Who among you have tried eating BALUT?

[WiL and ShAi 0]

Who among you here have tried eating BALUT? and how was it?

My SO never dared to try it. We argued just because of that cuz he said he would try it but he did not. haha oh well, I can't force him!

shai

[WiL and ShAi 0]

is anybody awake already??

[dj1206 0]

I don't eat balut eventhough Im a Filipina. My fiance hates eggs so I definitely won't force him to eat balut coz I have to try it 1st hahahha

Edited October 1, 2007 by dj1206

[WiL and ShAi 0]

I don't eat balut eventhough Im a Filipina. My fiance hates eggs so I definitely won't force him to eat balut coz I have to try it 1st hahahha

hahaha!!! that's so funny! i eat balut but only the ones with very tiny creature! my fiance doesn't like eggs too and doesn't want to eat babies either.

[prettyfacenbody 0]

it taste good!

[jj1028 3]

ive never tried balut and wont and my SO says he'll puke, or im gonna eat it and he will too... oh well, id never!! just thinking about it making me

[WiL and ShAi 0]

LOL i feel disgusted of balut now. it's so weird that i can eat one. i did not want to eat baluts before. Now i feel like...

[Jasman0717 9]

When in Rome........but never again

[Mari_S 1]

i just used to eat the "yellow" part...but after a bad experience with one, i never ate it again! Try the "downgraded" version named PENOY. It only has the yellow and white part without the chick...

[Jasman0717 9]

My sister was in the Philippines back in the 50s and saved a local newspaper report on balut.

Balut

Did you ever wonder how the ‘balut’ that you occasionally or regularly eat with such relish is prepared? If you ever bothered to find out, you would know that a ‘balut’ takes days of painstaking preparation and which involves a series of complicated processes that only a genius could have thought up or concocted.

It is not known who invented the ‘balut’ formula but after a brief excursion to a place where the delicacy is prepared, I have a lot more respect and admiration for the man who made this native delicacy a a reality---a delicacy I have hitherto taken for granted.

My research came about in this way. I had occasion one day to serve ‘balut’ to an American guest. ‘Nowhere in the world can you find this poultry delicacy except in this country,’ I told him, with an air of pride.

I bade him to watch how I ate the ‘balut’ and for him to follow suit. After carefully watching my movements, he clumsily tapped the eggshell against the table, removed the bits of broken shell and began to sip the broth. Then he removed the rest of the shell, put a dash of salt on the ‘balut’ and began to eat it.

‘Why, this tastes swell!’ he exclaimed. ‘Tell me, how do you prepare this,’ he said as he finished the egg.

‘Well, er….frankly, …. I don’t know,’ I managed to say. Was my face red!

I realized that I had long taken the ‘balut’ for granted and never bothered to know how it was prepared.

The following day, I asked my niece to accompany me and together we took a bus ride to Pasig, Rizal.

When we reached Bambang Bridge in San Joaquin, Pasig, we saw a flock of black, brown and spotted black ducks basking in the early morning sun near the bank of the river. We got down from the bus and inquired whom the owner of the ducks was. We were warmly greeted by Damaso Espiritu and his wife Leonila Tuason.

How ‘Balut’ Is Made

When we made known our intention to see for ourselves how ‘balut’ was made, they took us into the shed housing incubators. The shed was about five by three meters with roofing of nipa and wall of bamboo slats. It was very dirk inside. The only source of illumination was an electric bulb with which a helper was ‘candling’ the incubated eggs to see the living embryos.

A three-by-one wooden box was filled to the brim with roasted rice husks or ‘ipa.’ Ten bamboo baskets, which they called ‘taong’, were buried in the rice husks. Mang Damaso uncovered one of the bamboo baskets and took out a big bundle of eggs. He untied the bundle and showed us the eggs. There were about 120 eggs in the bundle.

Each of the bamboo baskets contained embryos ranging in age from one to ten days. Thus, the one-day-olds are all in the one basket, the two-day-olds in another, etc. The rice husks create and hold the correct amount of heat necessary for incubation. After one day the eggs in the first basket are moved to the second basket. After two days the eggs in the second basked are moved to the third basket, and so on until the eighteenth day. This manner of moving the eggs from basket to basket is necessary to enhance the growth of the embryo within the shell.

