The Dreaded Balut

Over lunch yesterday, my Singaporean colleague all of a sudden asked me if I eat balut. I was surprised, so I asked her why. She said that she watched a program from the Discovery Channel called Bizarre Foods (or something to that effect), a show that features various bizarre viands from all over the globe and in the previous episode the host of the show went over to the Philippines and feasted on snakes, crickets and of course balut, among other things. Being Asian, as she is, she is quite used to seeing people eating snakes or insects and she became curious about balut. She asked me if balut was like the Filipino version of the century egg. When I told her that it’s nothing like a century egg, she explained what she meant. She was asking if balut was like the century egg in the sense that we Filipinos eat and actually like balut simply because we have grown up with it similar with her liking century eggs (although a lot of people wouldn’t eat it) because she grew up with it. Thinking about it, maybe she is right, a lot of Filipinos actually love balut and have eaten it since they were young. Come to think of it, if we Filipinos were not so accustomed to eating balut, are we really gonna like it or are we gonna eat it at all?

Today, while having lunch, another Dutch colleague of mine who lived in Manila for four years some 30 years ago during her teenager years asked me how my vacation was. She started telling about her fond memories of the Philippines and how she liked her stay and would want to come back again soon just to see how everything has changed now. She vividly recollects how she studied in an American School where she had loads of fun. She remembers different kinds of food that she ate and liked a lot. Then all of a sudden she said “I loved almost all the food I have eaten in Manila although I don’t remember what they are called, but one thing is for sure, I hate balut (!), although I do love the corn on a cob which was also sold by the Balut vendor”. Then a Bulgarian colleague who was also having lunch with us said she remembered that eating balut was one of the challenges given to the Amazing Race contestants and no one could eat it. Astonishing huh! My colleague actually forgot the names of all the food that she actually liked when she was living in Manila but her aversion to balut remained with her!

Personally, I have never eaten the undeveloped duck embryo inside the balut (which is the main reason why other people wouldn’t dare to eat the stuff). I do sip the watery thingy inside the balut and have eaten the yellow part on some occasion but I could never bring myself to eat the little duck inside a membrane, I just couldn’t. Although, I have always wondered why we Filipinos seem so fond of eating balut and could chew and swallow that unborn duckling without even batting an eyelash. And just because of balut, the rest of the world might be thinking that the Filipinos are one tough race! HAHA!!