Balut!

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Balut, a Filipino delicacy I have managed to avoid for the seven months I have been in the Philippines. At a party a few days ago, one of the party-goers was in a festive and generous mood and decided to buy balut for everyone, so by fate or by default, I decided to end my boycott.

Let me answer your question: Balut is a boiled, fertilized egg with a nearly developed embryo inside and is eaten with salt and vinegar. Now you understand my reticence. The Filipinos believe that balut is full of nutrients and that is also aids virility. So its no wonder that you can always buy balut at a stand outside the disco at 2am. The men seriously swear by it. There's also a young girl that carries a white foam cooler down the beach, calling "ballllluuuuuuuuuut" every two minutes while her younger brother (I assume) trails behind her carrying pork rinds.

Here's a series of pictures on my voyage into the unknown.


















Contemplation.... Observation......



















Experimentation... Realization.......

It's hard to describe the taste. Eggy, yes, but with a hard and cruncy texture. Almost like a boiled egg with a tiny almost formed chicken inside it. Haha. Actually not as bad as I thought it'd be, but I won't be hanging outside the disco in search of balut, either. I'll leave that to the men.

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