Street Food Manila Edition: Eating Balut

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I’m going to warn you, this video may not be for the faint-hearted. Especially those of you who love animals.

Have you ever seen that episode of Fear Factor where the contestants have to eat an almost developed duck egg? Well, in the Philippines, it’s called Balut, and it’s common street food, even sold in 7-Eleven for a mere 15 Philippine pesos ($0.34)!

The thought of eating an almost formed chick will put many people off, but it excited me because this was something I knew I HAD to try. One of my principles of being a foodie is having an open mind and the courage to try things. I was so determined to try balut that I went almost immediately after I checked in to my hostel.

We had some difficulty finding it at first, but after visiting multiple street vendors, we finally found a man pushing his bicycle cart filled with roasted peanuts and boiled baby ducklings.

So, what did I think? You can probably tell from my expression in the video… Honestly, I had some hesitation when I was peeling the shell open, but it’s one of those experiences where you just have to close your eyes… and slurp it. It wouldn’t even come out at first, so I had to loosen the embryo with my finger, heh.

I don’t know if I would willingly eat another one because I can’t get over the crunchiness of the beak? Maybe it’s cartilage or bone? Don’t think I really want to know, haha… But hey, now I can say I’ve tried it, survived, and even enjoyed the yolky part. Food is part of the cultural experience, and I definitely think I checked the “Explore Filipino Culture” box after that mouthful.

At the end of the day, a restaurant is a business.

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 fritesandfries:Things to ponder over: Joe Bastianich’s approach to restaurant profitability, via Food + Tech Connect. For the people out there who do own and/or take care of a restaurant’s numbers, what do you think?I like that “miscellaneous” is c…

 

fritesandfries:

Things to ponder over: Joe Bastianich’s approach to restaurant profitability, via Food + Tech Connect. For the people out there who do own and/or take care of a restaurant’s numbers, what do you think?

I like that “miscellaneous” is covered because it’s easy to forget about licenses, permits, lawyers, and little things like linens. Of course, these things vary by city and state.

One Month Update

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It has officially been a month and a half since I started my new job, and taking photos of shellfish has become my life. I have a huge library already and even created a Twitter handle (“OysterPorn” like FoodPorn… get it?) for my eventual never-ending tweets of oyster photos I have collected. Besides building a photo library of shellfish, I also launched our company website (you can see most of my photos there) and started getting deeper with social media, exploring apps like Feedly, Bit.ly, Target Pattern, etc. Social media marketing is truly about generating compelling content, but it definitely takes a lot of time and effort.

As of a few weeks ago, I was still living out of my suitcases so blogging wasn’t a huge priority. The good news, though, is now I am completely settled and can finally get back to a bit of normalcy. One of the nice things about moving in with Jonathan has been my motivation to cook more. When I lived by myself, I would waste a lot of food because I couldn’t eat it all in a reasonable time, and I would get lazy after a long day of work. Now that there’s someone around to appreciate my craft, I enjoy cooking on weeknights more often and feel assured that everything will be consumed!

Some nights when neither of us can make it to the grocery store, I really have to get creative with the ingredients in the house, and that has forced me to cook things I’ve never made in the past like miso ramen, butternut squash spaghetti, and a decent number of kale salads thanks to our weekly kale supply from our CSA (so glad I won’t see kale for a while).

For Thanksgiving yesterday, I cooked a feast: 3 appetizers, 2 mains, 3 sides, 2 desserts, and 1 digestif. It was the first time I cooked for 10 people, and it was EPIC. It was also the first time that dinner was served on time! Prepped the night before and timed everything perfectly, even dessert. The menu was as follows:

  • Deviled eggs
  • Couscous Salad
  • Bacon-wrapped stuffed pears
  • Honey ham
  • Broccoli and mushroom casserole
  • Sweet potato corn bread stuffing
  • Creamed corn
  • String beans sautéed
  • Pumpkin pie
  • Brownie with pumpkin ice cream
  • Irish coffee

Unfortunately, I have no photos from last night because I have been without a camera for a while — I gifted my DSLR to my sister, but as of today, Black Friday, I am awaiting my new Canon D70 scheduled to arrive Wednesday! And it’s coming with a telephoto lens, eeee! May have splurged just a little too much… Black Friday always does that to me.

Excited to post more recipes and photos finally! Just in time for the holiday itis!