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    • All Balot Bohol Boracay Cebu city El Nido Malapascua Manila Palawan Panglao Port Barton San Fernando
      El Nido

      El Nido and the Bacuit Bay

      March 26, 2009

      Port Barton

      Port Barton and the Pagdanan Bay

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      Palawan

      Coco Loco island and resort

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      October 28, 2007

      Balot

      Eating Balot

      October 28, 2007

      Bohol

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      Boracay

      Boracay island

      November 8, 2007

      Cebu city

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      El Nido and the Bacuit Bay

      March 26, 2009

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      Malapascua island

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      Arriving in Manila

      November 1, 2007

      Palawan

      El Nido and the Bacuit Bay

      March 26, 2009

      Palawan

      Coco Loco island and resort

      October 9, 2008

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      Port Barton

      Port Barton and the Pagdanan Bay

      November 8, 2008

      San Fernando

      San Fernando Crucifixions 2008

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Vincent Vanderveken.com

Take some time to see the world a bit before you leave it

Balot

Eating Balot

by Vincent October 28, 2007
by Vincent October 28, 2007 12 comments

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 underway 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…

Opening up 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.

Explaned how to eat Balot

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

Biting into a balot egg

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

Tasting Balot egg

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

swallowing ballot egg with beer

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!

examining balot egg

Look at that nice consistency and color of what’s going in..

hard parts inside balot egg

Chewing it now all into nice little even shaped pieces…

Looking what is inside half eaten galot egg

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

Swallowing balot egg pieces

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!

eating bird inside balot egg

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

eating bird inside balut egg

Part II: Stewart

All pumped up & ready for action!

Eating balut egg

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

Eating balut egg

Oh No, it’s not quite over yet…

Eating balut egg

Always gets the best when one reaches the middle part.

Eating balut egg

Getting it down is again a whole other deal.

Eating balut egg

Aren’t these tasty treats lovely Asian delicacies?

Eating balut egg

Little close up on what’s left

Filipino Eating balut egg like a pro

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


Here is a list of my recommendations for hotels in Manila, Philippines



AsiaBalotbalutbizarre foodCitydisgusting foodexotic foodLuzonPhilippinesSoutheast Asia
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12 comments

reallik December 5, 2007 - 4:22 am

nice photos , thanks for your information.

Reply
pickled-N December 5, 2007 - 11:03 am

Excellent shots vince ,well done,you’re a very brave boy!!! Loud applause !!!!!;-D
I’ll bookmark your photo blog,cheerio !

Reply
Jan April 21, 2008 - 5:03 am

Hello Vincent,

Hahahahaha… when I saw your reaction on our delicacy, I laugh a lot on you! it’s might be because your not from my Country. I am a Filipina, and now presently living in Canada. I loved Balut so much, I missed to eat fresh balut. I can eat 6 balut at a time or more, I really enjoyed having it and I have my friend (Canadian, who’s really felt bad everytime we discuss about that crazy and wierd delicacy) hahahaha…..

I thank you for posting Our famous Balut… I hope, whoever view or read your blog enjoy and have time to visit my country… Once again, Thanks and Mabuhay…..

I loved Philippines, my Mother Land:)

Reply
ianne September 21, 2008 - 2:08 pm

Ewww! Disgusting! Literally eating a duck fetus, that’s what it is. I’m from Cebu City, Phil., living in Canada, I’ve never liked this delicacy, no offense. There are other good tasting delicacies in the Philippines.

Reply
PoolBum December 23, 2008 - 4:49 am

Wow, I’m impressed. I’m an ex-pat living in the Philippines. I have never had the nerve to eat balut. When my gf eats it I insist that she wait 30 minutes before kissing me. I stopped to buy it for her and the vendor looked at me incredulously and asked if I knew what it is. I saw the look in her eyes and said “of course.” She replied, “but… you’re a foreigner!”

Reply
expat February 18, 2009 - 8:13 am

dear “Jan” – yea, I love how your Filipina pride comes out about something thats disgustingly unsafe to eat. Many tourists every month goto the hospital for trying this so-called delicacy. Just because treemonkeys can eat crap does not make it a delicacy.

I notice how you ‘love’ your country soooo much, that you left the motherland completely to live, marry, and work in a country whose language you can barely understand. I hope like mad that you’re not sending your money home as remittance, thats just stealing from Canada.

Reply
Sarah May 2, 2009 - 3:42 pm

It’s just barbaric, and to feel like you’re brave and cool because you are induging in a something that requires such cruelty and disconnection with being a caring human being is a sign of your inhumanity, courseness and position low down on the scale of the evolution of human consciousness.

Reply
veggie August 22, 2009 - 7:46 pm

Complètement dégoutant, qu’elle coutume barbare. Évoluez un peu!

Reply
Vincent August 24, 2009 - 1:54 pm

C’est a peu de chose près la même chose que le reste de la planète dirait a te voir manger de la poutine 😉

Reply
Balot December 28, 2009 - 2:07 am

Faut oser manger le balut, j’ai pas pu personnellement. 🙂

Reply
gerald cruz February 5, 2010 - 2:15 pm

coool I LOVE BALUT pare hope you bring some on your country

Reply
shiela February 19, 2010 - 8:56 am

is there any bad effects in our health if you eat too much balut? if yes please specify your answer poh. thank you so much.

Reply

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