• Prep time: 5-10 minutes
• Cook time: 35-40 minutes
• Servings: 2 to 3 eggs per person

Boiled boiled balut duck egg is a common Vietnamese street food that’s easily cooked and prepped that may be found atvfood stands along the street in Vietnam. Watching Youtube videos on “How to eat balut duck egg” made by American folks give me a good laugh. Let me show you how to eat balut eggs the Vietnamese way and discuss the left out details. My two little foodies enjoy eating balut duck eggs since they were two-years-old! What surprises me is that they both like the embryo more than the yolk in the eggs.

Ingredients:

• 6 to 12 balut duck eggs (best aged between 19-22 days)
• salt
• ground black pepper
• Vietnamese coriander (rau râm)

link: Growing Vietnamese Coriander or Rau Râm documentary (to be update with link)

Direction:

Note: There’s no way to tell how old the balut duck eggs are, unless the farmers marked the number of days old on the egg. The best tasting balut duck eggs are aged between 19 to 22 days, that’s when that “hard rubberish white part” (the egg white) is soft and tender to eat.

1. Make sure to wash the balut duck eggs. Then boil it on medium high heat for 35 to 40 minutes.

2. While boiling the balut duck eggs, rinse and wash the Vietnamese coriander herb. Oh that’s a must-have herb when eating the balut duck eggs and prep the salt and black pepper mixture.

Link: How to Grow Vietnamese Coriander

3. Crack the egg and drink. I recommend using a small spoon and an egg holder when eating balut duck eggs. Don’t crack the eggs just any yet. Know the basic parts of a balut egg first so you understand what you will be observing.

• shell
• shell membrane
• air space
• allantoic fluid
• yolk
• embryo
• albumen (egg white)

The best way to enjoy eating balut duck eggs start with where to crack the eggs so you can slurp the allantoic fluid inside first. Hold up the egg and determine where the wide arch is. That would be the top of the egg where you would crack the egg. Once you crack and punctured a hole at the top of the egg, you will encounter the air space. Poke the shell membrane and slurp the allantoic fluid inside. My kids and I like drinking the liquid inside the balut eggs. Note: Overcooked balut eggs will cause the allantoic fluid to dry out. I learned that from experience after disappointing my kids a few times.

4. Ready to eat! After slurping the allantoic fluid, the next two parts include the duck embryo and egg yolk. Mom only likes to eat the yolk and soft albumen (egg white). My daughter only likes drinking the fluid and eating the embryo. As for my foodie little man, he sure knows how to enjoy a good balut egg when he gets his hands on one.

Sprinkle a mix of black pepper and salt onto the egg, scoop up a spoonful followed by a stem of Vietnamese coriander herb. Chew it together and it will make a world of difference.

What is that hard rubberish white part in the balut egg? It’s the albumen or known as the egg white. It’s not always hard. If you are lucky and cooked the balut eggs aged between 19 to 21 days-old, majority of the albumen would be attached to the embryo and would be soft and tender that might be the best part instead of the trashy rubberish part I throw away. So know that the albumen or egg white is not always hard and rubbery like in this picture.

I hope you enjoy eating a balut egg if this was your first time. My little man cracks me up. He would smooch and kiss the ducky embryo, admire its cuteness, and pop it in his mouth like it’s the best thing in this world. The embryo is also my daughter’s and my favorite part as well, so we all kinda fight over it sometimes.

Storing and Reheating: Store the boiled balut eggs in the fridge if you don’t eat it all in one day. You can also leave it out on the counter in room temperature for a day. Reheat in the microwave by placing the eggs in a bowl of water and reheat for one minute.

Note: I bought several cute egg holders during Easter or spring time at Ross Dress for Less stores. You’ll be surprised of the things you’ll might find at a Ross store. hehehe