kick this pepper had. Pleased by how spicy it was, she gave a bite to her husband. It would later come back to haunt him. (I'll explain in my next post.)
We tried our best, but we couldn't finish it all. We took the leftovers home, but forgot all about them in our refrigerator, which was devastating because we were all looking forward to having more potato thingies.
If you want to try guinea pig in Cusco and you're looking for some dramatic flair, Kusikuy is the place for you. It's definitely geared for tourists, but you're paying for the quirky atmosphere and the presentation. The food isn't bad either.
Kusikuy Restaurant
Amargura 140 Cusco, Cusco, Peru
+51 84 262870
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