h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They are deep-fried and eaten in Peru.

Why don't they eat Capybaras? They're massive and could surely sustain a family of four for a week. Maybe GPs fit nicely into a pitta. Do they taste nice?

Never had one. I don't think they're a staple part of the diet; more a festive kind of thing. They look delicious on the telly! All stiff and bloated, with a nice crackling.

They eat muskrats in Africa or India somewhere. If humans started eating rats do you think we might develop immunity to Weil's Disease (leptospirosis)?. That would be handy. I'll put in the bit about them being eaten, anyway. Do Peruvians save on techno music by dancing to the sound of thousands of GPs squealing in terror as they're suspended over a vat of boiling batter?

I don't know. I'm not Peruvian. But I like to think that some do. I know I would. Maybe to them, though, the whole business is not such a big deal.

Setting peru aside, Guinea pigs seem to get a certain buzz from certain plants. Letucce while being good, pales into insignifigance when the little blighters are exposed to dandilion leaves. check for council pesticide spraying though.

I wonder why. I've fed dandelions to prairie dogs, horses, bulls, and people, without noticing anything more than varying degrees of satisfaction. I don't think there is anything in the dandelions (unless it's the Council pesticide). Maybe there is something peculiar about GP's.

Eaters.
I thought that in S America the beasts are spitted (spat?) and roasted?

AG

Could be. Probably are. On the telly, they were being deep fried. I heard once that they are served aboard the trains of the Trans-Andes railway. I think it is unlikely that they would be deep-fried on a train for safety reasons. There are bound to be GP recipes on the 'Net somewhere.

no comment

My guinea pig loved daisies and dandelion leaves but would never eat them straight frm the earth - they had to be hand-picked and offered by a person. My guinea pig also willingly leapt from a metre-high windowsill to the floor, so I wouldn't trust it's judgement. A squirrel once got into the pig's run to pick up some sort of nut thing - the guinea pig saw this and ate one too.