Manicou

The manicou is a marsupial mammal, and although it looks like an opossum it’s actually family to the kangaroo! The female manicou carries her young in a pouch just like a kangaroo, and totes them about in that fashion for quite a while. She normally gives birth to several babies, 16 – 20 or even more, and does so only 12 or 13 days after having mated! This is an unusually short gestation period, and the babies are extremely small when born. They live and grow inside the pouch, where they are able to feed on the mother’s nipples, and the pouch expands as they grow. When the babies are big enough, they ride on the mother’s back, where they stay until ready to fend for themselves in nature.

The manicou is also known as the black-eared opossum, but doesn’t have the opossum’s furry tail. The manicou’s tail is very long and whip-like, extremely strong, and is bare like that of a rat. I have always thought that manicous look a lot like hairy rats, although they have a more pointed nose and are of course considerably larger than the average rodent. Manicous are NOT pretty creatures, and although hunted throughout the Caribbean Islands I have never been tempted to cook or eat one.

Manicous are nocturnal, which means they have to rely heavily on a strong sense of touch and smell while hunting at night. They eat grubs and bugs, but also rats, roaches, roadkill and anything else they may consider edible. They can (and often do) wreak havoc in chicken coops, and will happily explore a bag of garbage in their quest for food. They can be pesky in other ways as well; some of the power outages that occur at night are caused by manicous interfering with the electricity transformers, and I have seen more than one electrocuted critter hanging from electrical wires over the years. Not a pleasant sight!

One morning I woke up to what appeared to be a small bullet-hole in one of our bedroom windows, and Mac told me it had probably been made by someone hunting for manicou the night before. I knew that people on the mainland ate manicou; to some, the “wild meat” caught during the hunting season was a treat, but I had never met anyone from Bequia who hunted and ate the strange-looking creatures. Mac figured that the Island’s police (all of whom were from the mainland and most likely had guns) were responsible for the bullet hole in the window, a hole which to this day is still there.

When the American celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain visited Bequia, one restaurateur in particular assumed that HIS dining establishment would be chosen by the famous man to feature in the Caribbean segment of the show. After all, his restaurant was the best on the Island, offering a live lobster pond and French Cuisine, and with high expectations he painted Anthony Bourdain’s name on the back of one of his chairs. To the restaurateur’s GREAT chagrin Mr. Bourdain decided to film the roasting of a manicou over a fire at Spring Beach; THAT was what he considered true local cuisine, not fresh lobster grilled in a restaurant! Although I by no means consider roasted manicou local fare on Bequia, I had to laugh when I heard what the famous man had chosen to feature, so much for high expectations and French Cuisine!  Although Mr. Bourdain dined at 2 restaurants while on Bequia (and yes, he DID use that special chair!), the roasted manicou is what ended up being the episode’s highlight.

I mentioned that I didn’t know any Bequians who ate manicou, but I DID know of one American man from Louisiana who hunted and ate them regularly. His name was Jim, and at one point in time he skippered a lovely motor yacht for a millionaire. Jim startled me at 4:00 one morning while I was making bread at the Pizzeria, he had just caught a manicou and needed a favour. Easter was approaching, and as usual the stores had run out of a few important staples, onions being one of them. Jim moaned that manicou just didn’t taste right if it wasn’t stewed with onions, and asked if I could spare a few. Well, how could I say “no” to a man so obviously in need?  A few days later Mac and I were invited on board the fancy “mega” yacht for dinner, and sure enough manicou was on the menu! A sumptuous buffet had been laid out on the aft deck, and I noticed with relief that there were plenty of other delicious-looking options besides the stewed meat sitting in place of honour on the table. Did I eat any of the manicou? No way! Did I warn any of my fellow guests what was in the pot of stew on the table? Gee, it never occurred to me!