Balut

[jeff]

This was one of those things I had on my must try list. I just so happened to find a small local Filipino market where I jokingly told the guy working there about wanting to try balut, knowing that being in the states, chances are, they wouldn't have it. Of course I was wrong and he said, yeah we've got a bunch.... yay isn't this my lucky day!

I do want to point out that I read on a webpage from a questions and answers page about balut.

"No, I have never been able to buy good balut in the United States, and I won't try to. One time my schoolmate Tim (can't remember his last name, but he lived in Mountain Province once and was studying Heidegger and Japan for his dissertation), Jenny Franco (I wonder where she is now), and I drove to Queens to Roosevelt Avenue to buy Filipino food. I bought a six-pack of San Mig and two balut eggs, which were simply horrible -- they were all pinkish and looked under-incubated, and they tasted rotten."

This had me worried, so I figured once I cracked it open, if it at all smelled bad I would just toss it.

Recipe,

1 duck egg 16 to 21 days old.
salt optional for taste
vinegar optional for taste

Place a pot of water over med/high heat. right before a boil starts, place the egg into the water. once the boil starts, turn your timer on for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat once the 30 minutes is up and place egg in an egg holder, or in my case a measuring shot glass. Use a spoon and break the top open and sip or pour into a spoon (as pictured) Drink the juices and then open up the shell removing all the goodness. My egg pulled apart into three pieces (see picture) egg white, yoke, and the center where the duck was. enjoy!

Since I'm sure these questions are going to come. I'm going to go ahead and give you a few answers.

First things first, as soon as I cracked it open and put my nose up to the egg to check for a rotten smell I was greeted with a very nice smell, smelled nice enough for me to go MMMMmmmm. The juices reminded me of my moms chicken and dumplings, it tasted like a good chicken base. Tasty!

After cracking it open I pulled away the very hard rubber like white part. This was in too hard to eat. I still chewed at it for an idea of taste, it's pretty much like normal egg white, just cooked to death.

The yellow part taste like a very flavorful egg yoke, a tad bit more gamey but not anywhere near as much as I thought it would have been. Over all not bad.
If you're into egg yokes you'll really like it!

The duck tasted, depending on what part, like duck. the legs/wings were pretty much a strong poultry taste, while the body tasted a bit like liver. Over all the whole bird had a duck and liver taste to it. Not to strong of a liver flavor either. It was strong enough to know what it was but definitely not as strong as straight liver.

As far as texture goes, the bird is soft, the closest thing I can think of texture wise would be caned sardines. The bones were like little sardine bones, they had a slight crisp to them but would easily crumble when chewed. The little feathers were not really bad either, just kind of like... little feathers.

I checked the temperature of the egg and found it to be near 190 so I had no doubt the bird was done. That limits the chances of getting the runs. I would have liked it to have been closer to 170o. 3 people online (google) and 1 person in real life said 30 minutes is the cooking time. Maybe thats just a "to be safe" cooking time.

All in all, it's really not bad. If you enjoy hard boiled eggs and liver, Balut will hit the spot. Just add a bit of salt for the egg MMmmm

For all of you people that are freaking out over the idea of eating balut, If I took a balut, ground it up, stuck it into pig intestine and fed it to you with a side of eggs and toast, you'd eat it up with out thinking twice... as long as I didn't tell you what it was.

Then again most westerns can't even eat sausage, scrapple or hotdogs if they knew what was in it, or at least if they were thinking about it at the time of eating it.

My theory is that westerners are pansies when it comes to food. Most countries around the world eat anything and everything so they don't waste anything, unlike Americans who also use everything but hide the (nasty parts) in foods like sausages and hotdogs. So that they can easily eat it.

Think of a baby that wont take his/her medicine, what do the parents do? they hide it in the babies food, in grown ups cases, it is hidden in intestine.

Are we as Americans big babies when it comes to our food? If anyone reading this is willing to eat sausage with their eggs but can't stand the idea of eating pigs snout, then yes we are. =) P.S scrapple rules!!!!!

[jeff]

...

[karebearvj]

That is very nasty looking. I can not see that tasting very good. You were explaining it today to us and I was not imaging that.

[gonavy]

That is gross....I'll stick to the Buffalo Chicken Calzone. :)

[jeff]

Originally Posted by karebearvj

That is very nasty looking. I can not see that tasting very good. You were explaining it today to us and I was not imaging that.

It's all in the mind. It taste like an....... egg! oh plus some liver when you get to the little guy.

[StainlessSteel]

FYI Jeff, you ate the #1 most terrifying food in the world according to cracked.com The 6 Most Terrifying Foods in the World | Cracked.com Maybe you should work your way up that list now. The cheese with maggots and baby mice wine looks good for dinner