Balut - Finger Licking Good. (Fertilized Duck Eggs)
Posted: October 20th, 2006, 2:00 pm
First and foremost, last weeks Friday Thing was a bit postponed while I attempted to keep myself from doing major harm to myself. Work has been crappy, home has been crappy, and crap just keeps breaking. I've barely had the time to eat a good meal. But I will try to live up to expectations by bringing you this week's best of the Internet.
Balut, it's an unfertilized duck egg which has grossed out more Egg fans then any other dish. It's popularity has grown lately due to shows like Fear Factor and Survivor. I'm still debating to this day, if given a chance would I actually try to eat one.
Luckily this week I stumbled upon this blog of FoodTube which allows me to experience eating the Balut Egg without ever having to leave my laptop.
Yeah!
On a trip to Manila in May this year I was invited to try something called "Balut". I'd seen it advertised on home-made signs at the side of the road and in shopping centres. Samantha, who took these pictures, told me what it was - a boiled fertilised duck egg, almost ready to hatch.
I had to try it.
A few eggs were fetched from the nearest stall along with a small bag of rock salt and instructions to "eat them while they're hot"
It tasted fairly strange - a little like chicken stock, but not really definitively edible. I would have made more notes on this part, but I was thinking too much about what was to come.
The shell was very thick, like a shell. I cracked it open with the spoon and with moderate difficulty.
I had expected it to taste a bit like scrambled egg, but it didn't. Even with a bit of salt it was deeply strange. The development of the duck had changed the chemical composition of the yolk somehow. It was around a second after it went into my mouth that I realised that I could feel something strangely textured against my tongue. Feather. For a second I gagged, then I swallowed quickly. It wasn't that bad.
Looking down I realised I'd accidentally eaten a good amount of the duck itself and not even noticed. The body had been so soft that I'd munched through a fair amount of feather and bone without realising.
I let myself get the retching out of the way, took a deep breath and went for the head.
And then it was all gone, and much the same. Under the fleshy part there was a large hard, rubbery part that I was told not to bother eating, so I didn't. I passed on the second egg - sometimes you can have just too much of a good thing. All in all it wasn't nearly as revolting as I'd been warned, just a little strange-tasting and surprisingly textured - somewhere between dry and sticky. I'd been told that the smell was revolting too, but it didn't offend me.
Next time I try it I'll take off all the yolk so I can just pop the duck foetus into my mouth. Should be fun.
) for those who do more than gag. blaaaaaaaaaaah
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