Bizarre Food No.2 : Fertilized Duck Egg

Okay. This one may look way more gross than the fish heads but it is actually not as bad as it looks.



Balut is what it is called. It looks and feels like an ordinary hard boiled egg from the outside. But inside it is actually a fertilized duck egg.

I love this delicious Filipino delicacy. I remember growing up and getting excited for family evening walks at the boulevard. It was there that I had my first balut. The balut vendor walks around carrying a basket full of these amazing duck eggs and shouting "Baaaluuut." The first time I tried it, my dad told me not to look at it while eating it. Surprisingly, it turned out really flavorful.

What does balut taste like?
It tastes like a regular duck egg except it has more flavor to it and quite addicting. How old the egg you choose, will decide on the taste of what you eat. As for me, I always prefer the one that is 17 days old; when the chick doesn't have the beak, the bones and the feathers on it. Some would prefer 19 to 21 days old where the chick is mature enough to taste the bones which is tender when cooked, and the beak, and some hint of feathers on it.



What is good about balut?
Aside from the delicious taste, it is also an energizing food and an aphrodisiac to others. It is high in protein and other good nutrients.

How to eat balut?
You crack and peel a small opening enough to sip on the small end of the egg. Then you sip the broth that surrounded the embryo. You can then peel off the shell and put some chili and vinegar mix or just plain salt to season. Then enjoy the rest of the egg. I love all of it except for the egg white. I do not eat that part because they are especially hard depending on the age of the egg. It is best eaten warm. Though it is still good for a week if refrigerated, it is best when eaten immediately after being handed by the vendor. Some people like to eat it with beer. I like mine with Coke.

How is balut made?
These delicious fertilized duck eggs are produced by hand as they have been for ages. Balut-makers carefully select duck eggs that are not more than 5 days old and has a thicker shell without any cracks. It is then heated under the sun for 3 t 5 hours then incubated for 17 to 19 days in a special kind of incubator. Then comes the quality check in which they use a light bulb to see from outside if the egg has a duck embryo growing inside. It is then boiled for 20 to 30 minutes and is ready to eat or sell.

Although I haven't eaten balut for years now because I am no longer living in the Philippines, I am in the hunt for this love-it-or-hate-it forbidden food here in my local area. I heard that they have some at the Asian stores but it does not taste the same as the balut in the Philippines. I might just have to compromise or wait for when we can visit the Philippines again and have this exotic food.

If ever you happen to visit the Philippines, don't forget to try balut.

Happy blog hopping Thursday!

Happy St. Patrick's day everyone! What's so special and happy today aside from St.Patrick's day? It's blog hopping day! Get to know more blogs and get your blog more views and followers by hopping on other blogs and them hopping back to your blog.
Just click on the button below for instructions and how to add your link. :) Enjoy blog hopping today!

Trey's 1st and 2nd month of life

Trey(at 5 weeks old) and I while getting ready for church.




1 week old - Trey's first trip to the mall. Mommy just wanted to get out of the house.

10 days old - His first doctor check up. When the doctor opened his diaper, Trey peed on her. The doctor just laughed. It probably happened to her with other babies too. She didn't get too wet because she closed the diaper as soon as possible.

12 days old - His belly button stump finally fell off.

2 weeks old - His first party out. We went to my friend's baby shower. It was hard breastfeeding him there because I did not have those nusring cover ups. I just used a baby blanket. I did not want to feed him breast milk from a bottle because he was only 2 weeks old. I was afraid he might get nipple confusion.
Here's me trying to breastfeed discreetly.



7 weeks old - His first picnic outside. We went to the Annual Filipino-American Association hog roast picnic by the lake. It was also his first time to drink breast milk from a bottle. I used Medela bottles that comes with my Medela Pump and Style Electric breast pump.
Here's me and Trey with my friend in the middle of a feeding session. I didn't even realize the bottle was already empty. Posing for the camera was all that was in my mind. Haha!



There's nothing much going on for the first 2 months. Trey mostly slept, drank milk, pooped, and peed.

Bizarre Food No. 1 : Fish Heads

I mentioned in my last post that I eat fish heads. Yes I do! Gross? It is one of my favorite fish parts to eat. I grew up eating fresh ocean fish everyday. I come from a place where fish is abundant and less expensive than poultry, pork, and beef. Many other Filipinos, like myself, love the head of the fish too.

What is in the fish head to like? Fish heads are great for a variety of recipes. I consider it the most savory part of the fish. It is very high in Omega-3 fatty acid and Vitamin E. The fish brain and the meat is what I like about the head. I actually like to slurp the eyes but the eyeballs are hard so I don't eat that part. The gills in the head is what you should not eat. I always take the gills out when I clean it before cooking. And if you are lucky enough to buy a pregnant fish with the fish eggs, then you should try the fish eggs. It is also my favorite. I think that's what caviar is made of. It tastes very good.

It's good when it's fried and crispy!

Yummy when it's made sweet and sour!


Slurp those delicious fish head parts in a tasty fish head soup.


I hope you learned something about fish heads and hey; it's okay to not want to try it. I cannot even get my hubby to try it.

My first blogger award

I would like to thank Amie from the "A Meaning of an Optimist" blog for giving me this award. Her blog is so inspiring and I always look forward to her posts. You should check out.

