How to Cook (and Eat) Balut

I got embroiled in a conversation the other day with a colleague of vietnamese extraction named Lydia. For whatever reason, we ended up talking about weird things that get eaten and the negotiation finally turned towards balut. She said that she ‘d come back to liking it, after having turned away from the dish as a adolescent. “ Balut ” refers to a partially-formed duck embryo that ‘s been boiled in the carapace. In Southeast Asia it ‘s a popular street food .
now, I will try just about anything once. I ‘d heard tales of balut, but never had the luck to try it. I asked Lydia if she knew of a restaurant that sold the dish, but nothing spring to mind and I thought that was the end of things. That was yesterday. nowadays, she walked improving to me in the good morning and said she had a surprise for me ; and then she handed me half a twelve eggs, securely packaged in green cardboard.

No. Effing. Way !
Yup. Six balut eggs, ready to cook .
They look like regular duck eggs. Innocent. Lydia said all I had to do was boil them, precisely like a case-hardened egg, and eat it with a little salt and pepper. Well, a couple of hours late, I did precisely that. Ten minutes at churn, a little cool water bath to prevent overcook ( which may or may not be a problem with this dish ), and my first ever balut was cook to go .
I admit, I was a little spook. And it only got worse when I cracked it open and the first of the “ broth ” ran out. I guess you ‘re supposed to good make a little hole at the scraggy end of the egg and then sip out the fluid that ‘s inside. It tasted like a chicken consomme .
Peeling aside the rest of the shell revealed the creepiest nosh I ‘ve ever laid eyes on. There was still some yolk that had n’t been absorbed, ampere well as some egg white, but the stallion thing was covered with veins and slime. Behind the egg yolk was the duck embryo. It did n’t look like much, but there were crucial structures in place — wings and feet — that made it easy to recognize. I had second thoughts.

Of course, it was far besides late to turn away. If there ‘s any ashen left in the balut, it ‘s all rubbery and inedible, so I peeled that off and picked at the egg yolk a small. That was hard and crumbly, possibly I had overcooked it some, but by and large tasted like egg egg yolk. No big deal. But, after that was gone, alone the duck remained .
I paced around a fiddling, but finally sucked it up and tucked into the duck .
There are little bones that have a cartilaginous break down and some parts that look an nasty set like feathers. The inner organs are in place, more or less, and contain lots of full-bodied, red tissue that ‘s full of season.

largely, it tastes like dip ! Really fat hedge. Soft, ample duck. It ‘s about like a elephantine, duck flavored steamed dollar. After the first pungency, my reservations melted aside .
I wholly like it. good matter I have five more .
If anyone feels inspired to try this at home, balut can be purchased at Vien Dong Supermarket, corner of University Avenue and 54th Street .