Tig-ab: Balot

Balot

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A balut (spelled standardized as balot) is a developing bird embryo (usually a duck or chicken) that is boiled and eaten from the shell. Not to sound cliche, but the embryo tastes like chicken. Once you get past the notion that you're eating a fertilized duck embryo, you'll find it's quite tasty. Add salt or vinegar, to taste.The embryo is the last part to eat in a balut. You first have to drink the "soup" and then consume the soft, creamy egg yolk. The white part I find tasteless and hard, and I've known friends who skip eating this.Balut tastes simply delicious (I will explain further below), but is a very rich food; too much can cause bodily issues with high cholesterol or hypertension. Just 1 balut egg contains 150% of the daily value of cholesterol for a person on a 2,000 kilo-calorie diet! The taste can be somewhat described as scrambled eggs but with a very faint hint of fishiness. This might be inherently due to the aquatic nature of the duck, or perhaps due to its embryonic state. There are certain tricks out there (like adding 1 tbsp. of vinegar to the boiling liquid) designed to reduce the fishiness of the meal.