Half-hatched Duck Eggs: Hot Vit Lon

Vietnamese people partake in many foods that may be considered reviling to those who are unfamiliar with them. One of such foods is hot vit lon -- fertilized duck eggs that are partway incubated. I call them half-hatched duck eggs. They are a delicacy in Vietnam, as well as a nutritious food that my mother says is a great restorative for women who've just delivered.

Contrary to current beliefs, hot vit lon (pronounced "hoht veet lone") are not traditional aphrodisiacs in Vietnam. They're a food for noshing (often with liquor, if you're a man) and perhaps, for weak and recovering women. Many Filipinos are crazy for hot vit lon, which they call balut (pronounced "bahloot"). The eggs are a super popular Filipino street food, and there are Filipino aficionados who claimed that the eggs are a sex stimulant.

I have not had one since I was a kid in Vietnam but started thinking about hot bit lon when prompted by Quan, who emailed asking how the eggs are cooked and eaten. I remember eating them with my siblings, tapping on the egg shell with a spoon and then breaking the membrane underneath to sip at the flavorful liquid, which was broth like. Then we ate the solid stuff, which basically was the embryo. I don't recall beak, bones or feathers, but they can be in there, depending on the age of the egg. We didn't eat the hard white albumen. It was a kind of weird dare and that was it. It wasn't as positive of a food memory for me as my first bowl of pho.

When we got to the States, my mother said that it was hard to find a reliable source so we never had hot vit lon here. We gave it up, and I didn't miss them since there were lots of other great things to eat and obsess about. To digress, Mom loves to tell the story of a Vietnamese American hot vit lon vendor who was making a delivery during the hot summer and his van broke down on the road. He was stuck waiting in the heat for a while. The eggs started hatching and soon, his had a load of ducklings instead of eggs to sell!

Seriously, for those who are curious, here's the lowdown on the eggs:

What are half-hatched eggs?
Half-hatched eggs are basically fertilized duck eggs (a.k.a. fetal duck eggs) that are 16 to 20 days in age. The older it is, the larger the chick and the more pronounced its feathers, bones, and beak. An embryo at 17 days has beak and feathers which are more developed at 20 days. Normally, after being fertilized, a chick hatches after 26 to 28 days of incubation. The taste depends on the breed of duck. Hot vit lon from Muscovy ducks (a leading breed in the U.S.) are considered among the best. You can half-hatch chicken eggs too but duck eggs are larger and more prized.

Who eats them?
Not just Vietnamese and Filipinos, but also Cambodians, Laotians, and Chinese. They're not as popular with  Thais, Malays and Indonesians, but those folks also consume them. Filipinos are the main connoisseurs of half-hatched duck eggs. For an in depth discussion, see this article on the significance of balut in Filipino culture.

Why eat them?
Look, I'm Vietnamese food lover but haven't had one in decades. But there are those who are extremely fond of them. Hot vit lon is full of nutrition (each has about 190 calories and offers 14 grams of protein and tons of B-carotene, calcium and other good stuff) so in circumstances where protein is in limited supply, it's quite a godsend. Eggs in many parts of the world are eaten more than poultry or fowl. A chicken or duck is better as an egg layer than roasted meat on your table. Beyond the nutritional aspects, there's the fun food factor, the memory of home, the nostalgia for foods of the past, the nosh to accompany beer or cognac.

The concept is one that's hard to swallow, but there are people out there for whom a half-hatched egg is the bomb. They may think it's weird that some people eat moldy, stinky cheese like Roquefort. I'm not saying to run out and eat one, but do understand that it's a well-liked food.

Where to buy the eggs:
They're mostly sold at Viet markets but how do you know their age? I'd buy them from the professionals to ensure freshness. For example, go to a farmer's market where there's a big Asian clientele. In Northern California, I've seen hot vit lon sold at the Friday Oakland market and the Saturday Alemany (San Francisco) and Stockton markets.  Look for an egg vendor, who may have signs in Tagalog, Chinese, and Vietnamese.

In Little Saigon enclaves, there may be a hot vit lon store, such as Hot Vit Lon Long An at 8942 Bolsa Avenue in Westminster, California.

For a party, you can even mail order them from Metzer Farm duck and goose hatchery in Gonzales, California!

How to cook half-hatched eggs:
The ones sold in the U.S. at markets are usually uncooked. Treat it like a humongous chicken egg and gently boil it for 20 to 30 minutes. It's enjoyed warmed, not cold.

How to eat the eggs:
Vietnamese people like to eat hot vit lon like you would a soft-boiled egg. Tap the broad end with a spoon, remove some of the shell. Break the membrane and sip the liquid. Then use the spoon to scoop up the solids. Add salt and pepper. Vietnamese people like to eat hot vit lon with rau ram (Polygonum odoratum, Vietnamese coriander), a fresh herb that tastes cilantro but finishes with a bit of heat. The  rau ram herb is suppose to offer heat to contrast with the cold of the egg, a yin-yang kind of thing. Others say that rau ram aids in digesting hot vit lon.

I've not posted photos because frankly, I don't eat them. For graphic details, see:

• YouTube video of Anthony Bourdain eating hot vit lon in Vietnam.
• 2003 blog posting from the Wily Filipino is full of juicy, tantalizing detailed instructions on how to eat the eggs. 
• Wandering Chopsticks has photos and description of eating hot vit lon as part of her his outing at a Little Saigon food court in Westminster, CA.

