I personally am not comfortable with it so I passed on the sales I could have made. I work with Chinese client, he wanted me to sell him fertile eggs that have been incubated to 18 days. They then boil and eat the embryo in the shell (kinda like a hard boiled egg). I would gladly sell them the fertile eggs if they want to incubate their own. But I will not pull out an egg from the incubator that has progressed that far, to give to some one to eat!
I have heard about this before. I would not give them the eggs either. I would have nightmares about the poor little chick being boiled alive.
I would do it as long as I wouldn't have to eat the egg, what's it matter if food is in a shell or not
I would not do it even if my kids did not care,but ofcourse they would be horrified as well. I guess it is no different than lobster,but heck I could not boil them alive either. I would have to pass on the money.
Balut is what it is called. A high protein delicacy enjoyed by Asians and others. Fertilized eggs are kept warm in the sun and stored in baskets to retain warmth. After nine days, the eggs are held to a light to reveal the embryo inside. Approximately eight days later the balut are ready to be cooked, sold, and eaten. Vendors sell cooked balut from buckets of sand (used to retain warmth) accompanied by small packets of salt. Uncooked balut are rarely sold in Southeast Asia. In the United States, Asian markets occasionally carry uncooked balut eggs. The cooking process is identical to that of hard-boiled chicken eggs, and baluts are eaten while still warm. Underaged balut with visible chickDuck eggs that are not properly developed after nine to twelve days are sold as penoy, which look, smell and taste similar to a regular hard-boiled egg. In Filipino cuisine, these are occasionally beaten and fried, similar to scrambled eggs, and served with a vinegar dip. The age of the egg before it can be cooked is a matter of local preference. In the Philippines, the ideal balut is 17 days old, at which point it is said to be balut sa puti ("wrapped in white"). The chick inside is not old enough to show its beak, feathers or claws, and the bones are undeveloped. The Vietnamese often prefer their balut mature from 19 days up to 21 days, when the chick is old enough to be recognizable as a baby duck and has bones that will be firm but tender when cooked. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balut_(egg) Shelled and fried is one way to eat them.....
Quote:Thanks for the info. I do think I could have lived out my life without seeing that pic though. On a positive note......I no longer need to make breakfast for myself.
I don't see it as any different than selling a chicken to someone to eat. Of course, I'd be charging a heck of a lot more than I would just for fertilized eggs, but I'm sure that they would want to pay it. If you live in an area with a large population of ethnicities that eat balut (spelling?) then you could probably sell a ton of them. As someone said, no different than the way that lobster or crab or even clams are cooked
