Here we see the egg and a somewhat sunburned Mr. O
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Lets see where to start my story. Right after I had
completed my undergraduate degree in Biology I thought is was time to take
a trip. So I rounded up a few of my friends, sent a few emails and after
some fundraising I was ready to go. Where you might ask had I decided to
travel to? Well where the houses needed building at that particular
time... the Philippines. As you may know I am quite involved with Habitat
for Humanity and rarely does a vacation go by that I don't find myself a
place to build a little simple, decent housing. Turned out that Habitat
for Humanity of the Philippines was looking for an international work
group to come join them. After checking my schedule I noticed that I had
never been to that particular Habitat work site before (it was a bit too
far from my house to drive) so I figured why not go out and meet some nice
people, build some houses and ohh yeah eat a partially grown duck embryo
while I was at it.
Here we see the egg and a somewhat sunburned Mr. O
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| Being the crew leader for this particular trip i had certain
responsibilities. Amoung them was organizing our travel and working with
the local Habitat to set up our daily schedule. After two weeks of
building houses side by side we had become quite close. It was on our last
day in Tagatay that they had a party.
Here we see the local priest showing Mr. O how to carefully peel back the shell so as to not spill any of the tasty juice. |
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Balut is one of the Philippines' real native culinary delicacies
that is sold every where in the streets. It is simply a duck egg cooked by
boiling it for not less than 20 minutes. What makes balut special is that
it is not simply an egg with the white and the yoke. It actually has a
half-incubated chick inside it. Filipinos love the shock value of Balut.
They take every opportunity to dare foreigners to eat it and consume it
teasingly in their presence. Not one to be outdone i took up their
challenge to eat "The Egg"
Calling this culinary delight a "delicacy" is somehow the same as calling protein synthesis easy. What did the juice taste like? I'd say, just like you would think it would...only warmer. |
| Peeling back the shell to expose the embryo. The technique
as explained to me involves sucking the little guy, feathers and all into
your mouth, crunching his skull and bones a few times and then swallowing.
As I say in Lab... FOLLOW THE PROCEDURE... so I did.
Notice the look of horror on the face of the girl next to me. She was a vegetarian and didn't even eat the egg. |
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Mmmm the texture of the amniotic sac was and is still indescribable. But you really can't appreciate the egg from this angle...
so I have a close up shot for you. At the bottom of the screen. The whole
time i was doing this two thoughts were running through my head.
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 Here is the little
guy...Isn't he cute |
 My duck had more feathers |