Fear factor food - vit lon aka balut

John: Bro, how's your tummy? Have you gotten all the necessary bacteria for Saigon food?

B69: Should have. If not, the last few cirit-birit were all for nothing!

John: Cool! Then let's go eat REAL Vietnamese food.

B69: What do you mean real? I have been eating them mah.

John: Nope... you gotta eat by the road, hehehehe

B69: Oh shit!

John: Yup, that's the word. Btw, don't mind when you smell old urine smell. The place I'm taking you to is in a backlane, sooo...

B69: Double shit!

John: Hey, TIV man! (This Is Vietnam) You gotta go with the flow! Muahahahahar!

And the food was GOOOODDDD! The numero uno food experience of that evening was Duck Balut. Yup, it's those half-formed embryo in the egg. I was in the Philippines back in 1992 and was cringing away from Balut. Well, not this time...

And yeah, it was way tastier than I could ever imagined, especially with some salt, chilli paste and lime... yummy! Now that I have been "educated", below are the steps that I was told on how to eat Balut:

1) The egg is HOT. Never hold it up. It has been cooked in heated sand.
2) Break the top and remove the egg shell. Make sure none of the egg shells fall into the Balut.
3) Mix the chilli paste with lime. Scoop a little of the chilli paste and then a little of the salt into the Balut - up to taste.
4) Dig in and eat! Yum yum!

And for the faint-hearted who can't stand looking an semi-formed birds, I was told to mashed the Balut with a spoon so that you can't recognise the bird.

So, what does it taste like? Depends on which part you are eating.
If it's the egg yolk, it tastes like a hard-boiled egg yolk except harder and has veins...
If it's the body, the texture is like a chicken boiled in soup i.e. soft and tastes like, well... duck meat.

And eating Balut must always be accompanied by BEER - cold beer, nothing less. It somehow makes the Balut tastes better... or was that just my excuse for beer? Hmmm....

Buaya69 says,"Balut yes, dog meat - NO!"