Balut

The ultimate street food, the Balut. This must be the master of all street food! It's hard to convince non-filipino people to atleast try this unique filipino delicacy. Why wont you trust us when we say that it is so damn delicious! Not to be biased, but really, all filipinos recommend Balut if you want to know about street food.

Balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled alive and eaten in the shell. Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed. In the Philippines, balut have recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried in omelettes or even used as filling in baked pastries.

Fertilized duck eggs are kept warm in the sun and stored in baskets to retain warmth. After nine days, the eggs are held to a light to reveal the embryo inside. Approximately eight days later the balut are ready to be cooked, sold, and eaten. Vendors sell cooked balut out of buckets of sand, used to retain warmth, and are accompanied by small packets of salt.

Balut has been the "shocking" topic of some television shows because of its taboo nature in some Western cultures. In two episodes of Survivor: Palau and two episodes of Survivor: China, the contestants were made to eat this Asian delicacy. Similarly, balut is frequently featured on Fear Factor. Recently, contestants of The Amazing Race Asia 2 had to eat 8 baluts as a team before receiving their next clue. Balut was also featured on the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, where the host pronounced 18-day-old balut to be one the strangest foods he'd ever eaten in his life, but far better tasting than he had expected. The members of the rock band Switchfoot ate balut on stage at their concert in the Philippines. Video footage of this occurrence can be seen on the Switchfoot Podcast, episode 28.

To all filipinos who haven't yet tried eating Balut, It's a pity!