Duck Eggs meant to be cooked for Filipino dish accidentally hatched in warehouse

Dollface thread.

Sad that so many died.love baby ducks and chicks.

Make way for ducklings!

Anybody have any raspberry sauce?

Damnit, baby animals are so cute.

OP, you don’t want to know what balut is.

Can you imagine that poor warehouse worker who opened the door at 6am and had 800 ducklings inprint on him?

This is really gross. Aren't eggs (including duck eggs) used for human consumption required to be unfertilized and subject to screening? Whatever operation this is needs to be shut down.

[quote] Can you imagine that poor warehouse worker who opened the door at 6am and had 800 ducklings inprint on him?

I would love it!

Although I don't know what "inprint on him" means.

But I would love to open a door and see 800 baby ducks!

R8, balut by its very nature is a fertilized embryo.

No, there is no rule that eggs sold in the U.S. must be unfertilized. If that were the case most eggs sold at farmers markets would be illegal because most small farms have a couple of roosters. I believe that all quail eggs sold are potentially fertile because the quail breed used for egg production are almost impossible to sex until they are fully mature and even then it’s not simple.

Even if they didn’t have males present fertile eggs still occur. Practically all birds, and basically any animal which reproduces by egg laying, can reproduce asexually through a process called parthenogenesis. That is why you will occasionally notice an egg with a small speck of gray or brown attached to the yolk. That’s a fertile egg which could have grown into a clone of its mother if incubated.

The eggs used for balut are so far along in their maturation into ducklings, as evidenced by them hatching in this warehouse, that they are more ducklings that haven’t left their shell than they are what most people would consider an egg.

The grading of eggs in the U.S. is based not on fertility but a judging based on shell thickness, air sac size, and the ratio of yolk to white.

Can anyone explain why Filipinos want to eat something that looks like this?

It doesn't even LOOK appetizing. It looks disgusting.

Has anyone ever tried this? What does it taste like?

They can be used for a delicious duck confit.

R9 imprinting is when a hatchling immediately attaches to someone or something upon birth. Birds are visual creatures; a duckling opens its eyes and immediately starts looking for a caregiver. And once they have imprinted, this never changes. So the warehouse worker would have immediately become the caregiver to 800 hatchlings that would follow him around everywhere, never leaving his side.

R13 thanks for that.

It would be cute having all those ducklings following you around, but I can also see how it could also be a nightmare.

R11, who knows why some people enjoy eating things that others wouldn’t even consider food. Raw oysters and fish roe are considered delicacies by myself and others but my partner will involuntarily retch at the mere sight of either.

I grew up in the American South and though I haven’t had any of them in years, I used to love boiled pigs feet, souse (pickled cubes of chunky aspic made of the pigs head), and scrambled pork brains and eggs. I’ve even been known to trap and eat a snapping turtle or two, though it’s a lot of trouble for very little meat.

The French used to eat horse, the Koreans dog, Peruvians guinea pigs, but all are so revolting to modern sensibilities that there is a social taboo of even the idea.

When my father was in the Navy, we were stationed in The Philippines for a few years and I got to learn a little bit about their food. Most of Filipino food is fantastic, as good as Korean, but some things would gross most Americans out.

Spicy pickled pig ears, served cold is one which I happened to love. Filipinos eat a lot of fish,‘usually cooked whole, and the eyes are a delicacy that the kids in the family will fight over. I didn’t care for them because of the sensation of them bursting when you chew them and salty optic fluid squirting into your mouth.

Balut was something I could never make myself even try, watching the process of eating it is traumatic enough for the layman. The French or the Spanish had a now outlawed dish of whole small songbirds, meant to be eaten in one bite and the bones removed from your mouth as you chewed that was so terrible a process that you were supposed to cover your head with a napkin to spare your fellow diners the show.

If the idea of balut is revolting to you I would strongly advise you to never, under any circumstance, travel to China. You’ll starve to death.

Thank you for that horror show of a post, R15.

You have quite a way with words, and you're very entertaining.

I especially loved this part:

[quote] The French or the Spanish had a now outlawed dish of whole small songbirds, meant to be eaten in one bite and the bones removed from your mouth as you chewed that was so terrible a process that you were supposed to cover your head with a napkin to spare your fellow diners the show.

It made me giggle.

[quote]The French used to eat horse.

The Swiss and Italians still do. I had horse and donkey in Sienna. As a slow braised meat sauce over pasta, it’s delicious and pretty much like beef. The portions are so small, they must only kill three horses a year.

koreans and chinese still eat dogs.

Quick, cook 'em!

Oh, damn - they already hatched, and they won't keep.

And they won’t peep!

Can they make it to the States to be with family?

[quote] If the idea of balut is revolting to you I would strongly advise you to never, under any circumstance, travel to China. You’ll starve to death.

There are tons of things to eat in China that don't come close to balut.

Oh man, when I see stuff like this... Why is it so expensive to be a vegetarian?

Balut; paung tea kaun; trứng vịt lộn; khai louk, etc. are fertilized duck or chicken eggs eaten throughout Southeast Asia (not just the Philippines). The delicacy was introduced to the region by the Chinese, who call it my many different names, máo dàn, being the most common.

[quote]Can anyone explain why Filipinos want to eat something that looks like this? It doesn't even LOOK appetizing. It looks disgusting. Has anyone ever tried this? What does it taste like?

Never tried it, but I've seen it in Southeast Asia. When I've seen it for sale, it looks like a a small beak poking through a hard boiled egg. People have told me it's delicious, like the best chicken soup you've ever had.

R24, do you love their pad Thai?

Good news for dollfaces!

[quote] Good news for dollfaces!

Only 90 of them.

The other 710 died.