Fear Factor - Me

Welcome to adventures in Filipino street food....
Watching my teacher show me how its done.
Still smiling but a little nervous
Oh yeah - - - that was NASTY!

This story is based on my experience from last year but it is still worth recounting for your edification.

On my first trip to Manila I found myself at dinner with my new associate Ray and several people from our Manila office. there were a few expats around the table as well. While we enjoyed some nice tapas at an upscale mall the talk turned to local Filipino delights. The Philippines, with its strong Spanish influence (everyone is Catholic and has a Spanish last name), is the one place in Asia where the food is most like Spanish or Latin American food. They love pork and enjoy such nice dishes as Crispy Pata, sisig and adobong. All three of these dishes (sorry Grandpa Harold) are now favorites of mine. The pata reminds me of lechon in Puerto Rico, the sisig is so good with a cold San Miguel and adobong is good anytime. There are also some other great dishes like sinigang (a soup), inihaw na bangus (grilled milkfish) and of course super sweet and tasty fresh mangos.

Here are links to pictures and recipes of all of these dishes-

http://kaukautime.blogspot.com/2006/06/crispy-pata-deep-fried-pork-hocks.html

http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/sizzling-sisig-hog-cheeks-nose-and-ears

http://www.chow.com/recipes/10099

http://asiarecipe.com/phimain.html#sini1

http://www.da.gov.ph/agribiz/mango1.html

http://asiarecipe.com/phimain.html#Bangus

The talk at the table moved on to balut. Balut is a popular Filipino street snack and is essentially a duck egg with a fetus inside, typically between seventeen to twenty days in gestation. In the Philippines balut is so popular that it is equivalent to what the hot dog is in the U.S. I was intrigued yet also grossed out by the prospect of seeing what this would actually look like. The explanation was not comforting - "yes you can see the little duck fetus forming", "sometimes it can be crunchy" and "its good with salt and vinegar on it".

While the expats at the table were interested and intrigued by the snack, none had actually tried one and no one stepped up to the plate to volunteer. I was the new guy and in order to get some instant "street cred" I said I would be happy to try one. I also thought I was smart enough to get around the grossness by using the oyster technique of downing the whole thing without chewing it, but I kept that thought to myself. As soon as I said this the wheels were in motion to get me to stand by my word.

The next day I was in the office hoping that no one had remembered about my promise when Ray's assistant called me and said that one of the women had purchased a half dozen balut that morning and they would like me to try it in the canteen whenever I was ready. I agreed to try one at 3PM. Lucky for me I had not done any research. I was unaware that the snack had been featured on Fear Factor.

At the appointed hour I ventured over to the canteen. There three women from the office were waiting. Two of them had already had one or two that day and the third said she had and would never try one. There were 3 eggs left. I got a 7Up so I would be ready to wash it down if I gagged or choked and one of the eggs was cracked open. The most experienced balut eater looked at it and said it was a little too well developed for a newbie so she shook a little salt onto the egg and poured on some vinegar and showed my how it is done. I tried not to watch too closely but I did see the little duck head popping out of the open shell. She ate it happily and smiled while opening the next one. "This one will be good for you...", she said. The time had come. I tried to avert my eyes but had to look a little as I poured on the salt and vinegar. I winced and popped it from the shell into my mouth. The yolk was hard like a hard boiled egg and the little duck was indeed a little duck, maybe an inch and a half long. It all went into my mouth and I was ready to swallow it. I realized that it was too big to swallow without chewing so I took a few bites, swallowed and chugged a big chug of 7Up.

It was gross, it was sickening and it had a little bit of crunch - on the other hand, if I had never seen it I would say it didn't taste too bad. But I had seen it so even the taste was nasty. The good new was I had done it! I had earned the respect of my new friends. The bad news was that the rest of that day and into the evening I felt like there was a little live duck running around in my stomach.

I ate the balut for the first time and can say with confidence that it was also the last time. I have since eaten the other great Filipino dishes with great gusto but the duck stopped there for me!