Half-boiled embryo anyone?

Today's is 20 May 2005, Friday...end of the week. Just as a point of interest, today is the day where many couples got married in Singapore because the date 20/05/2005 looks cool (or maybe it's for some auspicious reason). I'm not sure if this is the trend in other countries as well, but I certainly didn't see any brides prancing around Ho Chi Minh City today.

I love having the weekend just around the corner when I can just kick back, watch some cable tv or dvds and not worry myself silly about work. So it's 9pm and there I was in the early stages of my weekend slackfest, lying on the couch watching a repeat telecast of the Pacers-Pistons playoff matchup (which the Pistons eventually won), and I get a call. It's my Vietnamese buddy Ton Tat Bao Thien (you should try saying his name 10x quickly). Apparently, he had gone home from work and decided that, unlike me, home was NOT the place to be on a Friday night.

So he cajoled me out of my cozy abode for a ride around town. I still ride pillion by the way, after 3 months or so of living in Ho Chi Minh City. I don't think I'll ever be able to maneuver and navigate my way through the manic streets of this city on a motorized two-wheeler. Hell, I can barely steer a bicycle properly...

After going around in circles joyriding and looking for a place to eat, we ended up in a backpacker street called De Tham. We sat at the side of the road at one of those makeshift stalls. The table was the height of my kneecap and fit for a kindergartener to roll his playdoh on. Similarly, the plastic seats accommodated my butt cheeks just right, but if I was to have any abrupt movements (such as maybe lifting one cheek to fart), I would have fallen right off that stool.

We order snails, clams and eggs. Not just ordinary eggs...nooo. These eggs, called 'hot vit lon', are fertilized duck eggs containing an undeveloped embryo inside. After cracking the egg and sucking the juice from it, you would scoop the duck out (together with feathers, bones, eyeballs, beak, etc), dip it in salt and gobble it down.


Fertilized duck egg with the partially developed embryo inside... yummy (?)

Now this delicacy is a first for me, though I've see the Filipino variant, the 'balut', being eaten many times. I never thought I'd ever voluntarily put this into my mouth, but somehow today I was feeling adventurous. It wasn't as bad as it looked actually. There was a hint of eggy flavor and the duck embryo tasted surprisingly like...duck! All in all, I suppose eating the egg wasn't half as exciting as the buildup to eating it.

After some googling, I found out that 'hot vit lon' supposely has aphrodisiacal qualities... Hmmm. Not sure if any couple would be turned on by looking at a curled up undeveloped duck but if it works, more power to them. If true, maybe they should consider exporting this to countries such as Singapore. They could have like a "SDU Balut Night" where opposite sexes can get to know each other over a freshly boiled duck's egg. Friday nights won't ever be the same again.