Mao Dan (Balut / Half-Hatched Egg)
Keep your feathers and bones intact! The ultimate delicacy to eat whole chicks on the verge of hatching
Description
The Chinese version of Southeast Asia's 'Balut'. Fertilized duck (or chicken) eggs incubated until a chick with feathers and bones forms. Growth is stopped days before hatching, and it is boiled or skewered and roasted. An intensely extreme street food.
Restaurants serving Mao Dan (Balut / Half-Hatched Egg)
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On this site you can check dictionary details and, later, places to buy or eat related items.
The Recipe section below is a general reference, not a recipe from the listed shops.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Fertilized eggs(Duck or Chicken/half-hatched)
- Star anise/Salt(for boiling)
- Cumin/Chili(for roasting)
Instructions
- [Authentic Recipe]
- Place fertilized eggs in an incubator for 15-
- days (depending on species) to develop the chick.
- Remove at the exact timing when the chick's body (head, beak, feathers, soft bones) is fully formed inside the shell.
- [Boiled Version] Hard-boil in the shell with star anise, cinnamon, and salt. Crack the shell and bite directly into the chick.
- [Roasted Version (Kao Mao Dan)] Peel the shell to fully expose the chick, skewer it, and charcoal-grill it while basting with oil. Cover heavily in cumin and chili powder (which slightly masks its visual appearance) and serve.
Learn more Spice, substitutes, tips
Key spices
Cumin、Dense flavor like egg yolk mixed with liver
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
(Irreplaceable - buy Balut at SEA grocers)
Pairing
High-proof Baijiu / Beer
Trivia
[Hardcore] Famous as 'the world's most bizarre food', but Chinese middle-aged men eat it casually as a bar snack. Locals praise it as 'a perfect nutritional food combining chicken umami and yolk richness'.
Eating tips & etiquette
[Unique Eating] Crack the shell and first slurp out the rich 'chicken broth (amniotic fluid)'. Then, close your eyes and crunch through the entire chick, including the soft bones and wet feathers.
Allergen
Eggs, Chicken