The 'other' eggs

[Warning:  Do not read this post over breakfast.  You've been warned.]

Yesterday's discussion of the perfect hard-boiled egg led to a comment from my friend Jaime about her discovery of 100 year old eggs (more commonly called Century Eggs) while on a trip to San Francisco's china town.

According to Wikipedia, Century Eggs are a Chinese cuisine ingredient made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. The yolk of the egg is concentrically variegated in pale and dark green colors while the egg white is dark brown and transparent, like cola. The yolk is creamy with a strong aroma and an almost cheese-like flavor. The egg white has a gelatinous texture similar to cooked egg white, but has very little taste. *

      Century egg sliced open

That comment got me thinking.  Had I ever shared my recollections of another egg-based 'treat' I discovered in the Philippines?  A quick search of my archives revealed this glaring oversight which I intend to set right, here and now.

While serving in the US Navy, I visited the Philippines many times.  In fact, the single most heavily trafficked/linked/tracked/commented-upon/republished/plagiarized post in the history of treppenwitz was based on one of my visits to what we fondly called PI (short for Philippine Islands).

In addition to some of the, ahem, more adult distractions available to the weary sailors on liberty there back in the late 70s/early 80s, the Philippines had many other memorable attractions... not the least of which was a lively street-vendor trade in every imaginable sort of food and drink.

You could get fresh fruit... cold drinks... shaved ice... roasted skewered meat (we called it 'monkey meat' but it could have been just about anything) and a delicacy (to some, I suppose) called Balut.

Wikipedia describes Balut as follows:

"A fertilized duck egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. They are considered delicacies of Asia and especially the Philippines, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac and considered a high-protein, hearty snack, balut are mostly sold by street vendors at night in the regions where they are available. They are often served with beer."

So you see, whereas the Century Egg is just a rotten egg that has been wrapped in a noxious combination of mud, chemicals & minerals and aged for a few months... Balut is a fertilized egg that has undergone a similar process.  So instead of simply suggesting death and decay... Balut allows you crack open the shell and be confronted by death itself! 

                   Balut

Neat, huh?

In all seriousness, Balut may be considered a delicacy in the Philippines, but to the sailors and marines wandering around Olongopo, it was something one ate on a drunken dare.  Nothing more... nothing less.

The Wikipedia site clearly alludes to this in the last sentence I quoted above that points out that Balut is "often served with beer".  Uh huh... copious amounts of beer.

The truth is, I only came across Balut a few times... usually after we'd been out hoisting a San Miguel beer or two twelve to someone's birthday or similar celebratory occasion.  After we had moved on from beer to Mojo... and from there to stupid bar bets**, someone would invariably say, "Hey... let's see who can eat the most Balut!"  The literal translation of this drunken statement (usually expelled along with a liberal quantity of saliva sounding like "heylesseewhokeneetthumostbaloot") is:

"Gee fellows, an amusing idea just occurred to me.  Why don't we find a Balut vendor... purchase a few of these plucky little treats... and see who can go the longest between actually consuming one and vomiting."

I have to admit that I played the kosher card shamelessly whenever one of these challenges was leveled.. and as a result, ended up serving as the officiating judge for the event rather than as a participant.  And for the record, I never once saw anyone last longer than 45 seconds.

See, you never know where a comment thread will take us.  The lesson we learn from this is 'Your host has had a long and colorful life and is not afraid to free-associate at 5:30 AM... so be careful what you write in the comments board'.   

Don't thank me... I'm a giver.

* Source (including photos)

**  The best bar bet I ever witnessed was when a shipmate of mine used to walk up to drunken strangers and say, "I'll bet you twenty bucks I have your name tattooed inside my lip".  Eight out of ten times the drunk would slap a wrinkled twenty on the bar and look on in disbelief as my shipmate pulled down his lower lip to reveal the clearly tattooed words "YOUR NAME".