tim's journal

A capybara connoisseur

My search is over. Professor Acacio de Barros, a colleague visiting from Brazil, has eaten capybara, or, more properly in Portuguese, capivara. He reports that, while hard to find, capivara is quite tender and tasty. "It isn't gamey at all like you would expect it to be, but more like a mild pork," he said, "I prefer it over pork." It can be found in select barbeque places, rodizios. He was not sure about the price, since rodizios, being all-the-meat-you-can-eat kind of places, don't really reveal that information. Apparently, most people in Brazil do not know that the capivara is a rodent. Eating habits would probably change given the modern day culture of picky eating. Other fun animals in Brazil, though not for eating, include the cotia, a micro-capivara found in downtown Rio, and the anta, also known as tapir, found in the rainforests.