Just What Is Balut? The Controversial Philippine Street Food | Hacker News Reader

Just What Is Balut? The Controversial Philippine Street Food

jjpryor.substack.com

12 points4monthsaway11 comments

I don't really understand the shock and horror I'm meant to be experiencing here. If you're ok eating boiled egg, and ok eating cooked chicken, I don't really see the issue. Certainly more palatable than raw egg, in any case.

Not sure what is supposed to be controversial about balut. The article reads like an American boy experiencing another culture as a gross thing you do on a dare with some wikipedia bits mangled in.

No? I cringed reading it. Eating whole animals instead of individual muscles is one thing, getting to them mid-gestation is a whole other level of body horror for me.

Poultry is regularly prepared whole. Thanksgiving turkey, Peking duck, and simple roast chicken. A Cornish hen can easily be polished off by one person. Chicken eggs are regularly consumed. There isn't anything weird about Balut, just that it's unique.

You'd carve the meat off the turkey, after removing its innards. The bones might be used for broth later, they certainly wouldn't be eaten at the same time.

It's not typical to eat the bones, muscle, and offal together.

No oysters for you, then?

I love oysters! It's different!

Oysters are just as slimy and all over the place, but they are what they're supposed to be. Everything is in the right place. They're complete. Fetuses are a whole other ball game. I'd rather eat those whole French songbirds or whole octopi or insects before I got anywhere near a half-gestated anything.

The only thing that would concern me is whether it's spoiled --"rotten" and things are coalescing and not fully formed yet.

That said, US-based people I've know that are from the Philippines also think it's a bit odd and do not consume it and they treat it as a joke to shock "the American".

That said, It's not too much different from raw oysters, which I also will not eat.

Living in Florida my experience has been somewhat different. Sure, it’s mentioned jokingly for being unusual, but I’ve had it while visiting Vietnamese friends here and we all like it. Though my first time did give me an allergic reaction for some reason.

When I used to play poker at Bay 101 in San Jose, a favorite (faux) joyous occasion when winning a pot (or talking about getting someone to fold so I could win the pot) was to relish the balut I would order with the winnings.

I’d take balut over chicken feet any day - this has been controversial in the past

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