Before even starting I know whats already on your mind… What the hell is Balut most of you would ask? In fact it’s simply a fertilized duck egg with an almost fully matured embryo inside that’s served boiled alive and eaten in its shell. They are considered delicacies in South East Asia and particularly the Philippines, Vietnam & Cambodia.

Now for an intro to the story… After a long & strenuous previous night out partying that started at the All-you-can-drink Conway’s bar of the luxurious Shangri-la Hotel in Makati & eventually ending in the Ermita Cowboy Grill somewhere estimated around 6:30 AM. We were invited to a BBQ later that afternoon by 2PM at some of Leif’s Filipino friends place. Given this I would never have imagined that I would be in the best mindset to attempt eating balut that night. But as the barbecue went on well into the evening and as our fourth case of San Miguel was under way a new sense of strength embodied us. Eventually the persistent hangover was but a distant memory and everyone’s systems were fully operational again. That is when all of a sudden a Balut vendor passed by and the dare between me & Stewart was set…

First of all I must say your friend and humble narrator is very proud to have made it all the way up from scratch to the second position of the top 10 disgusting food. You can go take a look to have a better ideas of the other treats offered there. Basically depending on the exact number of days (17 to 21) of maturity it should look either something like the picture on the left to a bit more developed duck like I had on the right with feathers, bones & and a hard beak:

It’s funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you see them in full resolution so lets have a closer look of whats inside a when peeling a balot egg…

Part I: Vincent

After a few explanations from a local on the techniques of eating balut and what I was going to endure I figured adding as much salt as possible would be a good idea.

Oh well time to dig in and savor the delicious flavor…

At this point my body told me something wasn’t right with ingesting this food & I started heaving and gagging a bit..

Glad to the virtues of San Miguel I was able to chug down those nasty pieces I could feel refusing entry.

Ok… From a quick peek of what’s gonna have to be swallowed this is far from a won battle. Salt it up more please!

Look at that nice consistency and color of whats going in..

Chewing it now all into nice little even shaped pieces…

And for the hard part.. To swallow the damn thing.

Here you can actually see very well the duck’s beak,eyes, feathers & all that nastiness…

NOW THIS IS THE MONEY SHOT YOU NEED TO ZOOM INTO FULL RESOLUTION!

A combat until the last final moment but the job got done nonetheless. Mission accomplished!

Part II: Stewart

All pumped up & ready for action!

But things aren’t always as easy as they appear at first..

Oh No, its not quite over yet…

Always gets the best when one reaches the middle part.

Getting it down is again a whole other deal.

Aren’t these tasty treats lovely Asian delicacies?

Little close up on whats left

And here’s a real pro doing it… two quick bites & it’s over Johnny!