indi + rani = noe | kei

This is a long overdue post about Balut, Vietnamese Spring Roll, and Square Watermelon. But first of all, I got to know Michael Ohlsson, another weird food connoisseur, who lives in China, through my entry about weird food

Back to Balut. It has been years since the last time I ate balut. My dad used to live in Manila, and he’s the one who introduced me to Balut, a traditional delicacy of the region. Balut is essentially duck egg with duckling in it. Baby ducks. Duck Foetus. He taught me to eat it freshly boiled with salt. Unlike ordinary eggs, this egg has crunchiness and meatiness in it. The boiled egg would also have a bit of duck broth in it. For me it tasted delicious. But for some people, the very concept of eating foetus really turns them off. Well, you wouldn’t know unless you try.

Last month, our friend brought fresh Balut from Philippines. This is the first time Indi tried balut and surprisingly, he survived the ordeal. And after years of not eating balut, it still tastes great. It tasted just like boiled duck egg with some crunch in it.

BTW, for muslim friends, Balut is halal.

So, let us present in picture the step by step autopsy of the balut. Balut autopsy. Boiled egg autopsy.

This is the boiled duck egg, not yet cracked.

We cracked the shell, and saw the duckling, boiled eggwhite, and boiled yolk. You see some veins in and around the shell too.

We started to separate the duckling, eggwhite, and yolk. Threw away the shell.

This is the cadaver after being separated. You can see the head and eyes of the duckling.

Finally we dissected and disemboweled the poor creature. You could see the bones and intestines scattering around the plate.

Also, I tried to make some Vietnamese Spring Roll, based on the recipe from Mai and Hahn. At first, it was a total failure, because I oversoaked the rice paper. But slowly I became more experienced in it. Too bad the taste wasn’t so good, because I didn’t have the Vietnamese Basil leaves.

Lastly, last month I found the most expensive watermelons that I have ever seen. They are expensive because they’re square watermelons.

They even need to put disclaimer at the selling booth "This is a unique and fragile watermelon, please handle with care"

Attachment for the muslim friends who are concerned:

From Google Cache of Eramuslim Website

Di dalam kajian kitab-kitab fiqih, kita menemukan kehalalan memakan janin hewan yang ada di dalam perut induknya yang disembelih. Bila induknya adalah hewan halal yang boleh disembelih, maka janinnya pun halal dimakan. Dan tidak perlu untuk dilakukan penyembelihan kepada janinnya itu. Sebab janin itu ikut induknya. Dalam kasus yang anda tanyakan, janin itu meang sudah terpisah dari induknya. Sebab janin itu tumbuh sendiri di dalam telur sampai selsai ditetaskan. Sebagian ulama yang kami mintakan pendapat dalam masalah ini mengatakan bahwa kita melakukan sesuatu berdasarkan zahirnya saja. Kalau secara zhahir yang kita makan itu adalah telur, meski sudah mulai berbentuk anak bebek, namun hukumnya sama dengan memakan telur. Kecuali bila telur itu sudah pada masa menetas dan janin itu sudah dikatakan hidup menjadi makhluq yang baru yaitu bebek, maka harus disembelih terlebih dahulu.