Now on what to do once you have been given this award:
• Thank and link back to the person that awarded this to you
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Award 15 recently discovered bloggers
•Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

The 7 things about me:
1. I am from the Philippines.
2. I am happily married to my amazing husband for almost 5 years now.
3. I have 2 amazing sons. One is a 10 year old and the other one is just 9 months old.
4. I traveled halfway around the world for the sake of love.
5. I love fashion and crafts.
6. I love bargain shopping and getting good deals.
7. I cook my fish with the head and tail and my favorite part to eat is the head.

In no particular order, these are the bloggers I would like to award this to:
Parx - I remember....
Joanna - Dehydration and Procrastination
Jennie - Jennie vs. The world
Mrs. Ted - Life's Mystery; Love, Success & Failure
The Lonely Bookman
Julie- Love, Julie
More w/ less
Brave Young Heart - Lost in thought
Hez - HaveYouSceneHez
The ListeningIxora

Congratulations guys! You deserve it! :)

Vaccinations and 2nd month doctor visit

To all the little precious babies I wish you don't have to get hurt.



When Trey turned 2 months old we had to go to his pediatrician for a 2nd month check up and vaccinations. They first weighed him and measured how tall he is. He was 13 lbs and 24 inches. They gave him 4 shots. The Rotavirus is an oral one which protects against severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and dehydration. The first shot with a needle was on his left thigh. The other two were shots on his right thigh. One of them is the Hib which protects against the Haemophilus influenza type B, which can lead to meningitis, pneumonia, and epiglottitis. The other one is the combination vaccines which are the DTap, Hepatitis B, Polio and the last one is pneumococcal.

Dtap protects against diptheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Hep B is to protect against liver disease. Pneumococcal is to protect against pneumococcal disease, which can lead to meningitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.

I believe all these vaccines are good for my baby and for all the babies in the world. But it broke my heart when I saw the tall needles pricked his thigh. I have to get used to these though because there will be more coming.

I took a video of him when he got his shots. Poor guy he cried so much. But he was okay after that. They said there will be side effects after the shots. He got slightly hot and weak and slept most of the time that day. But I didn't give him any fever medicine. I just breastfed him as often as possible and he was back to normal the next day.

The next vaccinations is after every 2 months.

My labor and delivery story

I was 4 cm dilated for 2 weeks and still working at my graveyard shift job. My job is physically demanding and I am on my feet all the time. Most people were saying "you're still here?" everytime they see me. Being 4cm dilated, the baby should be coming out in a day or two. They even thought I might be in labor or break my water while on the job. It could have been exciting if it happened that way. I thought by working so hard physically it will make me go to labor.

The last month of pregnancy felt like forever. It felt like it would never end. The baby was getting so heavy and I had a hard time falling asleep. I finally asked my doctor to give me a release not to work anymore a week before my due date. He said that if I don't go to labor on my own he will break my water and might induce me. That led me to search on the net on how to start labor naturally. What worked for me was brisk walking. I briskwalked for an hour and a half on the bike trail plus climbing up and down the stairs inside the house for 30 minutes at a time.
The next day I went to labor. It started with a pain in my lower back and my belly started to get hard. I did not get any sleep at all and did not feel like eating. My body was sore from walking and climbing up and down the stairs. By noon I had to pick up my son at school. They have early out on the last day of school. But the pain in my lower back was coming every 5 minutes. I called my husband and he rushed home and picked me up and my son and we all went to the hospital.

At the hospital I couldn't believe there was a line at the front desk for the labor and delivery floor. I've heard most women give birth on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe it was just coincidence but that was a Wednesday and the hospital was full. I had to wait a few minutes in the lobby. An on-call nurse still in her street clothes finally escorted me to the last room available. When I got there I was already 7cm dilated. The nurse scared me when she said I might have to give birth without an epidural because I was dilating so fast. I have little pain tolerance. Labor pain felt like menstrual cramps but 10 times more. Everytime my belly contracts it hurts so bad I kept holding my breath. After an hour I was already 8cm. The anesthesiologist said I could have an epidural or just wait a couple hours or 2cm more without epidural and then I can push. He said the epidural will slow down my labor and make me feel the contraction less and would probably not help in making me push harder. So I suddenly had second thoughts. But I wanted that epidural. That was already part of my birth plan. So they gave it to me. It really helped with the pain and I vaguely felt the contractions. It made me feel cold and it slowed down my dilation. It also made me shake a lot. I couldn't help it but my hands and shoulders were shaking.

About 4 hours later the doctor said I reached 10 cm and I can finally push. By that time I was already so exhausted. I hadn't had any food since yesterday and I did not get any sleep. I pushed so hard with all my might. I remembered 10 years ago I pushed 3 times and poof there goes my firstborn. That seemed like an easy delivery for me. I thought it would be the same the 2nd time around. But after an hour and a half of pushing, I was feeling weaker and weaker. I must have done something wrong. Why isn't he coming out? Everytime I push I am turning blue and running out of breath. So the doctor offered to do a C-section. I was so determined to give birth vaginally. I wasn't planning or even expecting that a C-section might happen. The doctor said the baby is turning the other way everytime I push that's why it's making it hard for me. After trying to push for the last time with all the stregnth that was left in me, I finally gave in. I cried. I was so disappointed. I felt like a failure. They rushed me to the operating room and gave me some more anesthesia. I felt the pressure when their hands dug inside my belly to get my baby out. It felt like somebody punched me on the gut. I just want to see my baby. And for what seemed like forever, I heard him cry. And I forgot all the labor pain and the C-section. It didnt matter to me anymore how he came into the world. It was all worth it. The moment I saw him I fell in love.

This is me during labor. I managed to smile.

And me after giving birth I looked like I've been in a fight haha

This is the love of my life