I've been wanting to try lake trout (which I understand isn't lake trout) and chicken box. Not sure where to go, although I'm probably over thinking the issue.

I'd eat cuy, no problem. I would prefer it not be whole the first time, but I suppose I could manage.

One of the city markets will serve up the standard lake trout and chicken box: Cross St, Lex, or Northeast. Lake trout rules at the Northeast market. Broadway is probably not the right choice.

One of markets...Northeast or Lexington. I work across the street from Northeast and they sell a lot of lake trout and chicken boxes at lunchtime.

Lissa, you can sometimes get cuy at the Peruvian place whose name is escaping me at Lombard and Ann.

Spooky...two very similar commnents posted at almost the same time.

If it's slow enough or dumb enough... it's dinner.

Lake trout is a fake name for a really low grade fish like whiting. It's a total ghetto thing. Maybe lake trout sounded more appealing to people of color than whiting. It ain't trout and it ain't from a lake. There is no such thing as good lake trout or good scrapple, but if you like it then it's all good.

Now guinea pig has intrigued me for years. It's. A. Meat. Sleeve. I think it would be the perfect vessel for more meat. Maybe some kind of turducken type deal. It's the national dish of Ecuador. Maybe guinea pig stuffed with a rabbit, a chipmonk and a vole, grabbimonkole. Mmm... tasty with mango salsa and fried purple potatoes and a Squirt.

If it's slow enough or dumb enough... it's dinner.

That's why owl is never for dinner. Owls are nature's a-holes:(NSFW)

http://tr.im/owlgangster

I'm told (and no disrespect meant, I'm merely repeating) that the dirty "Chinese" store on Harford Road is the place to go for Lake Trout or a Chicken box with a half and half.

Hal, I know the place you mean, and I've been meaning to get over there.

Owlie, that sounds like a roducken.

I ate cuy in Peru, it tastes like greasy, dark meat chicken, a whole lot of little bones and not much meat. It was a little disturbing to have it arrive on the plate whole- feet and face included. One restaurant even positioned the little guy standing up and presented it with great fanfare only to take it back to the kitchen and cut it up for the diner. One word of caution, watch out for little patches of fur.....

They were eating guinea pig the other day on Bizarre Foods. Some mid-south-American country. Looked like a nice meal and it tasted like chicken.

Hal and Lissa - I'm guessing you mean La Cazuela. I really enjoy going there around Easter for fanesca.

No, it wasn't El Cazuela we're thinking of (El Cazuela is an Ecuadoran restaurant on Eastern Ave.)

I looked up the Peruvian place at Lombard and Ann. It's called El Rinconcito Peruano.

I've had the cuy at Rinconcito Puerano. I'm with mkand -- it wasn't offensive, but it didn't do a lot for me either. Their ceviche is outstanding though.

In my dream last night, I was reading something that OMG had written (in the paper? online?), and I thought, he should really be getting paid to this.

Well, my appetite has been whetted. I was going to swing by the Superfresh for dinner tonight, but change of plans, I'm off to the Petsmart.

I had the "guinea pig" at El Rinconcito with Jon Parker and a few others, it looked like a flattened, deep fried rat. Really all I could taste was that it was fried, not really much else.

you might re-think the order of stuffing, Bird. The rabbits in my yard seem to be bigger than the Guinea Pigs at Pet Smart.

In my dream last night, I was reading something that OMG had written (in the paper? online?), and I thought, he should really be getting paid to this.

Make it so. I'm tired of getting paid in rainbows.

I just finished reading Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour yesterday. I got through the butchering of the pig In Portugal, and the slaughter of inoffensive bunnies in Scotland, but the part that really got me was the restaurant in Viet Nam where live cobra was the speciality of the house. They cut out its heart and he ate it, still beating. It's (almost) enough to make me a vegetarian.

Bucky, I know someone who grew up hunting and butchering deer. One day, a friend called him because he'd shot a squirrel, but didn't know how to butcher it.

Neither did my friend, but he figured he'd just treat the squirrel like a deer.

He ended up with a small handful of roasts. Had to use an exacto knife.

The stand that serves raw oysters in the NE market (back right) is the place to go.

Don't worry, OMG, there's a pot of gold at the end. You just keep going. You'll get there.

I left out the part where I wasn't exactly thrilled about its being so good (in the dream)

And now I have Kermit the Frog singing Rainbow Connection in my head. Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. the lovers, the dreamers and me.

Lissa - Did he mount the little head and hang it on the wall, too?

(When I was a kid, I had aquarium. Every time a fish died, I let it dry out than mounted it with a dab of Elmer's glue on a little balsa wood plaque, then hung it over the aquarium stand. They would have looked good with a squirrel head mount in the middle.)

Based on today's experience, this will post twice. I apologize in advance.

Thanks for the market update on "lake trout". I like the Squirt idea. Or maybe a Bon Ton.
Hal, Jon, what can I say? Not only have you eaten cuy, you did it in Baltimore. I bow, I scrape.

Bucky, my younger son had a aquarium and he always seemed to have a goldfish named "Frisky." One day I was helping him clean up the menagerie of plastic animals on his carpet and thought, "Wow, that's a realistic plastic fish--oh no, it's Frisky!" That's when we installed a screen over the aquarium to control future Friskys.

Dahlink - I bet the suicidal Friskys were saying to each other, "Oh no! They put a screen on the tank. We're doomed to a life of swimming around this plastic mermaid."

JL, I haven't eaten cuy, in spite of the restaurant being in my neighborhood. I just know other people who have eaten it.

BTW, excellent post John. I wish I had thought of it. I am jealous of some of your language lately. You are pumping up the clever. My goth lawn mower repairman is pissed. It ain't easy coming up with something original every week. For example my guest post tomorrow is about tipping at crab houses with children when you are on a calorie restricted diet and you are craving ranch dressing and bacon on vacation. And goths.

Bucky, no cheesy plastic stuff in our aquariums. My son also had an aquarium with a frog that had started as a tadpole in a science class project. We had that frog for years and years. When I saw one of the teachers from long ago and mentioned to her that we still had the class project frog, she was surprised. "I thought it would just--you know--croak."

Finally, Owlie, you are giving the people what they want.