[Womble]

Have you heard of "Balut" before?  I found this link whilst searching for info on candling eggs.

Essentially it seems to involve hard boiling a 2/3 developed duck egg for eating  . Do read the link, as the method of incubation described is really interesting.

Anyhow, it got me thinking  - isn't it strange that in this country we'll happily eat both eggs and adult ducks, but consider eating the stages in between totally gross?

The results of my candling showed 5 out of 6 of our eggs would be just about ready for Baluting now. On second thoughts though, I think I'd rather leave them to hopefully hatch!  

[doganjo]

Don't fancy that at all and can't even bring myself to look at the link. yuk

[Sylvia]

A bit like sucking pigs, a dreadful waste. My father used to have a phrase for people who ate this sot of thing "Feeding fat pigs up the a##e"

[northfifeduckling]

I felt a bit sick watching the same on a program about Indonesia. They eat them feathers and all. not for me. I hardly ever eat an adult duck these days 

[Sandy]

Its all in the mind, funny how people in UK etc eat pet lambs, goats, cows, pigs but not dogs or cats!!!!!!!

[Fleecewife]

Probably because cats and dogs are dedicated carnivores.  Pigs and chickens are omnivorous, but when we raise them for food we tend to feed them a vegetarian diet.  In less wealthy countries cats and dogs are eaten......  
Our main farm animals are vegetarian.  It's possible that our dislike of eating other carnivores has good reason behind it, as the more meat eaters there are in the chain, the more concentrated certain toxins in the liver may be - I think this is the case with polar bears - don't eat them - but on the other hand, don't let them eat you    On one of the explorations trying to find a way through the North-West Passage, the entire team died because they ate nothing but Polar bears.

As for eating half developed chicken embryos - no thanks, I don't fancy all those bones and feathers.  Also, having been raised on a turkey farm, the eggs with dead embryos in were rotten 

[Olly398]

I ate this snack several times during a year I spent in the Philippines as young engineer. It was very tasty actually and no big deal (no feathers or bones!!). It is part of a rich and varied cuisine from a culture very different to our own. In the same way it's difficult for many of us to comprehend eating this, it is difficult to explain to a rural Filipino the amount of food we waste in the west, and the perverse way much of it is processing and marketing to make food "acceptable" to society. Of course, I don't mean most of the people on here  !!! To me, it's no different to eating an egg, or a duck. And as it happens it tastes like a cross between the two. 

[welshlass181]

see jst the thought of this makes me heave

[suziequeue]

Very good point Olly398

[Rosemary]

I don't fancy eating dog or cat. Or horse for that matter, because I don't consider them as food. BUT I don't have a problem with other folk eating them so long as they are treated humanely. I've seen some disgusting images of dogs from Korea, I think. The cruelty is just indescribable and is inexcusable.

Not that I'm suggesting that we don't have inhumane practices in this country either