Elvie's Turo Turo: Duck Embryo

[cabrales]

Wilfrid, his family and I had lunch at the Filipino restaurant Elvie's Turo-Turo today. Our target were unborn duck embryo

If Cabrales hasn't tried it, I know where she can   . . . .

Cabrales - as an "egg aside," have you ever tried Belut?  It's a Philippine specialty.  Fertilized egg.  The whole egg cooked slightly (to firm the white) and served warm.  Crunchy little bones inside.  I've never tried it, but it is very, very popular with Filippinos.  Seems like something you might be interested in.

Jaymes -- I have not sampled Belut. Nor did I even know the name of the dish. However, I have been unsuccessfully following up on a duck-egg-based dish that I had thought (incorrectly perhaps) was Vietnamese. Does the dish described below resemble Belut? . . .

Wilfrid -- I would definitely go. I assume the facility is in or around NYC?

Wilfrid -- I would definitely go. I assume the facility is in or around NYC?  

I thought you might. Elvie's Turo Turo, down on First. It's a mere step from La Foccacceria, where the pig spleen butties are on offer, so you might think of a combined trip. I am prepared to offer you moral support, although I must say the balut has never tempted me strongly.

Elvie's is a clean, simple place. The food can be visually inspected behind a glass partition. There are specials dependent on the day of the week. For one selection with a generous heaping of rice, the price is $4.00; with two selections (counting soup and stews), the price is only $6.95 per platter. The three adults and one small child in our dining party shared two orders of the two-selection platter. Sampled were the following:

Pork Adobo -- marinated in soy, vinegar and garlic

Pork in Beef Blood

Oxtail with Peanut Sauce and Ocre, served with a shrimp paste-based sauce on the side

Noodles with Chicken

Side of Longanisa -- sweet pork sausage ($1)

Pritong Isda -- fried butterfish ($1)

* BALUT *

Puligny Montrachet, Carillon 1998

I defer to Wilfrid on the description of the above dishes. Note that I was very "chicken" on the Balut, and almost did not take it in Wilfrid peeled off the shell of his egg, and chomped down its unusual-looking contents. I could not readily bring myself to touch the egg to remove the shell, and was able to accomplish that step with a fork and knife. However, the sight of the purple and other colored veins along the egg left me feeling depleted of confidence in taking the egg in. Fortunately, my egg, unlike Wilfrid's, was not developed to the point where the removal of the shell exposed part of the embryo The rest of the story, Wilfrid can advise on.... Note I did, however, take some of the Balut in, with *significant* assistance from Wilfrid's Beloved.

Information: 214 First Avenue (between 12th and 13th St.); 212-473-7785; cash only. BYO is possible without corkage. However, the restaurant has not corkscrew. If members do not bring their own corksccrew along, the bar-like restaurant across the street can provide assistance.

[Sandra Levine]

never mind

[mamster]

Well, that doesn't ruin my theory that Filipino food is among the most challenging there is for the average Western palate. Last year I did a review of a Filipino restaurant that served (not that this is unusual) dinuguan: pig ears and stomach stewed in beef blood. I'm pretty adventurous, and I ate a little (just a little) of it and mentioned it in the review. Nobody emailed me to tell me they went and had a big bowl of dinuguan.

Later I found a Filipino cookbook whose intro said something like, "I can't understand why Americans love Thai food but Filipino food hasn't caught on." Uh huh.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Is it not unlike unborn chicken egss? Eggs that have been fertilized in a chicken but not hatched? Though it sounds like the color is different.

[Sandra Levine]

The unborn chicken eggs are not necessarily fertilized. You can buy fertilized chicken eggs, but the embryo in baluts seems to be much more developed and recognizable.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Avec beak?

[SobaAddict70]

Dinuguan isn't usually considered restaurant food.

The best ones are homemade. At least the ones I've had.

Haven't been back to ETT in a while. When I was there last (6 or so years ago), I remember the dinuguan as nothing special. But that's just me.

Thai food is identifiable. Filipino food is kinda weird. Not to mention a lot of the mainstays aren't readily available or mainstream....patis, baguong, banana ketchup, and jackfruit to name a few.

SA

[jordyn]

Balut was recently featured on the television program Fear Factor. Each contestant was required to consume two portions (embryos) within a three or four minute time period.

Fear Factor generally tries to present edible items that are so "challenging" that contestants will be unable to eat them. Other items that have been featured include pig rectums, live ants and a "spaghetti" of worms and coagulated blood. I suspect that often the aversion to eating these items is psychological, but at other times the taste may be quite an impediment as well.

Note that in the case of the balut, the contestants did quite well: all were able to eat both embryos in the specified period of time.

Is Balut generally served raw?

[cabrales]

More on the Balut in response to other members' posts, pending Wilfrid's write-up. Apologies for inaccurate "biological" descriptions. The duck eggs were cooked; their shells had a little stamp from the restaurant that appeared to indicate "Treat". First, on the contents of my egg (the less challenging one, fortunately). When the shell is removed, all I could see was a yellowish, yolk-like exterior in the rough shape of an egg. There did not appear to be a separate white portion. Along the exterior of the yellowish mass were marked purple veins, and veins of other colors. I did not know why I thought the egg had reptilian connotations. When the egg was cut, one saw the same yellowish mass occupying about 1/2 of the space, with the remaining 1/2 of the space taken up by duck meat that was embedded in the yellowish mass. My specimen did not have a beak, nor a noticeable head.

