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Ick. Had to do some googling that Granny would be proud of!

January 08, 2004

Eating Balute

I've mentioned in my 100 Things About Me List that I've eaten a filipino delicacy called Balute. I have fond memories of sitting on the side of a road in the outlying barrio towns, anticipating the distinctive ring of a bicycle bell and call of "Baaaaluu-uuuute!". To us it was a tradition and something I'll always remember. We would gather outside one of our favorite beachside establishments called Heaven-II, squat along the binjo ditch as the Balute man would pull up to us on his rickety bicycle. By the way, just in case you were wondering what happened to Heaven-I. It was destroyed in a hurricane. Now, the Balute Man and his bicycle is almost the equivelant to the ice cream truck coming through an American neighborhood, only multiply it by 10. Honestly, the kids that would followed us around would work themselves up to riot levels in the hopes of having us buy them Balute. So now you have a mental picture. Four sailors, one Balute Man, and fifteen screaming kids waiting to consume one of the nastiest things known to mankind.

So what is Balute, you ask. Balute is the aborted, partially developed fetus of a duck (or chicken in some cases) still in it's egg, and then fermented. I can't remember how much one cost but in U.S. dollars it was the probably equivelant to buying gumballs from a machine. Despite it's cheap price, this was still a delicacy and there is a proper way to eat such things. One never sits at a table to eat Balute, you must be outdoors, on the streetside. The Balute peddler pulls from his bicycle basket a large earthen jar wrapped with towels and places it on the ground. He then carefully unwraps the towels and one by one, using a knife or spoon, taps a cirular crack around the topmost part of the duck egg and lifts off "the cap", as it were.

It's important to not that there are certain rules to consider when eating Balute.
1. Don't look inside the egg before you eat it. You don't want to see the very thing your going to eat looking back at you.

2. Don't sniff or smell the contents of the egg before you eat it. This is also important for obvious reasons.

3. Don't think about the contents of the egg before you eat it. Imagination is the man killer here folks.

4. It helps to be completely intoxicated well before even considering eating Balute. This is more of a guideline than a rule really.

With those things in mind, you simply find your happy place, close your eyes and with full clarity of thought put the opening of the duck egg to your lips and suck. At first your gag reflex is in overdrive, but it's too late to backout now and you have two options - chew or not to chew. My first couple of times I simply swallowed. Then after mustering the necessary courage I began chewing, all the while keeping rule #3 closely in check.

So why did I bring this up and spoil your lunch? I was visiting a local Oriental Market close to my house and picking up some tofu and seaweed paper to roll sushi, when to my total and complete surprise I saw that they sold Balute. I'm sure it won't be exactly the same but I was wondering if any of you would like to join me in a truly unique delicacy? It really is a worthwhile experience. So who's with me?

Posted by jason at January 8, 2004 11:07 AM

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