Adidas a La Carte and IUD You Can Eat: Exotic Street Food From the Philippines
by Beatrice Adams on 22/07/07 at 6:17 am
Want to know what Adidas tastes like? How do you cook an IUD? Ever bitten into a Betamax, or a Helmet? Welcome to this beginner’s guide to exotic Philippine street food.
IUD:
So-called because it looks a little like an intra-uterine device – yes, the one used for contraception – this exotic street food is actually barbecued chicken intestines.
IUD is arguably the best-selling street food in the Philippines. Recently, though, a more popular name for it has been “isaw.”
Betamax:
This is curdled and dried chicken blood, cut into cubes and barbecued. It’s called “betamax” because its shape and color makes it look like small Betamax tapes.
Helmet and Adidas:
Chicken head and chicken feet, respectively. Marinated and grilled or barbecued of course.
Walkman:
Barbecued pigs ears. Yes, the Philippines does love barbecues.
Day-Old:
Finally, something that’s not grilled. This is more like fried chicken, but smaller – much smaller. “Day-old” refers to a day-old chick. That is what they fry, dip in vinegar, and munch. Yum!
Balut
Remember the Survivor challenges where the contestants have to eat a hard-boiled duck egg, except the “egg” inside the shell is already a half-formed duckling? That’s Balut, a countrywide favorite.
To eat balut, first make a little hole at the rounded end of the shell, and suck out the “soup” that drips out. Then, peel the shell, eat the yolk like a regular hard-boiled egg, and finally, pop the whole chick inside your mouth. Chew – or drink a glass of water.
Dirty Ice Cream
Refers to locally made ice cream, nobody really knows – or cares – if it’s dirty or not. The local kids thrive on it, anyway. It’s usually available in three exotic flavors: Mango, Cheese and Purple Yam.
Liked it
cosmikdebris
Jul 24th, 2007
When I lived in Zambia I ate flying ants, nice bitter after taste. Snake and snake’s blood whilst living in Hong Kong. Holidaying in Thailand I tried deep fried cockroach, very little taste and crunchy. Most of the time I never asked what I was eating, you only live once!
pictureDIGGER
Jul 24th, 2007
My dog absolutely loves pig ears.
vroom101
Jul 24th, 2007
dude, I haven’t had breakfast yet…and I just looked at some those of pictures…now I have to convince my appetite that It. Was. Just. A. Picture!
GGzah
Jul 24th, 2007
Dirty Ice Cream comes in “…Mango, Cheese and Purple.”
Cheese Ice Cream? I wonder if they also make Bacon Ice Cream? I’m starting to see a whole “Breakfast Ice Cream Sandwich” come together.
joerod
Jul 24th, 2007
that fried chicken head looks tasty
openthink
Jul 24th, 2007
can we have peanut butter & jelly with those chicken heads? great (gross) pics.
Terr01
Jul 24th, 2007
It’s not actually as gross as these examples, but I would like to reassure the world that snake DOES taste like chicken, and heartily recommend Korean kimchi. I briefly had a taste for Ube (purple yam) ice cream, but never really liked Red-bean flavored popsicles.
sgtpppr
Jul 24th, 2007
Still nothing quite like Balut. I don’t care who you are or where you live, if you can eat a whole fetal duck bones and all, you can pretty much eat anything.
wildfire
Jul 24th, 2007
Mmmm brains…
…Oh crap, the prions are taking over!
…Steve Jobs is God!
Steve P
Jul 24th, 2007
You neglected to mention taho, which I was made to try when I was there
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taho
Gail Nobles
Jul 27th, 2007
Interesting article. You really grab my attention with those pictures.
haski
Jul 28th, 2007
Balut is the most disgusting one.
From wikipedia: “The age of the egg before it can be cooked is a matter of local preference. In the Philippines, the perfect balut is 17 days old. The chick inside is not old enough to show its beak, feathers or claws and the bones are undeveloped. The Vietnamese prefer their balut matured from 19 days up to 21 days, when the chick is old enough to be recognizable as a baby duck and has bones that will be firm but tender when cooked. In Cambodia, most people prefer to eat it while it is still warm in its shell.”
This can’t be normal.
Beatrice Adams
Jul 28th, 2007
Well, I didn’t find taho very interesting
Delicious, but kinda boring.
Clarissa ann Opinaldo
Jul 30th, 2007
I am a 4th year high school in jose abad santos high school…and we have a research paper..I chose Exotic foods in the philippines as my topic…can you please tell me the other adress where can I find info about exotic foods???
Stone Heart
Oct 17th, 2007
Call it… the call of the wild….!!! And, food for survival. Definitely, Filipinoes are known to be …”survival of the fittest”
dr.clown
Nov 28th, 2007
Thinking of the Filipinos that have to get used to new cuisine when they travel to work abroad. They’ve eaten anything that says moo, oink, chirp-chirp, or cock-a-doodle-do, so they can conquer the world.
Go Filipinos!!!
ㅋㅋㅋ
Jan 16th, 2008
^^;what kind of food do u have in there?is it delicious?…..
liener
Feb 29th, 2008
I ate all of them!! they are defintely delicious..
hey there are still more exotic street foods like bopis, scramble, kalamares,etc…… ^^
khaloi
Mar 11th, 2008
I don’t really mind on what I usually eat, it must just be edible…
I love balut with spicy vinegar.
nobert bermosa
Apr 13th, 2008
only the picture of balut and dirty iced cream coincide w/ the description,thanks anyway,..
Saymoure Pelayo
Jul 4th, 2008
hello, Im one of the student of Mary Immaculate Parish Special School (MIPSS) we have a thesis and we have a research paper..I chose Exotic foods in the Philippines as my topic…can you please tell me the other address where can I find info about exotic foods??? can you help me on my research paper for my thesis?
thank you!!
~~GodblezZzZ~~
K Kristie
Jan 5th, 2009
Maybe I can eat all these but I have always wondered what’s there to eat in a helmet. I mean, is there meat in a chicken’s head? Maybe I should try taking a bite on the chicken comb. lol. Nice post!
jermax
Feb 4th, 2009
i love balot..though i only lived at phil. for about 15 years…
this is what i eatwhen im about to disgust every one in my classroom…
every white people vomits!!!!including the teacher!!!
Jerry Karaniwan
Feb 23rd, 2009
Well, that’s the fun of it. When visiting anywhere in Asia you just got to try them exotic foods being faired locally because you’d be missing half of the sights, taste and scents of your trip.
When I was a kid in Central Luzon my playmates and I used to raid ant and wasp nests to eat the eggs raw. For the ants, it tasted similar to fresh milk while the waspies was sort of cheddar-y. Not only insects eggs but also crickets, queen termites, locusts, fruit bats, lizards, and whatever were available hiding in the backyard! It was quite an adventure worth remembering.
You haven’t seen the latest street fare in Manila… deep-fried, dehydrated beef lard! Now that’s your ticket to the nearest hospital. XD