Balut Duck Eggs: The Real Fear Factor Challenge

How Do You like Your Eggs?

I never considered myself squeamish. I’ll try anything once. Such bravery, however, is not always a blessing. Case in point: balut. For the uninformed or those who have never watched Fear Factor on television, balut is a Filipino delicacy of the most profane nature. Balut is a duck egg. What’s wrong with that, you ask? After all, it probably tastes no different than a chick’s or a quail’s, right? Not this egg. Balut is NOT an embryo, it’s already a fetus. What that means is balut is so far gone from being just an egg that it’s only waiting for the traffic light to turn green before it hatches.

Yet again protecting the name of the guilty, Bob, my friend from Manila, told me that if I were to truly immerse myself in Philippine culture, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to eat balut. And as I said, I never considered myself squeamish so I naively agreed.

While on our way to the northern part of Luzon, our bus stopped at, well, a bus stop. Bob steered me to a balut vendor purchasing one egg. He watched my every expression with a sadistic glee as he peeled away the thin shell. Now, I have a confession to make: I always thought that balut was some inside joke told to foreigners because they were too dumb to know any better. I refused to believe it was actually real. I mean, seriously. No one would dare eat a duck’s fetus, right? Right? What kind of twisted, demented people would eat a helpless, not to mention raw, fetus!

With a final evil grin he actually ate Chicken Little’s cousin in front of me. No Virginia there is no Santa. I did what any red-blooded American would do, with sick fascination I took pictures.

Then, much to my horror, he wasn’t done. He bought another one and, just as I was squirming in disgust and disbelief, he handed me the warm egg. My jaw dropped. What did he think he was doing handing me an aborted chick?

As if reading my mind, he said in a taunting manner, “your turn.”