* Vegetarians, look away. *
Actually, if you’re a meat-eater, this may very well turn you into a vegetarian.
It’s my younger brother’s birthday today, and I joked about him eating balut, which is common street vendor food in Asia, particularly in the Philippines. I post a lot of food pictures here, but you will NEVER catch me eating this, although I’m not above taking a photo of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut
Even when I was a kid, there were some foods my parents cooked that I wouldn’t touch and no one else had qualms about eating. I wasn’t a big fan of boiled intestines, tongue, or goat. (Although, the Caribbean style of goat I don’t mind, because they cook it longer.)
If you have a somewhat fragile constitution but are interested in seeing what balut is, here is a very tame 45-second YouTube clip of an American (author and chef) trying it in Vietnam, where it is also popular street food.
For those stomachs of the hardier variety, here is the 3-minute Filipino demonstration, which is much more… thorough, shall we say:
