{"id":278,"date":"2023-04-02T16:02:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T20:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/?p=278"},"modified":"2023-04-02T16:02:35","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T20:02:35","slug":"balut-the-national-bizzare-dish-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/2023\/04\/02\/balut-the-national-bizzare-dish-in-the-philippines\/","title":{"rendered":"Balut: The National Bizzare Dish in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you like your eggs? Scrambled? Sunnyside up? Over easy? Or perhaps you like to eat your eggs raw with the fetus still inside the egg? I know this might sound gross, but this dish called \u2018balut\u2019 is actually very popular in the Filipino household. In fact, balut is considered to be one of the national dishes in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy by Danilo Pinzon Jr: https:\/\/www.alamy.com\/antipolo-city-philippines-december-5-2019-street-vendor-sells-balut-or-steamed-duck-egg-and-chicharon-or-fried-pork-skin-image335749229.html?imageid=8AD82000-4F1D-4CCC-BC39-5E8C3FE025D0&p=301006&pn=1&searchId=64c2affed84919411efd784a3360a4f9&searchtype=0<\/p><\/div>\n

Whenever I would go to vacation in the Philippines, it is essential for my family and I to eat this dish before going back home in Canada. For this reason, I would always look forward to eating balut since we share that eating experience with our cousins, and we kept each other updated while eating balut. It seemed to me that balut was a way for me and my family in the Philippines to bond. And bond, we did. Thinking back then, there was never a shortage of balut in my town because there\u2019s always a street vendor yelling out: \u201cBALUT!\u201d \u201cBALUT!\u201d While many kids in the Philippines were excited about ice cream trucks and other Filipino snacks, my brother and I would be excited for balut, and we would ask our parents for money to buy the dish. While I remember the taste being very good when I was a child, as I grew older, I started to question the taste. In Canada, my mom would still buy balut in Filipino convenience stores or T&T. However, personally, I felt that it either lost its taste or it just tasted really good to me as a child because of my bond with my cousins in the Philippines. In any case, whenever I befriended non-Filipinos during high school, the balut would serve as a conversation piece since most of my friends were curious about foods from different cultures. And, balut was no exception. Similar to how I bonded with my cousins in the Philippines, I made Filipino friends in high school when we bonded how absurd eating balut was!<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy by Courtney Giardina: https:\/\/www.mashed.com\/158543\/the-untold-truth-of-balut\/<\/p><\/div>\n

So, what is balut and why is it so absurd or should I say bizzarre<\/em> to eat?<\/strong> Well, balut is a fertilized duck or chicken embryo that\u2019s been incubated for 2-3 weeks. You read that right. This is what makes this dish controversial and why it was such a great conversation piece in high school for me. As you can see in the picture, the balut has a chicken\/duck fetus that is often developed enough to be recognizable. Do you think that\u2019s gross? Well, tell that to the millions of Filipinos who eat balut, including me. In any case, don\u2019t knock it \u2018till you try it!<\/p>\n

How did it even come about and why do people continue to eat it?<\/strong> Apparently, its origins lie with China. It is thought that Chinese traders brought balut to the Philippines as far back as 1565 or 1885. It has also been theorized by some that balut could be a snack inspired by the famous Chinese century eggs. In whichever side of history you choose to follow, the main story was that balut was heavily inspired by Chinese culture. In the 1950\u2019s, the municipality of Pateros in Metro Manila, had around 400,000 ducks producing eggs that became balut, which earned them the name of the \u2018Balut Capital.\u2019 Ever since then, they\u2019ve been holding balut festivals in the springtime which features live music, dancing, cooking competitions, and plenty of balut. While it may be bizarre to foreigners, Filipinos ate balut because it was convenient, cheap, and it contains high level of protein. For men, they thought balut was an aphrodisiac. For women, it was encouraged for them to eat balut because they believed it would make pregnancy safer and easier.<\/p>\n

How do you eat it?<\/strong> It is prepared similar to a hard-boiled egg except it isn\u2019t cooled before serving. You boil it for 20-30 minutes, then eaten as soon as it reaches the right consistency. So let\u2019s start with the eating process: First, you lightly crack the rounded end of the egg. Once cracked, peel the eggshell off. Second, sprinkle the egg with salt or whatever seasoning you\u2019d like. Third, slurp the broth from the egg. Fourthly, once you\u2019ve drank the broth, you can pull apart the remaining shell to expose the meat which is the yolk, the white, and the chick\/duck fetus. Many people say that it basically tastes like chicken. The broth is similar to a watery chicken broth. The egg-yolk has been described as fluffy and creamy, pudding-like. Personally, I only really like the broth and the yolk because those are the tastiest parts. I sometimes avoid eating the actual fetus nowadays because sometimes they\u2019re hairy and that turns me off.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy by Anna Garcia: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/anna_garcia\/4306312298<\/p><\/div>\n

While there are still many Filipinos around the world who know and have eaten this national delicacy, it has been in decline in the Philippines. This is due to 1) urbanization of duck-farming spaces, 2) westernization of Filipino culture, and 3) traditional street vendors find it difficult to compete with popular fast-food joints. Nevertheless, there are other countries who have adapted this dish and made it their own. In Vietnam, it\u2019s called the trung vit lon or the hot vit lon. In Cambodia, it’s called pong tea khon.<\/p>\n

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Image courtesy by Courtney Giardina: https:\/\/www.mashed.com\/img\/gallery\/the-untold-truth-of-balut\/theres-been-a-festival-celebrating-balut-for-more-than-three-decades-1563219775.jpg<\/p><\/div>\n

The only difference between these dishes is the time of the incubation process. In Vietnam, the egg is incubated for 19 to 21 days whereas Cambodia\u2019s eggs are incubated for 18 to 20 days, and the balut is incubated for 14-21 days. Though I haven\u2019t consumed balut in a while, I still enjoy partaking it whenever I get the chance as it reminds me of the good ol\u2019 days when I was back in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBalut (Food).\u201d Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, March 28, 2023. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Balut_(food).<\/p>\n

Bizarrefood. \u201cFertilized Duck Embryo \u2013 Balut.\u201d Shop For Bizarre Foods Online. Accessed April 1, 2023. https:\/\/www.bizarrefood.com\/blog\/fertilized-duck-embryo-balut\/#:~:text=Balut%20is%20a%20dish%20that,is%20sipped%20from%20the%20shell.<\/p>\n

Giardina, Courtney. \u201cThe Untold Truth of Balut.\u201d Mashed. Mashed, February 2, 2023. https:\/\/www.mashed.com\/158543\/the-untold-truth-of-balut\/.<\/p>\n

Hooker, Sheree. \u201cBalut Eggs: Introducing the Philippines’ Strangest Snack.\u201d South East Asia Backpacker, May 8, 2022. https:\/\/southeastasiabackpacker.com\/balut-philippines\/#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20balut,-It%20is%20probably&text=Well%2C%20much%20like%20several%20other,%27feathered%20or%20hairy%20egg%27.<\/p>\n

Macatulad, JB. \u201c15 Filipino Snacks You Need to Try for Merienda.\u201d Will Fly for Food, October 24, 2022. https:\/\/www.willflyforfood.net\/filipino-snacks\/.<\/p>\n

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How do you like your eggs? Scrambled? Sunnyside up? Over easy? Or perhaps you like to eat your eggs raw with the fetus still inside the egg? I know this might sound gross, but this dish called \u2018balut\u2019 is actually very popular in the Filipino household. In fact, balut is considered to be one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-published"],"splot_meta":{"author":"AJ Aparato","license":"by","footer":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.kpu.ca\/foodhistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}