How to Eat Fertilized Duck Eggs (Hột Vịt Lộn / Balut)
How to Eat Fertilized Duck Eggs (Hột Vịt Lộn / Balut)
How to Eat Fertilized Duck Eggs (Hột Vịt Lộn / Balut)
I used to work in Oakland. During lunchtime on Friday, I would head over to the farmers market near Chinatown to chase down the fertilized duck egg guy. These eggs are known as Hot Vit Lon, pronounced as Hope-Yit-Lom, to the Vietnamese and Balut to the Filipinos. You don't bring these bad boys home to hatch. You boil these babies up and eat them like hard-boiled eggs, but with something very different inside. They are delicious and freaky at the same time.
If you never heard of this type of egg and are willing to give it a try, don't ask what it is or see what's inside. Just cook them up, close your eyes and try them. Most likely you will find them to be very tasty. If you decide to look them up and learn more about them, you might get squeamish. These eggs have appeared on shows such as Fear Factor where contestants do crazy stunts and eat crazy things. It cracked me up, pun intended, that a Vietnamese contestant on one episode happily ate the fertilized duck eggs as one of the challenges. While others were crying and puking, he ate the eggs happily. That's because in Vietnam, among other Southeast Asian countries, Hot Vit Lon eggs are a nutritious delicacy. Also, they are said to have healing effects for women after giving birth and of course, like all other weird food, it's believed to improve sexual virility in men.
So what's inside that makes these eggs different? These fetal duck eggs contains an embryo of about 14 to 17 days old. There are beaks, feathers, legs ... the whole shabang of a baby duck. And you eat the thing whole thing ... head, bones and all. I once brought these into my company office to show my curious non-Asian coworkers. That was a fun lunch.
If you are daring, below are some instructions how to eat Hot Vit Lon.
How to eat Hot Vit Lon / Balut:
Hard-boil the eggs for about 35 minutes.
Make sure to prop the egg onto something so that the widest part of the egg is upright. I use these egg cups, but you can also cut up an egg carton for DIY egg holders. Crack the widest end of the egg with the back of a small spoon. Gently peel back the shell (not too much or else the soup will run out) and membrane with your fingers.
Season the top with a bit of salt and pepper (optional). In the Philippines, they also like to add a bit of vinegar or a squeeze of lime.
Take a sip of the flavorful broth at the top. It tastes like chicken soup but 100x better. Then use the spoon to scoop out the solids, baby duck and all. In Vietnam, we chase the richness of the embryo and egg yolk with peppery Vietnamese Coriander (Rau Ram). At the bottom of the egg is a white albumen. It is edible but I usually discard it since it's too hard and rubbery.
Where to Find Hot Vit Lon / Balut?
You can find fertilized duck eggs in Vietnamese/Chinese markets. They are of an off white color with pale grey streaks. They are usually marked with a stamp on one end to indicate the correct end to crack. Don’t confuse these eggs with the colored pink or purple eggs. Those are salted eggs and not what you want here.
Although available at the market, I rarely buy my fertilized eggs there. I get them from a reliable source such as a reputable vendor in a farmers' market who specializes in these eggs, if possible. I have found that Asian markets tend to have much older eggs because they continue to sell way them way passed the ideal incubation range. When fertilized duck eggs are passed 20 days of incubation, you definitely don't want to eat them. The embryo is too big and there's very little yolk left. At that point, I usually just throw it out. Better yet, maybe try to hatch it!
How to Eat Fertilized Duck Eggs (Hột Vịt Lộn / Balut)
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