Nanjing Chicken Embryo, Duck Blood, Bull Penis

Nanjing chicken embryo, duck blood, bull penis ... well isn't that a mouthful? Yes, and a delicious one. Last weekend I took the train to Nanjing, just a few hours up river from WeirdMeat's Shanghai headquarters. My good friend Coco introduced me to her good friend Nono, and thanks to Coco, because Nono turned out to be the perfect guide to Nanjing.

Nono took us to Nanjing Da Pai Dang, a very nice, but not too expensive, Nanjing specialty restaurant on the Hunan pedestrian street. It was a food explorer's dream. Literally hundreds of small dishes to choose from, each with real samples to look at instead of having to read the menu. Clean and modern, but classically decorated. We were greeted by kind elderly men in traditional dress, and seated by shy giggling waitresses who went to great lengths to ask me if I needed a fork. They could not believe I, a foreigner, could possibly handle two sticks to eat my food with. I amazed and charmed with my unorthodox but capable chopstick skills.

So here's what we ate! I'd heard about a Nanjing specialty that is similar to the Philippine balut, and the Cambodian duck embryo, but the difference in Nanjing is that they're chicken egg embryos, not ducks.



Nono carefully explained there are two types in Nanjing -- the dead ones, and the live ones. That didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, and I doubt the Supreme Court could handle it either, so I demanded a better translation. The "dead" ones are called "wang ji dan" and apparently they are D.O.A. before they're cooked. The "live" ones are called "huo zhu zi" and they're younger and fresher. The wang jidan are perhaps seasonal, and more difficult to hunt down, so we only got to try the huo zhuzi. They're chicken eggs so they're smaller than the duck embryos I'd had in other countries, and their flavor is more subtle. They are delicious, but not as thrilling as the SouthEast Asian ones. But you use the same salt-pepper-spice mix to flavor them. I had 3 of these. They each had tiny little chicken heads, less than an week old, so no feathers. I'd say about 12% chicken, 88% egg. BTW, what is that hard circle part on the bottom -- future bones? I'm told that Nanjing girls are crazy for them. If Nanjing girls are crazy for weird meat, that's cool with me.



After that we tried the duck blood soup (ya shui tang). This looks and tastes like dark purple-brown jello firm tofu, in a spicy broth. I'd seen something similar in Guangdong (Canton), but I was told that was pig blood. Nono confirmed this, and called Guangdong "the fountainhead of weird meat". Yes, indeed. The duck blood was also very good, full of bloody flavor and soaking up the spicy broth.

We ate all kinds of other good local dishes, and drank the local beer, which of course, was much much better than anything brewed in Shanghai. Before we left, I took another look at the offerings, and found "black bone chicken soup with bull penis (wu ji niu bian tang)." Had to try that one! The black meat silky chicken is a popular health tonic around China, which I've had many times. And in the bowl was a small cut of a bull's penis. It was a soft rubbery little thing that looked like calamari, with little half slices cut into it to make it more pliable and soak up flavor. I believe this was a small, circular cut of the bull's penis.



This penis was soft and tender like a fresh noodle, and captured the flavor of the soup nicely. Speaking of male cows, one of the waiters came up and told me I looked like ... the coach for the Chicago Bulls NBA team. OK. That's a new one.



On my second return, I tried a "quail on a stick". It's a whole quail. On a skewer. I'd had some quail at a French restaurant in Shanghai last week, and I'm finding that quail is my new favorite bird. Dark, gamey meat that goes well with red wine. Anyone know what kind of wine goes well with penis?

Balut: You want 12 day, 16 day, or 18 day?

Cebu, Philippines.

I've done the edible egg embryo before in other countries, but I've always wanted to try it in the Philippines. I first heard of this popular snack from perhaps a National Geographic article on the Philippines, and for years I wondered if I could stomach them. I have several times now.

They're duck embryos, but there was a rumor going around today in Cebu that a vendor had been spotted selling "chicken balut", which my acquaintences agreed was a silly idea and just didn't taste as good as the duck ones. I can't be sure; we didn't see him tonight.



As I said before, when I ate them in Cambodia, I actually quite liked them and it's probably my favorite tasting weird meat. I haven't tried them side-by-side, of course, but the Philippine balut resembled the Cambodian ones in every respect I can recall.

First you choose between 12 day, 16 day, and 18 day. The 12 day ones are just hard-boiled eggs with no embryonic development. The 16 day ones are further along but concensus was that these are just inferior to the king of balut -- exactly 18 days after being laid.



After you choose what kind you want, the vendor grabs them piping hot from the basket and passes you a little stool, salt, and a vinegar-onion sauce. You hold the hot egg and flick carefully but forcefully at the top of it with your middle finger. It cracks a bit and you gently remove a small hole from the top, so you can sip the savory broth before removing the whole shell. I agree that the 18-day one is better than the younger ones. You might come across some small chunkies but it's usually just eaten all the way through, in about 3 mouthful bites. You can see feathers, head, wings, and skeleton forming, but it's basically an extra-chewy easter egg. The flavor is savory and delicious; the texture satisfying. Match with a light pilsner beer.



If you're in Cebu City looking for the balut, I got mine from a street vendor at Fuente Osmena circle. He was really helpful and knowledgable, and proud of his product. The cool thing about traveling in the Philippines is that most everyone speaks English, so don't be shy to ask questions.
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Addition: Found more info on balut. The eggs are from the "itik duck" which is native to the Philippines. Itik mother ducks are lazy so humans have to incubate them after the mother ignores them. That explains a lot. More info here.