Would you eat rodents?

by Sarah J. Gim, Posted Mar 23rd 2007 @ 2:45PM

If you think about it, there are a lot of things that when described with different words or to anyone who isn't familiar with them, are kind of unappetizing. Raw fish? Fish eggs? Near-raw bird livers? What about Bambi? Bugs Bunny? Sushi, caviar, foie gras, venison, and rabbit. They don't sound all that unappetizing to me, except the caviar and foie gras, of course.

What about "rodents?" Apparently, in a region of Venezuela, rodents are a true delicacy. In other South American countries, capybara, the world's largest rodent (does this make anyone else think of The Princess Bride?) is hunted for its hide. In Venezuela, the meat of the capybara can get prices that are almost double that of beef. Part of that price is how difficult it is to hunt the capybara, and part of it is the flavor, which is "more like rabbit than chicken, though when dried with sea salt in Venezuela it acquires a fishy flavor."

Hey, as long as we don't start making sewer rats a delicacy here in the US, fine by me.

More on, uh, rodents:
Peruvian Cuy to debut in a store near you
Nutria, the other white swamp rat
Cooking with groundhogs

Filed Under: Food Oddities, Ingredients
Tags: beef, capybara, delicacies, dinner, new york times, NewYorkTimes, oddities, rodents, south america, south american cuisine, venezuela

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Reader comments (Page 3 of 3)

3-30-2007 @12:13PM Harry Hurt said... How about roasted blue-nosed gopher?
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3-30-2007 @12:18PM Billie said... ONE WORD....EWWWWW
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3-30-2007 @12:42PM Aythrun said... I think some of our dietary biases are silly. Chicken? Dirty fowl that dig in manure piles. Beef? Cows burp up chewed food and masticate it again. Pork? Hogs root through even nastier things than chickens do.

Compared to that, a clean rodent that eats only vegetables doesn't seem as gross.
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3-30-2007 @12:27PM DEE said... why not try new foods it's not likethe borad of health isn't going to say we are aren't all going to die from it anways it might bea better way of new living and a healtier way to eat!!!
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3-30-2007 @12:43PM Elisa said... Has it ever occurred to anyone that some animals put on this planet were not meant to be eaten?? Whatever happened to just allowing an animal to live out his life? Most of these animals are treated very badly before they are turned into food. The cultures that eat these poor animals are true monsters. If they were wiped off the face of the planet, no great loss!!
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3-30-2007 @12:47PM shaye said... If any of you eat chinese food on a regular then...welcome to the world of rodents lol
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3-30-2007 @1:30PM Mike said... Does anyone else notice all the whiney tree hugging pansies are women? Or at least men in dresses...
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3-30-2007 @1:17PM Mary K. N. said... So Alice, a scholar who "happens" to know the niceties of 16th and 17th century Catholic Church dietary law-- not because she's a devout Catholic, but merely because she thinks they're "weird"-- also "happens" to be the first respondent to this arcane article. Smells like a fishy set-up to me, to trigger others to mock and degrade Catholic dogma (see answer 12) during our upcoming holiest days of the year. Alice, as a 52 year old devout Catholic who probably knows more about the faith than you, I think you're making this up.
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3-30-2007 @1:23PM Mike Tobin said... Everything taste like chicken with "Shake and Bake" seasonings:-) It is just the size of the bag you shake it in that changes:-)
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3-30-2007 @1:56PM Debby said... We visited Belize in Central America, where we ate Gibnut (not sure of the spelling). They were skinned when we saw them, but they look like the capybaras shown here, like a small pig. Our guide Ralph went out on horseback one day and came back with three gibnut. We roasted one in the oven and he took the other two to friends. It tasted very much like pork, not tough like you would think, or gamey. I love to cook and am really good at it. This was the birthday dinner for my twin sons who were 19. It is said it is the national dish, and that it was served to Queen Elizabeth when she visited.
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