I've eaten alpaca a number of times: several times in Peru in Cuzco restaurants and at Mo-Chica in Los Angeles. Anshu Pathak of Exotic Meat Market raises some of his own alpacas in Perris, California and I recently ate an alpaca porterhouse steak that I purchased from him.
Alpacas are camelids, along with camels and llamas. Alpacas have been domesticated for tens of centuries and there are no wild alpacas. Domesticated alpacas are primarily found in the Andes in southern Peru, northern Bolivia, Ecuador and northern Chile. The vicuna, which is wild and a little smaller than the alpaca, is believed to be the ancestor of the alpaca. Llamas, another domestic relative, are much larger than alpacas, and were bred to be beasts of burden. The alpaca were bred for their fur, similar to wool, which is used to make sweaters, hats, scarves, blankets and other items.
The alpaca ribeye was quite lean. I put on a little olive oil and salt and cooked it on our outdoor gas grill. Unfortunately, I was doing some other things in the kitchen and over-cooked it and it was not as tender or juicy as it would have been otherwise.
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| Alpaca porterhouse steak. |
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| Overcooked. |
I have to look back at Incanto in Cuzco on how to do it right. What I did could not compare.
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