UYE: Balut At Maharlika

Great dinner at Maharlika with an awesome group of 14 Unilocalers. The restaurant was so accommodating with the group. With every dish that was served, from the appetizers to the main courses the staff made sure to announce each dish. The highlight of the meal was that mostly everyone got to try for their first time, a delicacy of the Philippines, the Balut. I’ve had this treat many times before in the islands and was so happy to see it being served at a restaurant in NYC, so now many others can enjoy.
Some of my favorite items during dinner were the Chicken and Ube Waffles and the Pork Adobo. The Sizzling Sisig was also very good, but I wish it had more crispyness with each bite. There was so much food coming out and I found it a bit hard to eat with the little plates, so you really had to take a little of each food one at a time. I wanted to eat a lot of different things together at the same time because I’m already familiar with these dishes.
Thanks to Leonard L. for organizing the dinner. Definitely a good time and the after party at Blue and Gold was fun watching Lily C. shark a few unsuspecting guys in pool.

Bal-​oooooot. Bal-​oooooot. My first introduction to Balut was in the Philippines. As gross as many would describe it… it is delicious.
This is how I would describe Balut. An egg with a strong duck soup flavor. Trust me, don’t actually look at it. It’ll gross you out. This is a picture that Lori L took —
It’s one of those things that you must try once in your lifetime… or as I would do, at least 3 times in my lifetime!
Aside from the Balut — my favorite dish at Maharlika is the Chicken & Ube Waffles. Seriously, who comes up with this? AMAZING!
For a person that doesn’t exactly like beans… I really enjoyed their Green Beans. Flavorful and crunchy with a bright green color.
*Licks Lips* Let’s do this again. Thanks Leonard L — for coordinating!

Awesome good time. Leo thanks for organzing this epic good time. The food and Unilocaler company was great. Nice to meet some new Unilocalers. The Balut was suprisingly good for a hard boiled egg with a duck fetus. I’d eat it again. I definitely plan on coming back to Maharlika as the food was oustanding and the service was too. Loved how the waiters and waitresses introduced each dish for us novices. Drinks were excellent as well.
We had a long table for our adventerous group of 14. My far end section was great (Jocy C., Nina, Baramee C, Laura A. & Joey H.).
On to the food. (I posted the pics under the restaurant). The crispy pork skin starters were to die for. I ate as many as I could snag before they took them away. Then we rolled into the first courses served family style. I loved the Lumpiang Barquillos, a rice paper cigar stuffed with pork & beef with a sweet chilli dipping sauce. The Pamangan Sizzling Sisig was the best! How can you not like pork belly, cheek, ear & snout with egg and onion served with garlic rice? The Panchit Bihon was yummy shrimp heads and tail with vermicelli rice noodles and veggies was spicy.
Second courses were even better. Let me just say that Filipino fried chicken and UBE waffles are amazing. I had never had a purple yam waffle before but now I want them every day. Filipino fried chicken was an absolute delight similar to Korean fried chicken but different spices. Pork adobo spare ribs with preserved lemon and fingerling potatoes. Meat slid off the bone and was incredible, a real flavor bomb! Long beans with fermented black bean powder garlic & Soy were also delicious. The only thing I wasn’t into was the chop suey because it was boring compared to the rest of the food we had. Love this place!

what a way to pop my Unilocal-​event cherry. and my filipino-​food cherry.
two in one? yes, please.
short story: i made some Unilocal friends, had dranks, ate mystery pork bits, sucked head (of prawn… get yo’ mind outta the gutter, perv), and tried balut. ’twas perfect.
— there was good company. yay.
i hate showing up to things alone. i’m not a fan of being surrounded by people i don’t really know. i’m not used to being a minority. i am, however, a fan of saying ‘effff it’ and doing ish anyway, especially when it’s a promising bunch– which this was. met a group of awsome Unilocal peeps, had a blast, can’t complain, will repeat.
— there was food… lots of it.
from sizzling sisig (mystery pork bits in a skillet with egg) to fried chicken with ube waffles (purple yam waffles with salty anchovy butter and a sweet macapuno syrup), and everything before, after, and in between, i was stuffed. like, someone really should have rolled me out of there. even the side-​dishes were delicious. garlic rice was perfect, and the roasted long beans were sooo good.
the folks at maharlika really put together a great menu for us, and i super appreciate the variety of filipino foods i was able to taste at this event. the portions were large, served family style, and even between 14 voracious Unilocalers there were still leftovers.
— there were beverages, too.
the pacquiao punch hit the spot! im glad it was not too sweet… and the absinthe and slice of fresh ginger were nice touches. water was refilled constantly, but not obtrusively– great service from the staff.
oh, and picklebacks at blue&gold afterwards were a good bad idea.
— there was balut. and i ate it. and it really wasn’t too bad.
an impressive 8 out of 14 of us dared to try it. i can’t blame the others… it wasn’t easy committing to the idea of eating developing duck embryo that was boiled alive and served in the shell. but, eff it, i came here to make questionable decisions.
the staff at maharlika were patient enough to talk us through the proper way to eat balut. some of us ahem*LEO*ahem disregarded all instruction and downed the egg/​embryo… all for a free shot. it was awesome to see the staff get into it with us. thanks to Abby, my new balut buddy and filipino-​food master, i clumsily made my way through the fertilized egg.
let’s just forget about the time the embryo fell. yeah, let’s.
uhh, Leo… you done good.
if e-​props were still a thing, i’d give you some.

What a fun a** event!
Highlights?
–Met amazing and fun new Unilocal folks! You know who you are!
–Shared my first balut experience with 7 adventurous and experimental daredevil eaters
–Reunited with my Unilocal loves. You DEFINITELY know who you are!
–Pre-​gamed at a bar with $ 5 single malts
–Had my chance to show off my amazing pool skills (when I say amazing, I mean the other bar patrons were pretty not good)
Thanks Leonard L for another awesome UYE! Looking forward to the next one!
Sh*t, after what seemed like 39 courses, would you guys believe I’m hungry again?

is it ok to give my own uye a 5 star rating? lulzzzz. I hope everyone had a good time cause i did!
Dope time with new and Unilocaler i’ve already met. Special thanks to Lori for abacus-​ing that bill! God know i couldn’t of done it. To the adventerous balut (ba loot) (amirite?) eaters that joined me in the trial, thank you! To the ones that didn’t, boooooo!
I’d like to really thank everyone for coming out to the UYE cause setting one up ain’t easy BUT having good company and great food makes for a dope UYE. We had a sexy ass group tonight!
shi shi — thank you in mandarin (wait. i dont evem’ speak mandarin?)

Everything was a 5 stars type of experience.
Particularly extraordinary however, is Leo’s ability to successfully call the masses to eat a developing duck embryo.
A-​developing-​duck-​EmBryO.
woa
Great job, and many thanks.