from the desk of stinkpot

it’s late and i’m hungry, as i forgot to eat breakfast and dinner today. and now that it’s close to midnight and christina is asleep, there’s no point in going through the hassle of preparing a proper meal.

what i need right now is the balut man.

i learned about him the last time i went to the philippines. the balut man is sort of like a milkman who takes orders on the fly; he’ll walk by your house in the evenings screaming, “BALUUT, BALUUT.” of course, it being the philippines, what he’s selling isn’t quite as harmless as pasteurized milk. instead, he’s carrying a heated basket of 9-day-old fertilized duck eggs.

upon first learning this, one would think that the last thing you would want to do is get the attention of the balut man. but, seeing how hungry i was one evening, that’s exactly what my lola (tagalog for grandmother) does. she runs to the window and screams, “BALUUT DITO!” (which i’ll loosely translate as “balut me!”)

i swear, that’s how it works.

the balut man saunters into your driveway (to help wash down the duck eggs, he’s got fried pig skin and boiled peanuts in those plastic bags):

[click photo to enlarge]

apparently, he sells quite a bit of balut each night:

lola gets me and balut inside and begins to smirk as we unwrap the eggs. my appetite feels like it’s walked in on a bank robbery: scared, but a little bit intrigued.

and i’ll confess that further inspection challenged my digestive fortitude. for god’s sake, you could see the duckling’s eye and beak!

i go in like my first kiss — eyes open in shock.

i’m sure you can guess the end of this ugly duckling story: begins with d, and ends with delicious. think boiled egg, but with a slightly chewier, and much richer yolk.

hmm, maybe i’ll just boil myself an egg now for dinner …

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