Two and a half years ago during our 50th wedding anniversary celebration, we welcome my American son-in-law(David King) and his son Ian ( my oldest grandson) with a balut eating ceremony. They have never eaten a balut but heard about it in the TV show Fear Factor. With them is my oldest son Dodie who immigrated to US when he was 18 months. The other two is my youngest son David III(not in photo below) who was born in US and Alex Chaplin, the American fiancee of my niece, Elaine Lazarte from Mountain View, California. Prior to their first balut tasting, I demonstrated how to eat the balut properly starting from cracking the eggs and sipping the juice and not eating the hard white part. The picture below showed how happy and enthusiastic the group was. We had a Putong Ceremony the day before for the group. Included in the Putong Ceremony besides the five guys mentioned were my two daughters, Dinah Katague King and Ditas Katague Thompson along with their daughters, Elaine Katague King and Carenna Katague Thompson. Dodie's wife and three children were not able to attend our wedding anniversary celebration. If you have not heard of Putong before, I have a short article on this ceremony of welcome (only done in Marinduque) in my other blog, http://marinduqueawaitsyou.blogspot.com.
Alex Chaplin,Ian Katague-King, David King and Dodie Katague eating their first balut washed with San Miquel beer in the front yard of Chateau Du Mer-our retirement home in the Philippines
So what is really is a balut. Here's a short write-up from Wikipedia.
A balut is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell.
Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors in the regions where they are available. It is commonly sold as streetfood in the Philippines. They are common, everyday food in some other countries in Southeast Asia, such as in Laos and Thailand (where it is called Khai Luk), Cambodia (Pong tea khon in Cambodian), and Vietnam (Trứng vịt lộn or Hột vịt lộn in Vietnamese). They are often served with beer. The Filipino and Malay word balut (balot) means "wrapped" – depending on pronunciation
Here's a video I found in YouTube of a white young man tasting his first balut with the encouragement of his Filipino friends. I get a kick seeing his facial expression while he was eating the balut. He passed the test just like my relatives in the above photo in Marinduque.
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