Helen Skelton accidentally chose a guinea pig to get spatchcocked (Picture: James Linsell-Clark/PinPep)
Helen Skelton’s misunderstanding led to a culinary adventure she wasn’t so thrilled about – eating a small deep-fried rodent.
While in Peru for a charity trip in 2011, the Countryfile icon admitted she tried the delicacy called Cuy al Horno, which is actually baked guinea pig.
Helen, 40, even picked out the poor pig who ended up on her plate as she was shown the hutches and pointed out one which was ‘cute’.
Speaking on the Spooning With Mark Wogan Podcast, she said: ‘So we went to this place in the middle of nowhere, it went out and there’s a big garden and there was all these hutches and they were showing me around.
‘They’re showing me all these hutches and I was like, oh that’s cute. It’s guinea pigs. Obviously, it was a bit of a language and a cultural barrier, but I was enthusiastic because they were proud and I was being respectful…
‘I thought they were just showing me their guinea pigs. I didn’t realise that I was picking my lunch.’
She could see how proud her hosts were of the dish (Picture: PA)
Helen ate the guinea pig to be polite (Picture: Farrell/Backgrid)
Helen revealed the one she had unwittingly chosen was ‘spatchcocked and deep fried’ and served with coleslaw – with its claws still attached.
The self-confessed ‘animal lover’ was incredibly torn but didn’t want to be rude to her hosts, who looked ‘proud’ to serve her the meal.
‘Obviously, I’ve been very lucky that I’ve filmed in loads of random places,’ the presenter continued. ‘They are so culturally different. I can’t say that’s wrong, that’s their world.
‘It was a delicacy. They were really proud. That was like, they’d gone all out and I was just like, and then we had this person with us who was a sort of like a fixer and translating and he’s just looking at me…
She confessed she was going to take it to her grave (Picture: PA)
‘He’s like this is really important to them and I was like okay It’s one of those things. I’m an animal lover and it’s one of those things that I will take with me to my grave.’
The Blue Peter icon’s appearance on the podcast was one of the first times she has spoken publicly since her divorce from Richie Myler, 33, was finalised.
Helen has kept fairly quiet about their split, which began with a separation in April 2022, but did address her ‘shock’ in her new autobiography.
‘I was in shock,’ she wrote. ‘I know that following break-ups, people often say they didn’t see it coming and it sounds like a cliché, but that was me.’
During the ‘dragged out’ proceedings, Richie moved on and welcomed a baby with his new partner Stephanie Thirkill.
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The poor critter was spatchcocked