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If you are planning to travel to the Philippines, and are geared up for a gastronomic adventure into the unchartered waters of outrageous delicacies, then you will need this guide to Philippine exotic street food. Here are 6 of the most popular exotic street foods in the Philippines. All you need is an empty stomach, intestinal fortitude, and a taste for the exotic. Bon Appetit!

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 1: BALUT

This is the ultimate exotic street food of the Philippines. It is notoriously exotic that it was even featured in an episode of Fear Factor. A Balut simply is a boiled duck egg. What makes it exotic is the almost fully-grown fetus inside. Fully-grown to mean it has feathers and a beak. You can actually hear the soft bones crunch as you chew on this. Some even consider this an aphrodisiac. Be that as it may, the balut is not for the faint of heart.

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 2: KWEK-KWEK

Kwek-Kwek is an exotic street food in the form of orange balls that are bright enough to hang in your Christmas tree. Quail eggs immersed in dazzling orange dough and deep-fried to perfection, Kwek-Kwek is best eaten when dipped in vinegar.

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 3: ISAW

From dabbling with eggs, we now move on to fully-mature chickens. Isaw is grilled chicken intestine. If sausage meat is stuffed into the alimentary canal of pigs such as the intestines, Isaw is stuffed with nothing. It is as austere as it gets: grilled vacuous chicken intestine. What probably makes it more exotic is the degree of cleanliness observed in making it. Since Isaw is street food, you assume the risk of consuming fecal residue. Nonetheless, it is one of the most addicting street foods in the Philippines.

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 4: BETAMAX

Vampire “wannabees” who cannot muster the courage to drink the real thing might want to chomp on grilled coagulated chicken blood. Shaped distinctly like a miniature Betamax – the obsolete videocassette tape of the 70’s and 80’s – the taste of it is way beyond the rusty metal of liquefied blood. Savor the difference yourself.

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 5: ADIDAS

From organs to internal juices, we get to chicken extremities. Adidas is grilled chicken feet. You will be gnawing at it and breaking down bones. By now, you’re probably amazed at how your typical chicken can sacrifice so much of itself. Even its seemingly worthless feet have traces of nutritive content and gustatory merit.

Philippine Exotic Street Food # 6: FISH BALLS

This is the most ubiquitous exotic street food in the Philippines. When you talk about street food in the Philippines, fish balls always receive special mention. It is “processed” fish meat molded into disc-like morsels and deep-fried. The experience is complete when accompanied with “sweet and sour” sauce. Variations of this exotic street food have been introduced in the form of squid balls and chicken balls.

Sources:

http://www.filipino-foods.com/filipino-foods/street-foods-to-eat-in-the-philippines