Balut for Midnight Snack

Balut

Balut or Fertilized Duck Egg is a common street food here in the Philippines but in other countries especailly in the Western part of the world, they consider this as an exotic delicacy.

This originated in some countries in South East Asia but we Filipinos made balut (or balot, depending on pronunciation) popular.

This is usually eaten as a whole with vinegar (best when spicy) and salt, usually during night by men because it is considered as aphrodisiac.

But my dad and I prefer eating this in small pieces. We place the shell-free balut in a bowl with its "sabaw" or its broth, drizzle it with spicy vinegar and a dash of salt. We then crush the egg into small, bite-size pieces. This is best paired with rice, tonight, we partnered it with fried rice or sinangag in Filipino. Yum!

Casa Reyes, Greenhills

Last night when Andrei and I went to see Transformers 3 at Shangrila, but failed because of the almost-sold-out-tickets there. Then we decided to go to Greenhills hoping we could get a chance to watch it even on the last full show. Much to our dismay, all of the seats were taken and we were left with no choice but to leave.

Last night's adventure going from Shang to Greenhills made us hungry so instead of watching it, we decide to eat and splurge on food. We both want a pizza and hot wings but Andrei's allergic to that so we searched for a better choice. Then along Connecticut Carpark Arcade in Greenhills, we saw Casa Reyes (just beside Yellow Cab). They serve Filipino cuisine, perfect for us looking for alternatives to do away with chicken and pizza.





There are tons to choose from their menu. Their specialties are Crispy Kare-Kareng Bagnet, Crispy Dinuguan, Crispy Pork Adobo, Pork BBQ, Crispy Pork Binagoongan, Chicken Salpicao, Crab Omelet, and Lechon Kawali. There are desserts too, like their Frozen Brazo de Mercedes, Halo-Halo, Banana Split and Leche Flan.

We have tried the Crispy Dinuguan (pork blood stew), they used a chicharron-like instead of pork belly, pork liver and meat. It was really good though you can feel your heart twitch every time we take a spoon-full of it. We also tried their Kare-Kare (Filipino stew in peanut sauce). The beef and oxtail was cooked was good. The meat was tender and easy to chew and the vegetables weren't over cooked also. It was perfect with the bagoong (shrimp paste) served with it.

Costs:
Crispy Dinuguan - PHP 169.00
Kare-Kare (with rice and bagoong) - PHP 185.00
Plain rice - PHP 28.00
Juice (in can) - PHP 50.00
Soda (in can) - PHP 50.00

 PHP 241.00 per head

not bad for a hungry stomach. Their serving is enough for a normal-eating person. :) They don't have service charge also.