Fancy an egg that’s been buried in the ground for a week? No? Well, people in the Philippines just love it!
The delicacy is called balut and it’s either a chicken or a duck egg that’s been fertilised, buried for a week, after which the egg containing a half-formed fowl, is soft-boiled (started gagging yet?) It’s eaten straight out of the shell with a spoon, seeing as the bones are still half-formed and soft…
Why would anyone want to do this to themselves? Like ‘normal’ eggs, balut serves as a healthy high protein snack and gets sold by street vendors, usually accompanied by beer.
Balut is also believed to be an aphrodisiac – a type of food believed to increase sexual desire (almost like a ‘love potion’).
Moral of the story: Be careful what they serve you on Valentine’s Day in the Philippines.
Source: www.weird-food.com
- More on The Egg of Darkness…
- 5 other terrifying foods people eat (Don’t read this before dinner…)
- Balut is many things. It’s a week-old rotten egg, an island and a dice game. This website concentrates on the last. Balut is not just one dice game, there are many variants. Why don’t you try it?
- How to cook any type of egg – scrambled, poached, sunny-side up, devilled…
- 10 health benefits from eggs
- Experiment: Sucking an egg into a bottle (Yes, it is possible!)


