A few weeks ago, tortang talong made news by garnering the title of best egg dish in the world (with an audience score of 4.7) in TasteAtlas, a popular travel and authentic food website that lets their audience rank food all over the world. What made our heads scratch though is how one of our most unusual yet beloved food snack, the balut also managed to get the worst rated egg dish in the world. This boiled fertilized duck egg embryo had a rating of 2.7. We can all agree that balut is not for everyone but for many others though, balut is a celebrated delicacy best paired with a cold glass of beer.
While balut is quite exotic and may not be appetizing at first glance, we don’t think that this is the worst egg dish in the world. With that said, we compiled a list of ways to cook balut so first time eaters can enjoy and appreciate it more.
Balut Tempura
We believe anything that’s fried is good so why not deep fry the balut to enjoy it. Coat the balut with a tempura batter then served it with a tempura sauce or sesame mayo. This dish is easy to make and it will ease you up in enjoying balut.
Adobong Balut
Adobo is not merely a name of a dish but a cooking process. In other words, you can adobo anything so, why not make Adobong Balut? Sauté the balut in garlic, peppercorn, and bay leaf then simmer the duck consommé with a bit of soy sauce and vinegar.
Balut a la Pobre
A few restaurants in Metro Manila have this dish on the menu and it’s a great way to introduce balut to first time eaters. The balut is stewed in a garlic gravy then garnished with fried garlic. This dish is best served in a sizzling plate as an appetizer and/or with a side of rice.
Sizzling Balut
Balut can be best enjoyed but itself, but if you’re looking to level it up as a drinking accompaniment try the sizzling route. This balut dish is typically served in a sizzling plate and doused with made with soy sauce, chilies, brown sugar, and chicken stock.
Grilled Balut
Next on our list is a dish we can borrow from our SEA neighbor, Vietnam. “Trung vit lon nuong” is a Saigon street food in which balut is grilled in a cup with chili sauce, scallions, laksa leaf or Vietnamese cilantro and ground peanuts. This dish looks appetizing and something that would not be intimidating for first time eaters of balut. As an added trivia, Vietnam actually has their own version of balut. The main difference though is that while our balut is fertilized for 17-18 days, theirs takes 19-20 days making the duck more developed.
Balut Pares
A lot of local eateries have been creating exaggerated versions of the classic pares and a version made with balut is one them. The duck eggs are served with the sweet and salty pares sauce and paired with fried rice and chili sauce! This dish is a good after drink munchies when you’re feeling hungry after a night out.
Balut Sisig
One of the main reasons why people are turned off with balut is because of how it looks. Why not chop it all up and serve it as a sizzling sisig to make it more appetizing? This dish is made with chopped balut, red onions, ginger, calamansi juice, vinegar, soy sauce, and a bit of mayonnaise.
Balut Tokneneng
A few street food places around the metro are turning balut into kwek-kwek, a larger version of the classic made with hard-boiled quail eggs. The balut is dipped in a in a thick orange batter then deep fried and served with a spiced vinegar or savory brown sauce.
If you’re interested to try other balut dishes, check out the Balut sa Puti Festival in the municipality of Pateros every January 31st.
There you have it! 8 ways to cook balut for everyone to enjoy. Have you tried some of the balut dishes in our list? What other ways do you enjoy your balut? Let us know in the comment section!
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