When I lived in Pasadena, I had the pleasure of working in a restaurant filled with serious young chefs all from a diverse background, and all came together for a common goal. One of these great cooks was a Filipino man about my age. I had seen Balut on the show Fear Factor when it first came out, and also on Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. I had the rare opportunity to try one of the strangest, yet most delicious and succulent things I have ever had the good fortune of eating. Balut is an underdeveloped duck egg served in primarily the Philippines and South-East Asia. Inside this egg is the embryo of a duck. To the average American palate this sounds terrifying and at once disgusting. Nothing could be farther from the truth. This possibly controversial street food is absolutely worth eating if ever given the chance.
For his protection we will call him Gary. Gary had acquired some Balut by chance at a local Asian Market, and knowing his adventurous coworkers he brought it into work and cooked it for when we all sat down after close and ate before cleaning the kitchen.
He boiled the eggs for a while and simultaneously simmered this wonderful smelling garlic vinegar and chile sauce. Even walking by the pan this was cooking in had a wonderful aroma that could probably be applied to numerous things and match well to it. I desperately wanted to ask him why this was the sauce chosen, but I knew before trying it there would be no way to understand; so I patiently waited until we sat at the table.
“So the way Balut is eaten,” Gary explained “is by cracking open the egg from the bottom” which everyone brave enough to try this delicacy began doing. He had poured us each a small cup of the sauce. “Now pour the sauce into the egg, and drink all the juices out.” As the egg is cooked, the duck itself creates a nice flavorful broth inside the egg, so the sauce is mixed with that flavor liquid and it balances so beautifully with it.
Once the liquid is consumed you can begin peeling the rest of the egg. The yolk came first. This is entirely the yolk of a hard boiled egg. It has some veins running through it because this is how the duck is eating. Once you are through the nice large yolk comes the best part: a savory bite of wonderful ducky flavor. The meat itself is so tender and moist and the bones and beak are so soft you can bite clean through them. This may have a small crunch but it’s not unpleasant in the least. If only I had the chance to eat this again, I would be likely eat ten in a row.
There are of course animal rights activists that will say this is inhumane, but if we break it down is it? Yes the bird is cooked alive, but there are a lot of things we eat that are cooked alive. Lobster is frequently cooked alive because endorphins are released as it dies that makes the meat taste better. Mussels and many clams have to be cooked alive or the diner can become very sick. These things are not protested against. Once you get past the strangeness of the dish, you find how delicious it truly is. It has a history in the south-east Asia and is served as street food there.
During the late 1800s the Phillipines were under a lot of Chinese influence, and the practice of eating fertilized duck eggs began in the early 1900s. As filipinos emigrated to other nearby southeast Asian countires, such as Thailand and Laos, the delicacy began to spread. Now even Americans can enjoy this wonderful delicacy.
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