Balut or Fertilized Duck Egg

At the end of any day, the time when the scent of incense signals the setting of the sun and darkness beginning to dusk over, rows and rows of stores coexist in harmony. This is a picture I've known as night market beginning at six of the evening where untaxed itinerant businesses busies themselves until crack of dawn. Since I live in a bustling street in the heart of Iloilo, I'd like to picture the worn-out sidewalks filled with people and stalls as somewhat familiar yet unpredictably magical. If you were a traveler that happened to pass through our chaotic street fusion, assumingly you'll have mixed emotions of disgust, clumsily unexpressed impressions or might it be an affirmative note caused by an eager passion of curiosity which accomplishes your wandering taste. Your first sight would treat you to a sumptuous blend of colors from fruity push carts, native coffee signage, bunch of finger food in surprising bits, unpredictable liquid creation flavor, eye-catching food haulers and scary-looking concoctions to try, all blend along with every possible commodity. Though a genus of this land, I am still enticed with our ways not only with the food or the people but the culture that thrives in each doings. More a fanatic of foodstuff, I was inspired by some Fear Factor Challenge where competitor s dared and ostensibly frightened by some weirdest culinary stuffs of the world which with greater appreciation I'd like to talk big as foods esteemed in the streets of Philippines every day. The most frequent stuff is "Balut" which one may think forbidding not only for its exotic kind but entirely awful to experience because of its daunting appearance. What is with this weirdest food in Earth that made me love it so much?

Certainly not all Filipinos knew that "Balut" is termed in English as "Fertilized Duck Egg" and certainly not everyone was eager to discover for they certainly just wanted to gobble it. Some bothered themselves creating very unadventurous changes to its spelling such; "Baloot", "Balute", "Baluge" or "Baalut" neglecting the idea that by nativity it is best if one comes from the "Pateros Itik". It is an incubated egg with developed embryo of 17 to 19 days which is boiled and eaten with or without salt.Peddlers enthusiastically attempted inventive melodic approach of selling this good usually wrapped in "katsa" cloth to keep it from cooling down and carried inside a cylindrical-shaped galvanized-iron container.

"Balut" has an external feature of the common chicken egg. How to eat "balut" needs an intelligently humorous process. Next to acquiring it from a vendor is to meticulously inspect the whole thing while guessing the larger part of it to be opened. Such guess would lead you creating the first crack by hammering it on a hard object. You are indeed lucky to have guessed the right part of it to open if this time around you couldn't help but ponder the idea of whether this liquid was really a broth or closer to amniotic fluid. A provocative yet a bland thought, perhaps. Sipping the very life force out of the balut is delaying. And the taste for me, yes it's very nectarous and just pleasant. The weird challenge then is opening the egg and pops a sixteen-day-old incomplete chicken fetus with partially formed feathers, feet, eyeballs, and blood vessels' showing through the translucent skin of the chick and the weirdest is putting it into your mouth. My most experience from enjoying "Balut" is the part of picking feathers out of my teeth. This could be part of the reason. Or maybe it's the sickening sight of a partially formed creature that this food inspires so much fear. Foreigners preferred to satisfy their curiosity by eating only its yellow element which is good when plunged into vinegar or otherwise try the white or the hardest part if you're really sickened by balut. And to tell you, this one had become my everyday food since I was five. I truthfully could down up to six pieces in one sitting. Though it was believed as aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein hearty snack, unfortunately it also has loads of calories, cholesterol, and uric acid, which can contribute to health concerns reason why my Papa limits me for only one a day.

When I was a child, the monstrosity of this meal didn't seem so daunting to me as first introduced by my Papa. I just focused on its taste and not the terror it secretly possess. And, you know that at the age of five, I experienced a kind that surely tastes so good, just enough like a bird or a duck I mean.

Regardless of its relatively benign feature which made everyone skittish about it, please explore its taste.

-dp