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Balut

Balut is a popular street food from the Philippines and is generally centered around a living duck embryo that is boiled and then eaten out of the shell.  It is usually accompanied by hot sauce or vinegar and is considered a hearty snack due to it being high in protein.  The age of the duck embryo varies by taste but it is generally eaten around seventeen days old.  The chick inside is not old enough to have a beak, feathers, or bones so it retains a soft texture.  In some parts of Vietnam it is custom to wait up to 21 days until the chick starts developing bones, which turn soft when cooked.  For me this is the one bizarre food in my blog that I dont think I would have the guts to try. When I asked one of my Philippino friends about Balut he said he would eat it as long as it doesn’t have feathers.

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Kopi Luwak

This Bizarre Food is not exactly a food but is a rare and unique Coffee. This coffee comes from the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, and the Philippines. It is usually very expensive and comes in small batches because of the way it is ‘made.’  The coffee beans themselves are eaten by a small mammal known as the Asian Palm Civet, and then  passes through the digestive track.  The civet is attracted to the sweet fleshy exterior of the ripe coffee bean cherry and the creatures stomach enzymes seeps into the beans making shorter peptides and amino acids that results in a smoother taste and a less bitter cup of coffee.  The civet defecates the beans whole so they are gather washed and roasted in order to produce the final bean.  The final product sells for about $160 a pound and is considered one of the finest coffees in the world because of it’s delicate flavor.  Many companies have tried to replicate the process without using the Asin Palm Civet by synthesizing the enzyme in their stomach but these still dont capture the essence of the entire Kopi Luwak process.  Needles to say, this is one bizarre process and I would like to hear the thought process behind the person who had the idea to make coffee from the excrement of a small mammal.

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