Are you craving for the greatest food ever in the Philippines? Head up now to the Municipality of Pateros where the best Balut can be found.
Have you ever experienced this: late at night or early in the morning, while you are peacefully lying in your bed, you suddenly hear a vendor shout “Balooooooot! Balooooooot!”?
It is a common delicacy in Asia where a fertilized duck embryo is boiled for about 10-20 minutes and eaten in the shell. Believed to be one of the aphrodisiac foods and considered a high protein, hearty snack, Balut are commonly sold as street food in the Philippines. Balut eaters prefer salt and/or chili, garlic and vinegar (white or coconut sap) mixture to season their eggs.
A lot of foreign tourists say that Balut is the most challenging Filipino food because it looks weird. But, after the initial shock of seeing an almost grown chick inside the shell, people are hooked with its strange delicious taste.
Balut-Making
One major tourist attraction in Pateros is the Balut-making. The very famous industry has been handed down from generation to generation and shares about 23.0% of the whole Pateros industry. Balut sa Puti is the best Balut according to the Balut makers. This type of Balut is produced by letting the duck eggs incubate within 16 to 17 days.
Balut makers of Pateros mastered the skills of finding the right temperature and blending the heat and coldness to produce the perfect balut.
Balut sa Puti Festival!
On the 31st of January, the town holds an annual event called the Balut sa Puti Festival. It is a food festival featuring a cooking competition of the famous Philippine delicacy known as Balut. It is one of the highlights of the Pateros Town Fiesta celebration where it brings the best of one of the country’s original exotic food. It is also held to promote the image of Pateros as a producer of the best quality Balut in the world. People of Pateros gather to have a street party with a live band, plus drinking ice cold beer together with Balut. Yum!
Some of the special cuisines of balut during the festival are the following:
- Adobong Balut
Instead of pork and chicken, Balut is simmered with soy sauce and vinegar, with some chopped onions, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. It is quite interesting for many food lovers.
- Fried Balut
Known as “tokneneng”, the egg is covered with flour and some flavorings and cooked in hot pan. It is mixed with vinegar and hot chili pepper.
- Sizzling Balut
A unique way to serve a traditional delicacy is by giving it a twist with your usual sizzling plate dish. Balut can now be served in a hot sizzling plate.
Why go to Pateros?
Visit Pateros today and taste their best Balut ever! It is a specialty worth trying and for sure you will never be disappointed.
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How to get there
You can go to Pateros by commuting, from MRT Guadalupe Station; you can find the jeepney terminal with Pateros-bounds jeeps. If you came from Makati, you can ride a jeep in front of Stock Exchange building at Ayala Center Terminal in Ayala Avenue. There are also jeepneys with Pasig-Pateros route in EDSA Central near MRT Shaw Boulevard Station.