~*My BALUT Experience*~

Hi all! I hope all is well today :)

Yesterday, I attended the Filipino Barrio Fiesta in Newcastle, which is an annual festival for Filipinos living in the UK. These fiestas are very popular and many attend to mingle with other Filipinos, watch the entertainment (which usually consists of local Pinoy talent) and of course, to take advantage of the food stalls serving amazing Filipino "ulam" (which is accompanied with rice) and desserts (hello, Halo Halo!).

Of course, when it came to the food, I wanted to take full advantage of what was on offer at the stalls. I ummed and aaahed at all of the delicious food, such as "Adobo" (chicken in soy sauce and vinegar sauce), "Bistek" (find my version of this in one of my earlier posts :)) and "Pinakbet"(pork pieces with aubergine, okra and other veggies) and then I came across a sign: "BALUT - £1.50 EACH".

Balut. Firstly, some things to know about Balut...

• It is a regular in the top 10 of the most gruesome foods in the world (very often coming in at the #1 spot).
• It is not for the faint-hearted.
• You need to have a strong stomach.

Balut is a very popular street food in the Philippines (and other parts of Asia), and it consists of a developing duck embryo that is boiled alive and eaten in its shell. The young chick inside the shell is nearly fully formed, which means it has the bones, beak and feathers intact when eaten. For those who are wondering - yes, you do eat the entire contents of the egg (apart from the shell).

I hadn't had Balut for very many years, not even when I visited the Philippines earlier on this year, so I forgot if I even liked it or not. Granted, I can see why it wouldn't appeal to many people, but my brother, as well as thousands of Filipinos, absolutely love it, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here is a photo of what the inside of the Balut looked like:

 

As you can see, it is hasn't got the most appetizing appearance. Here are my reactions (the guy on the right is my Balut-loving brother) when I was cracking the egg open...

 

 

Overall verdict - looks unappealing but it actually tasted OK. I think a lot of people would avoid it mainly because they know what it is and knowing they are eating a nearly-developed chick (beak and feathers and all...) is a put off in itself, but if they blind-tasted this, I don't think they would be so grossed out about it. I certainly wasn't and I would quite happily eat this again.

 

What is the most unusual food that you've ever eaten?