Balut

Origin: Philippines
Type: Snack/Meal
Description: Duck Egg with fetus

In my long journey to find the most strange foods I could find, the Balut egg has always eluded me. It wasn't until recently that I went to a new market in town and found that they are the only ones who carry it in the entire city. For those that don't know, Balut is a duck egg. A duck egg with a half formed duck fetus inside. yes, that's what it is, it's from the Philippines and is eaten by many. In some places it's even considered a delicacy.

Here I have cracked the egg open. It smells like, well, an egg. Supposedly you're supposed to just drink it raw, unfortunately I can't stand the taste or texture of raw eggs but I went and tried it anyways. It tastes like eggs...and blood. At this point in the post I'm going to tell you to not look at the next picture if you've got a weak stomach.

You're supposed to eat this thing without looking at it, but I was curious and couldn't help myself. This is what you will find inside the Balut egg. This is a Duck fetus, as was expected. What wasn't expected, and what's always a surprise, is how developed this particular fetus snack was. It's got eyes! IT'S FREAKING LOOKING AT ME! Ok, I'm not really that freaked or grossed out. I ended up trying to eat some of the smaller pieces first, the legs and parts of the body. They were chewy like a softer kind of cartilage. It tasted the same, like egg and blood. Once I got to the rest, I couldn't bring myself to eat the thing whole so I thought it might be a good idea to fry it up so I didn't have to feel sick eating something that doesn't look or taste too good.

I fried it up in the pan and mashed it up, so now it's really nothing more than foul (no pun intended) smelling scrambled eggs. It was stinky, and tasted just as bad cooked as it did raw, just now it had a different texture. I couldn't even eat it with toast. It's not that I can't stand the idea of eating an underdeveloped fetus, it's just that it didn't taste good at all. If it tasted better, I could eat it all the time, just to gross out the people that are grossed out by the way something looks.

Taiwanese Strawberry Jelly

Origin: Taiwan
Type: Jelly Snack
Description: Non-refrigerated strawberry gelatin.

I should have known that I was in for trouble when I ran across this beauty in the bargain bin. For a little over $1, you too can partake in this vile treat from Taiwan. This box contains 4 packages of strawberry jelly. They don't need to be refrigerated, which should have been my first clue that this was a terrible idea.

Tear into the wax coated paper packaging and try not to spill the liquid that the pouch contains. Beyond the packaging and the sticky stuff, you'll find a brick of jelly. It smells like strawberry and plastic. This isn't the good kind of jelly, no this is the cheap nasty stuff. It's so full of preservatives that when you bite into it, it falls apart in your mouth. It's a stiff kind of jelly. There seems to be some "fruit" pieces in the middle. They're hard and tasteless. The flavor of the jelly itself tastes like it smells; strawberry and plastic. What's most offsetting is that it's also salty. It's a salty sweet strawberry mess. This is disgusting and I wouldn't recommend it.