CNN’s Bordain Eats Balut (Fetal Duck Egg)

Yes, because that’s news when a CNN journalist eats an unborn fetal duck *rolls eyes*. I do like his speech at the end of this clip where he basically learns everyone there about cultural perspective, especially the host reading off the names of the “gross” foods Bourdain’s eating, the guy who’s like “who in their right mind would eat that?” A hungry one, duh. Bordain references the restaurant in New York that serves balut covered in 8Asians a couple years back.

This reminds me of when my mom took me to the local White American supermarket when I was a kid and we saw this butcher throwing away a bag of chicken feet. My mom pointed at it and asked how much he would sell that bag of chicken feet for, and he gave it to her for like a quarter. It was a ridiculous deal because chicken feet were apparently quite pricy at Chinese markets. Makes sense. Each chicken only has two feet…I guess it was like getting something like caviar or smoked salmon for pennies. My mom went home happy as a clam and stewed up some delicious, chewy, crunchy chicken feet for the family. It was one of my favorite foods as a child, and it was my parents’ way of shutting me up on long road trips (yes, I was the loud annoying kind of child).

I also personally delighted in grossing out non-Asian classmates at school by busting out the chicken feet or pig ears, chewing emphatically on it and saying “MMmm, cartilage is delicious!” Needless to say, when a big bowl of steaming hot beef stomach (and other assorted parts) menudo, a traditional Mexican soup, was placed in front of me, my seven-year-old self devoured it without a second thought and asked for seconds. Like Bordain in this clip, my mom once handed me a cup of black liquid and told me to drink it, promising to tell me what it was after I drank it. “Snakes blood.” Freshly bled from a snake just moments earlier. Supposed to be good for girls. Must be the iron.

I guess you could say I’m a pretty “adventurous” eater, but from my perspective, it’s like calling an average American kid “adventurous” for eating a bag of french fries. Those chicken feet were my french fries. So were french fries.

Out of all the stuff Bordain ate in the video, I’d say I wouldn’t eat most of it unless I was really hungry (or really in dire need to be polite). I’ve had balut, though I cheated and avoided the beaks, feathers, and claws. Although I’ve eaten frog before, I really don’t like it by association. Grew up seeing too many of them in Taiwan’s gutters, bleh. But goose intestine? Dude, goose intestine is delicious. Chewy and amazing with light soy sauce and garlic.