Egg · After-Dark Snack

Balut

Photo: JBYBIOSA / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The town of Pateros, near Laguna de Bay, built its identity on duck raising and balut-making, and its name is often traced to 'pato', the Spanish word for duck.

A fertilized duck egg is incubated for around two to three weeks, just long enough for an embryo to begin forming, then boiled and eaten warm straight from the shell with a pinch of salt or splash of vinegar. Vendors carry them in baskets or steam them at carts, often calling out through the streets after dark.

Why it's made this way: The technique is generally credited to Chinese traders and took hold around Laguna de Bay, a region well suited to duck farming, where towns such as Pateros became balut-making centres.