Balut or Balot a.k.a Fertilized Duck Egg

Have you eaten balut? If you have visited Philippines, have you heard somebody shouting "balut! penoy! in the silent night? If not, tara! let's get to know better this food.

Balut or Balot is a street food popular in the Philippines. As history unfold, it is the Chinese people who introduced this kind of delicacy to Filipinos. It is a boiled fertilized egg of a duck usually 16 days old to 21 days. Although it sounds like not so tempting but as you taste it, you may find yourself wanting it.

Tonight, together with my partner, we visited our "suki" stall of balut along the Newtown Road at Mactan. Suki means a regular customer or vendor. Balut can be sold along the road usually at night. Why at night? Because you may find it gross if you can see the embryo in the food that you are eating but nonetheless you'll get used to it.

According to studies, the egg is rich in protein, calcium and other minerals, so we consider it as healthy unexpensive food but ofcourse in moderation.

Balut is best eaten a minute after being cooked and best paired with vinegar and salt. To sustain the temperature of the balut, the vendors usually put it in an ice bucket. A balut is not a balut without its pair -vinegar and salt. The best vinegar is from the coconut vinegar added with spices such as garlic, ginger and hot pepper and simply contained in an empty plastic bottle.

Even though I am used in eating this kind of food, I only buy and eat the 16 day old egg because it just taste like a normal egg with no fully developed embryo compared to the 18-day old and 21-day old balut which you can taste already the hairy embryo.

So much to this, let's eat!
Please share with me your thoughts on this exotic food.
Thanks for reading.