Wilfrid's Beloved fed me small pieces of the integrated yellowish mass/duck portions while I initially had my eyes closed. The taste of the half of my egg I was able to take in (Wilfrid vollunteered to take in the remainder of it), with significant gulps of Puligny Montrachet, was very rich and interesting. The duck and egg were somewhat integrated, with quite an intense duck flavor (this was augmented by the addition to the egg contents of a bit of the saucing from the Pork Adobo, which included vinegar and soya sauce). More intense duck flavoring than most duck dishes (including those involving Barbary duck) I have taken in. As Wilfrid put it, almost like a duck pate. Fortunately, my specimen did not involve a to-be-duckling that had yet developed feathers; however, I could discern a membrane-like substance that might have represented the "boundaries" of the to-be-duckling (??). I liked the taste of the item. It was the appearance and knowledge of what the item represented that made its ingestion very challenging.

As luck would have it (from my perspective), Wilfrid received what, from rapid glances, was the noticeably more challenging specimen. I believe, although I was not looking at his duck egg meaningfully, that the removal of the shell exposed certain miniature darkish-colored, bird-like features. It might have even been the head of the to-be-duckling (??). Wilfrid noted the item had certain feathers, which he appeared to have taken in with the rest of the egg. I leave a description of the taste to his specimen to him.

[Wilfrid]

Well, anyone who ventured into Elvie's on Saturday lunch-time would have witnessed the priceless spectacle of an eminent eGulleteer squealing with fear while being spoon fed by my Beloved - who shows considerably more patience with Cabby than she does with me! The restaurant staff all pulled up seats and enjoyed the show.

The balut turned out to be a duck egg in which the yolk had almost grown into a duckling, with the curiouis result that it was hard to tell where egg ended and duck began. I did get duck flesh in my egg, quite strongly flavored, and also the liver, which was quite well developed. I did have a few feathers in mine too, and some tiny edible bones, but I did not notice a bill (beak, indeed!). Anyone who can eat hard boiled eggs and duck pate could eat this - it's the presentation which is slightly creepy. I ate half of Cabby's too.

But it's woerth emphasizing that the other food we sampled was very good indeed. The slow cooked pork dishes were tender and deeply flavored, and I will certainly go back for more. Baby liked the rice. My Beloved was impressed by the bony butterfish. The only thing I didn't much like was oxtail in peanut sauce - the combination was not to my taste.

My goodness, I've been to some strange places and done some strange things this weekend, and I blame all of you!

[cabrales]

But it's woerth emphasizing that the other food we sampled was very good indeed.  The slow cooked pork dishes were tender and deeply flavored, and I will certainly go back for more. . . . The only thing I didn't much like was oxtail in peanut sauce - the combination was not to my taste.

The food at Elvie's was good. The pork adobo was nicely flavored, and the pork in beef blood dish was appropriate as well (with a bit of vinegar rendering the appropriately thin sauce more interesting). The butterfish was a bit on the dry side, although its flesh had a saltiness and texture vaguely reminiscent of Chinese salted fish. The ox tail was, as Wilfrid suggested, poor. The saucing had an unmitigated peanut butter connotation and an unappealing texture. The underlying ox tail was not particularly appealing either. Lunch for three adults and a baby amounted to less than $20.

[SobaAddict70]

Well I can honestly say that my mom has sampled belut in the past when she was growing up. As for now, she's more likely to puke.

Me? I'd sooner turn straight. Ok, maybe that's an extreme thought, but you get the idea.

SA

[cabrales]

Well, my attempts to resample balut failed, with my not having purchased an egg at Elvie's today. I am still uncomfortable when I recollect the visual effects inside the balut. That aside, Sandra Levine, Toby, Soba and I had an appropriate lunch there today. Perhaps the food was not as good as the only other time I have visited the restaurant, with the exception of the Pork Adobo. The dining party shared the various dishes, including Pork Soup with Tamarind, Mixed Vegetables with Shrimp Paste (this was only average), chicken skewers (the 3 drumsticks or wing sections included in each $1 order were appropriately moist), Chicken Adobo (a bit dry and not as good as the pork version), and Beef Stew (with carrots and potato slices). Our desserts were needed on a day with such difficult temperatures: a sundae cup with shaved ice flavored nicely with evaporated milk, a mango flan-like item, mango ice cream, canned litchees, various berry syrups, gelee-like items that had more elasticity, etc. We drank Red Chassange Montrachet -- Domaine Duc de Magenta, Morgeot Clos de la Chapelle 1997, from L Jadot. It was not appealing to me. It was also the first red C-M I had sampled.

Wilfrid was thoughtful enough to stop by, although he was cooking a rabbit dish at home and did not stay for lunch.

[SobaAddict70]

I'll make you an honorable pinoy yet, Cabrales...

pork and tamarind soup = sinigang

mixed vegetables with shrimp paste = pakbet. the shrimp paste is called bagiuong.

chicken adobo is formally known as adobo rellenong. pork adobo is adobo lechon (accent on the "o").

not sure what the beef stew's name is. the weird dessert is also known as halo-halo (short "a" and "o"). Also there were pieces of Filipino pork sausage -- a bit on the sweet side with major loads of garlic.

I briefly considered getting some dry salt fish and diniguan (pork and beef offal cooked in a sauce of vinegar, garlic and pig's blood), but switched instead to the pakbet and kari-kari (oxtails with peanut sauce). I will say that the oxtail sauce was a little less "peanut-y" and thinner than what I'm used to. Also, smaller pieces of oxtails than what I'm more familiar with. I'm not sure what everyone else's reaction would have been with the dinuguan, but maybe that's a project for next time....

If memory serves, Elvie's version is close to the version I grew up with.

Their halo-halo is every bit as memorable as the ones I had in Manila when I was a kid.

SA

[jaybee]

Oh dear! I was forced to read this thread with my eyes closed.

[cabrales]

jaybee -- Can I take it then that you would not be inclined to sample the Balut? It was quite tasty, with an intense duck flavor.

[Wilfrid]

Nobody got the balut? I'm disappointed.