Its taken me almost a month to get the courage to eat this….
and man…..
I usually can eat anything.
The staff and the friends in Philippines I have met here keep pushing me to try it, its a street-side dish called “BALUT” in filipino. Basically, its 18 day old chicken eggs that have a baby chicken ready to hatch inside….
isn’t that CRAZY…
So tonight, after a few beers, walking back I decided to get the guts to eat one……Roc Roc, a friend here, prepared the egg for me and prepped me on what I had to do. Basically, first you have to open about half of the egg….but once the juice starts coming out, you need to suck it down…..
Then eat the yolk….where there is a baby chicken surrounding this egg yolk preparing to be born. Eating the yolk, there will be parts of the soft chicken….and its getting hairy at this stage…..
I really got sick to my stomach….i ate the juice, the yolk…but could not bare to eat the actual chick……they say it is soft and easy to digest…..but really…I couldn’t bear to do it…..
I do not know how this became a cultural dish…..jeez, it makes me feel Chinese dishes aren’t that bad after all….my god…..I have been to the Beijing bug market, having had scorpions and centipedes….and that is nothing to eating a young chick preparing to come out of its egg!
So there, Yaneiell, I DID IT, now you have lost your bet and lets get some more design projects going for this dare.
Ughhhh, another day, and experience doing international business. Its all about complete submersion into local culture and being open minded……man….
This makes those days back in grade school cafeteria (where I would eat anything people could think up) look like nothing….ie, that was “Mike’s Messy Menu” – thanks for reminding me about that Scott!
Comments
O man – nastyyyyyyy – I feel queezy – high five for the triumph though – gaaaa – just hearing you describe it is making me sick!
OH… u did it~~
i will never ever try this BALUT.
coz in my eyes,it really was kinda disgusting….
Anyway, … u made it…
~~~~
yea…..its not something i would do again…nor would i ask anyone else to do………..too extreme….stomach still not feeling right
well, Mike, i have to say i can’t agree with you this time. i think it’s wrong to eat this, and to be honest, i think it’s kinda moral crime. there is chiken in it, you know, so it’s like eating baby! there is such stuff here, too, but i feel it’s too cruel, even to think about it… i believe there should be certain esteem to life, even the life of animals.
Hey Nigel…..
yes, well, you eat a chicken right? And you eat an egg? So this is in the middle….
it is rather crazy…..but what is the difference if you eat both eggs and chickens….
don’t worry- you don’t have to translate this to Chinese if you don’t want to.
and…I am not going to eat this one again. yuck!!
Not sure if there is any difference between eating a balut and eating an egg. Its the same thing! Meaning both would be crimes if you look at it that way.
But its not. An egg is an egg. It would be same as eating pork or beef – which isnt a crime or immoral – or is it now?
hey Mike,
haha, replied to Nigel’s comment before seeing yours, yes, I agree…..
but its still DISGUSTING….. do you eat these?
No, there’s a difference between an unfertilized/ unincubated egg and one with a chick growing in it – just like between a woman’s period and an embryo/ foetus.
wakakakakakaka u r sick!!!!!!! stop eating babies!!! aaaaaa
we got that in hk too but its a duck. n not many r having it now, it prob dies down.
ur look’s just like my fren whod urchin. but balut’s way more disguesting!!!!
mike, how does human taste like????
hey Lammy…..
i’m sure there will be food in germany you won’t like….will you refuse to eat that when you are traveling?
sorry, not gonna eat a human baby……don’t care if they do in some country in this world…ok?
and i think i’ve gained weight since being in the Philippines….but i think its cuz of so many fast food places here, and TACO BELL, ahah
its also a gd way to lose weight….but id rather wear bikini whole day then eating this kinda gross ‘food’……
told u i luv german sausages hohohohohohohoho
hmmm, Lammy, i’m not going to go in the gutter here.
I give you credit Mike! All my life I’ve heard of that and couldn’t even think of myself eating one. I even visited there and did not have the courage to do so. You actually went there and did it within a month. Talk about complete submersion into local culture and being open minded…
thanks Nelly!!!
yae……i keep telling myself we only live life once….but man that was disgusting stuff!!!!! wont eat it ever again
Actually, it’s a duck egg – not chicken. It actually tastes fine (with salt) once you get over the disgust/pity over the developed embryo. Just avoid distinguishing the anatomical parts and see it as one whole chunk of food. I used to have difficulty eating it as well, especially with all the tiny bones.
I don’t know why it caused an upset stomach. I’m sure some things aren’t supposed to be eaten with it, but maybe it’s just a placebo effect.
Hey Jarvis,
how did this come about anyway I wonder? Yes, many people correct me and it is DUCK egg…..
So you eat them often…..I just wanted to say i tried once…..never again for me.
hahaha…its really funny..getting drunk first to dare ate the BALUT…but why you did not ate the chick?..that is the most delicious part of BALUT..hahaha
but you got a nice try..eating that is not easy..
cutie face on your pics..really..
sorry but its really so funny..
but the challenge is to eat the 21 days BALUT, remmember..LOL
Yaneiell,
21 day! they actually have that????? o man…..i can’t do that then…i’ll lose our bet then
still proud of you..not everyone can do that..your the man..LOL
they tell me now…..that there is no such thing as 21 day!
Going to be trying this probably next week. Wish me luck.
damn bro!! best of luck…..i almost threw up after.
Awww. I think thats pretty cruel of the filpinos to eat such a thing. I think it’s worse than eating an adult chicken. It’s like eating an unborn baby, that is almost ready for life, just 3 more days, and it would have been a little chick. Plus, eating one of those sounds DISCUSTING. I don’t know how you managed to do it. My opinion of “balut” is that it is immoral.
yea….maybe its just culture over time……it starts hundreds of years ago, and when you are young you get used to the tastte..
i think every culture has things other cultures think is disgusting…
but then again….eating a duck that is about to hatch…
“i think every culture has things other cultures think is disgusting…”that is sooooo right… i am from Philippines and love that BALUT.. i can eat more than 10 hahaha… some people maybe say its disgusting but for us its delicious… but “immoral”?? cmon man, whats the difference eating a baby and an adult? ducks are for eating, and eggs are for eating too… thanks MICHAEL for even trying to eat BALUT.. coz if im not used of eating BALUT, i guess i dont have the courage to try to eat it… haha..
you could say the same thing about eating ANY animal…don’t judge what you don’t understand–you’re only showing your inept ignorance. It’s not immoral, it’s cultural–I’m an Amercian but have traveled extensively around the world. Surprisingly things are different in other places…shocking, huh? Way to perpetuate the “stupid American” stereotype, Syd. You’ll go far in life.
But there’s a big difference between killing it quickly (as farm operations are supposed to do, though of course they’re very imperfect) and letting it die from cold/ boiling it alive (as is the case with balut).
It’s not chicken but duck.
I’m Filipino but it took me years… Seriously! Years to finally eat a whole balut. When I was little, I could only drink the soup by pricking a tiny hole in the egg ‘coz seeing the insides just made me want to hurl. The first time I finally got to eat everything was when I was around 16, I think. By now, I could probably eat one or two when I’m not in such a squeamish mood. But in some cases when there are already feathers forming… Blech! I stay away from those.
For those comparing this to eating eggs or a full-grown chicken or duck, this is not the same thing as eating a chicken or an egg with no embryo. In this case, a fully physically developed duckling dies by being boiled alive in its egg. Ouch. Most chickens are slaughtered much more quickly.