Balut

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A partially shelled balut egg, ready to be eaten.

A 15 day old balut egg (purchased from Olivera Egg Ranch in San Jose, CA) cooked for 15 minutes, floating in a mixture of hot sauce and patis, ready to be eaten.

Dissected Balut, showing the head part of the duckling.

A balut (Trứng vịt lộn or Hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese), Pong tea khon in Cambodia is a fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. They are considered delicacies of Asia and especially the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, baluts are mostly sold by street vendors at night in the regions where they are available. They are often served with beer. The Filipino and Malay word balut(balot) roughly translates to mean "wrapped".

Balut are most often eaten with a pinch of salt, though some balut-eaters prefer chili and vinegar to complement their egg. The eggs are savored for their balance of textures and flavors; the broth surrounding the embryo is sipped from the egg before the shell is peeled and the yolk and young chick inside can be eaten. All of the contents of the egg are consumed. In the Philippines, Balut have recently entered higher cuisine by being served as appetizers in restaurants: cooked adobo style, fried in omelettes or even used as filling in baked pastries.

Balut-making is not native to the Philippines. A similar preparation is known in China as maodan (Chinese: 毛蛋; pinyin: máodàn; literally "hairy egg"), and Chinese traders and migrants are said to have brought the idea of eating fertilized duck eggs to the Philippines. However, the knowledge and craft of balut-making has been localized by the balut-makers (mangbabalut). Today, balut production has not been mechanized in favor of the traditional production by hand. Although balut are produced throughout the Philippines, balut-makers in Pateros are renowned for their careful selection and incubation of the eggs.

Fertilized duck eggs are kept warm in the sun and stored in baskets to retain warmth. After nine days, the eggs are held to a light to reveal the embryo inside. Approximately eight days later the balut are ready to be cooked, sold, and eaten. Vendors sell cooked balut out of buckets of sand, used to retain warmth, and are accompanied by small packets of salt. Uncooked balut are rarely sold in Southeast Asia. In the United States, many Asian markets occasionally carry uncooked balut eggs, though their demand in North America is not very great. The cooking process is identical to that of hard-boiled chicken eggs, and baluts are enjoyed while still warm.

Duck eggs that are not properly developed after nine to twelve days are sold as penoy, which look, smell and taste similar to a regular hard-boiled egg. In Filipino cuisine, these are occasionally beaten and fried, similar to scrambled eggs, and served with a vinegar dip.

The age of the egg before it can be cooked is a matter of local preference. In the Philippines, the perfect balut is 17 days old, at which point it is said to be balut sa puti ("wrapped in white"). The chick inside is not old enough to show its beak, feathers or claws and the bones are undeveloped. The Vietnamese prefer their balut matured from 19 days up to 21 days, when the chick is old enough to be recognizable as a baby duck and has bones that will be firm but tender when cooked. In Cambodia, most people prefer to eat it while it is still warm in its shell. Served with nothing more than a little garnish, it is widely popular. Usually, it is accompanied by a mixture of lime juice and ground pepper.

[edit] Trivia

In one episode of Survivor: Palau, the contestants were made to eat this Asian delicacy.
Similarly, in one recent season of Fear Factor, the contestants were made to eat balut as well.
Balut was also featured in Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, where the host pronounced 18-day-old balut to be far tastier than ordinary unfertilised boiled eggs.
Balut is also the name of a Danish Dice game played by expatriates in many countries all over the world. The name of the game has been taken from Balut eggs. Games are organized monthly by IBF (International Balut Federation) members.