Egg · After-Dark Snack

Balut

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

This fertilized duck egg snack was introduced by Chinese traders in the 1880s, then became a Filipino street food icon in its own right.

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 arrived with Chinese traders and took hold around Laguna de Bay, a region well suited to duck farming, and its popularity grew further during WWII-era food shortages, when it offered cheap, accessible protein.