Comments

[Chuck]

Hot vit lon is one my earliest and fondest food memories. At the age of three, my brother and I would eat a dozen duck eggs at my ba ngoai's store front in Da Nang. It probably wasn't a dozen, but I remember it being a lot of eggs. My mom would freak out as she was afraid we would get indigestion, and ba ngoai would laugh it off by telling us to eat more rau ram!

After we moved to the States, we still had hot vit lon occasionally at Viet parties. Sipping the liquid and eating the egg yolk were my favorite parts. I can't recall the last time I had hot vit lon. I would eat it again as long as the the duck eggs were young, i.e. minimal feathers!

[Wandering Chopsticks]

Umm, I'm not a man. :)

Thanks for the link!

[robyn]

We found them at a lot of markets in northern Thailand ... also the embryos removed from the shell, skewered, and grilled.
Some of my Filipino friends say the best thing about balut is the liquid - something like the most delicious, super-concentrated chicken stock. The mother of a Filipino friend makes a sort of Spanish-inspired soupy dip (with sauteed tomatoes, garlic, and onion) for bread with the stuff, discarding the embryo and shell.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Chuck, I suppose those feathers would tickle on their way down. Thanks for the description!

Wandering Chopsticks, thanks for the gender clarification. It's fixed! Keep up the good work.

Robyn, It's been so long but I do remember the liquid as being rather spectacular. Boy, the Filipinos eat a lot of balut. It's interesting that they have several ways to enjoy them. As for the grilled eggs, kinda chewy, no?

[Robyn]

Um, Andrea - I wrote that we 'found' them, not that we ate them! I'm not a fear-factor kind of food traveler. :-)

[Andrea Nguyen]

Robyn, I don't think any less of you for not eating grilled embryo on a stick.

[RST]

Hi Andrea!
Grilled duck embryo on a stick of the sort Robyn describes could be found as far north as Beijing. I was quite shocked to find what I recognized at once as balut in a different format one day a couple of years ago while kicking around the Qianmen area.
Richard

[Nate 2.0]

If Denise from Survivor: China had been able to eat this, she might have won the million dollars. I have never eaten it but what the hey, I eat Spam so this can't be any worse, right?

[Andrea Nguyen]

Richard, I'm shocked that anything would shock you -- a well-traveled, culinarily-savvy Filipino. ;-)

Nate, Spam is good...

[Robyn]

Thanks Andrea. But I do think less of you and Nate for eating Spam (kidding!).

[steamy kitchen]

8 years ago, I couldn't eat it. But I'm more adventurous now, having gone through childbirth twice in 16 months.

Bring it on!!

[steamy kitchen]

here's a pic of to whet your appetite!
http://www.pinoycook.net/cooking-food/kitchen/premature-chicken-eggs-for-arroz-caldo/

[Andrea Nguyen]

Jaden, my girlfriends have told me that childbirth changes you in many ways. From what you're saying, you're ready to take on just about anything. Two (2) in 16 months? . . . Might as well get it over with quickly, I suppose.

[idlehouse]

if you want to give it a try again, the now reliable supplier is Olivera Egg Ranch, in San Jose off the 680. It's THE spot for all Vietnamese egg lovers. Their eggs are consistently excellent.

[Binh]

Seriously, it's not that scary. People who encounter them the first time often make the mistake of making a mess of the egg and get grossed out looking at the result. The egg contain the yellow yolk and the embryo encased in something similar to the egg white. If you pick young eggs and manage to keep the egg intact, you can separate the yolk and the embryo without seeing any beak or feather. And stop trying to visualize what you're eating -- you'll be fine.

Treat it as food, and it (no matter what "it" is) and it stays food. Add your imagination and do otherwise, you'll end up being hungry.

[Binh]

@Robyn: How many people does the soupy dip you mentioned feed? In each egg, you barely get a teaspoon of the liquid.

[Robyn]

Binh - it takes a lot of balut. But there are other ingredients too, white wine and tomatoes among them.

[wanderingspoon]

Chicken eggs have a sweeter, more delicate flavor than duck eggs. The latter are just a bit too rich for me, actually. My mother raised both chicken and ducks, and we always ate our hoc vit lon on the young side, at 14 or 15 days. I have many good memories of eating the eggs with my mom, just the two of us as no one else in the family enjoyed them like we did.

Any egg that only has 1 teaspoon of liquid is old (as in, too long between nest and market). Fresh eggs should be overflowing with broth and have very little air space.

In Vietnam, I've found that young woman are often reluctant to eat the eggs with me outside of the family home, as there is still a bit of a male aura to them.

Andrea, thanks so much for writing a straight-forward piece on this. Honestly, I'm so tired of the extreme eaters laying out their embryos for a camera close-up and patting themselves on the back for their oh-so-adventurous palates, even though most of them don't eat the egg in the end. It's refreshing to have a how-to and an unsensational approach.

[Andrea Nguyen]

Idlehouse, thanks for the tip on Olivera Egg Ranch, which is at:

3315 Sierra Rd
San Jose, CA 95132
(408) 258-8074

[Andrea Nguyen]

Binh, your practical advice on how to 'deal' with hot vit lon is fantastic.

Robyn, thanks for the balut dip guidance. It's precious, though I'm not sure it'll be as popular as onion dip at parties.

Wandering Spoon, you're the only person to have had such close contact with the HVL (I'm tired of typing). The nest-to-mouth experience is a great first person account.

[libya]

Great Point Thank you Man ... i Like Your Blog !