Balut

Last night, I tried a Philippine delicacy, balut.  It is very similar to your typical hard boiled egg ... except that its a duck egg ... AND it was allowed to be fertilized and grow for 15 or so days.  Essentially, it is a hard boiled embryonic duck egg and they absolutely love everything about them in the Philippines.

Feeling brave, I decided to try one last night with some encouragement from my coworkers.

The steps for eating balut are as follows:

     1.  Crack the top of the egg slightly.
     2.  Remove enough of the eggs shell to reveal a clear liquid in the egg.  Drink said liquid.
     3.  After draining the egg of most of its liquid, remove the rest of the shell.  The embryonic duckling with have vague similarities with its hatched brethren.  Circular shapes appear to be the body and head, while you might even see feathers if you look close enough (I tried not to).
     4.  After a good portion of the shell is removed, eat the egg whole.
     5.  Celebrate!

All in all, it wasn't a bad experience.  The taste was almost exactly like the hard boiled eggs that I am used to back home.  The texture left a bit to be desired, but I am not a foodie so I won't criticize.

This is one of those experiences that fell perfectly in line with a major philosophy for my trip: try everything I can at least once.

Here are some sequential pictures of the process:

Crack the top enough to get to the juices.

Drink the juices.

Remove the rest of the shell.

Don't look at it too much before you eat it.

Dig in!

Chew ...

Finish and celebrate! You just ate balut.

The remains.