By Izah Morales
INQUIRER.net
GONE are the days when you would hear a vendor shouting “Balut, Penoy!” in the streets in Manila early in the morning or late in the afternoon. In Pateros, which is known as the Balut capital of the Philippines, the scene just described remains.
“It’s a legacy of Pateros. And that’s what we’re trying to preserve,” said Menandro Concio, president of Concio’s Food Corporation.
Having been in the balut-making industry for 30 years, Concio wanted to save the striving industry of balut. In 2004, he introduced balut to the market in another form, which is the bottled balut or gourmet balut.
Balut is a duck’s egg with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. It is delicacy in the Philippines.
Unlike the fresh balut, which lasts for three to four days, the gourmet balut’s shell life is up to two years. Turning balut into gourmet means offering it as a viand and not just a snack, said Concio. Packaging the product as a viand, balut can now be eaten as adobo, afritada, and caldereta.
Because of the concept of balut as gourmet, it was featured in the One Town, One Product Philippines (OTOP), a program of the Department of Trade and Industry geared towards supporting micro, small and medium enterprises in manufacturing distinctive products through the use of local and indigenous raw materials.
But would Filipinos eat balut in gourmet form?
Concio does not expect the local market to accept his offering immediately since fresh balut is available. Nonetheless, he believed that the potential market for his gourmet balut is the international market.
“The potential is great because it is a national delicacy, eh ang dami nating overseas Filipinos na craving for it,” said Concio.
Concio has already exported his product in the Middle East in a trial shipment and will be shipping in the United States in September of this year.
Watch Morales’ video interview with Concio.
August 21st, 2008 at 8:45 am
Thanks V for pointing out the errors. We’ve made the corrections. Thanks again.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Interesting feature, but just needed to point out some errors:
“Balut is a fertilized duck with a nearly-developed embryo inside.”
You probably mean, it’s a fertilized duck’s egg, right? Because it sure isn’t a fertilized duck.
“Packaging the product as a viand, balut can now be eaten as adobo, afritada, caldereta, and brine.”
Honey, brine is not a dish. It’s the salt-saturated water that keeps food preserved, and in this case it’s probably what the balut is immersed inside the jar.
August 20th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
@doornextboy
san sa dubai meron? di p nkkrting d2 sa abu dhabi eh.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
“gourmet”?! what makes it gourmet now; shouldn’t it be at its better quality while it’s unpreserved?
August 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
I don’t think Php150 is overpricing the product. That’s actually cheap considering it’s been shipped to Dubai.