‘I keep an accurate incubation record by marking the shells,’ Mang Damaso said as he showed us the age of the embryo indicated on each shell.

‘After 12 days some of the eggs are removed. This is what is known as ‘penoy’. Those called ‘balut sa puti’ are not removed until after the 13^th day of incubation. Those that we intend for hatching are not removed from the basket until after 20 days.’

Mang Damaso led us to another shed. There was a big table, not unlike a billiard table, which he called the ‘katre.’ The eggs are placed in the katre for from 8 to 9 days. During this time he ‘shuffles’ the eggs with his two hands every three hours much as a mahjongg player shuffles the mahjongg tiles. He has to wake up even at night to ‘shuffle’ the eggs. After 8 or 9 day the eggs are hatched.

After Mang Damaso’s entertaining and informal lecture on ‘balut’-making, his wife came to us with a tray of freshly boiled ‘balut’ and coke.

As we partook of the ‘balut’ with gusto (the fresh ‘balut’ tasted differently from the peddled ones) Aling Leonila picked up the discussion

Profitable Industry

‘I sell about 2,000 eggs daily at 15 centavos a piece to distributors and at 16 centavos to vendors. ‘Penoy’ sells for 10 centavos each. Our flock of 400 ducks supplies us with only 360 eggs daily. I have to go to other duck raisers to be able to sell 2,000 a day. I buy the fresh, unincubated eggs at 10 centavos each, so we get five to six centavos a piece for the incubated job.’

This is a big business indeed, for even a 5-centavo profit from each of the 2,000 eggs will give the owner the tidy sum of P100 daily.

The Espiritus keep their ducks in water-side pens, close to the source of their food supply—fresh water clams and snails which provide the high calcium content for the balut. This source being inadequate to feed the ducks the owners have to buy additional snails at 20 centavos a can. Some people in the neighborhood make a job of riding in bancas and scooping up the snails from the bottom of the river. A total of 400 ducks can consume 25 cans of snails a day and ¼ cavan of palay costing P7.80 a cavan. For duck feed alone, they spend P200 monthly.

‘Our hours are often long. We have to wake up even in the midst of a deep slumber to attend to the eggs. But since we are running our own business, we do not mind. ‘Balut’ has given us not only a comfortable income but more important, health and contentment,’ Mang Damaso said.

Each morning he and his wife gather the eggs from the duck houses and spread them on mats in the sun so they could have correct temperature for incubation. After about two hours of sunning, the eggs are wrapped in pieces of cloth called ‘tikbo’ and placed in the improvised incubators.

Long, drawn-out cries of ‘balut’ are one of the most familiar sounds on the streets of many Philippine towns and cities. ‘Balut’ with beer is as truly native as ‘mangga and suman’.

But the Espiritus expressed alarm over the increasing competition offered by the Chinese who have learned the secrets of the trade and are beginning little by little to take over the business from the hands of Filipinos.

Reflecting afterwards on this fear, it occurred to us that the best justification for the clamor on nationalization is the protection of truly native industries, like ‘balut’-making. Certainly, we have every right to demand protection for something that is truly our own, the product of our own native ingenuity!

[trey 0]

Cracked the shell, closed my eyes and bottoms up. Then washed it down with a coke. Only because I wanted to say I did it.

[Jasman0717 9]

Cracked the shell, closed my eyes and bottoms up. Then washed it down with a coke. Only because I wanted to say I did it.

Coke I used San Miguel and did five of em Same reason for me too

['my_destiny' 0]

I eat balut when I was in the PI. It taste good. hehehe!

But my husband said..he will not dare to eat it:D

[Jasman0717 9]

We are having a multi-cultural pot luck next month at my work so I think I will go to the little Filipino store we found and get some balut! There are quite a few Filipinos working in our building

[chris4gretchen 1]

Dili ko on the Balut. sorry, lol. no way i try that. Fortunately my fiance understood my resistance to trying that and never offered it.

Chris

Edited October 1, 2007 by chris4gretchen