Cockfighting

Loud and inhumane but very interesting. One of my other iniations into filipino culture in the past month was cock fighting. The sport is huge here. My adopted father in the host family I stayed with actually bred them on a small farm he owned just out of town. This intrigued me so I went to his little farm to check them out. Two weeks later I went to the cock fighting arena with him too. The cock fighting arena reminds me of the type you see in south-east asian martial arts movie arenas. The arena is like a big cage with a square dirt-floored ring in the middle. When I first saw it I was a bit overwhelmed. "I'm going in there!" I said to myself. But once I overcame these feelings I marched into the arena stoicly. I was quite clearly the only white guy in the place and my presence went unnoticed until I started taking a video of the fight. This is how it goes.

* The owners meet and agree for their cocks to fight outside the arena.
* The cocks are transported to a small room where blades are attached to their legs.
* The owners wait in line with their cocks ready to fight. I stood in this are taking my video because I had a little more room and could be a little more inconspicuous.
* Once it is their turn the owners take the cocks into the ring and prepare them for fighting. They hold them opposite each other and get them to peck each other so that become angry and know they need to fight or something.
* This is when the betting takes place. They have bookies amongst the crowd who take bets by using hand signals and shout out the confirmation of the bet. It is an honour system though. No money is exchanged until later. And if you pull out or walk off the outcome is not really nice. Betters have been known to come off a little worse that the losing cock! If the figures are uneven for the cocks then they try again until they are fairly even.
* Once this is all cleared up the fighting begins. The cocks jump on each other and use the blade in their leg and well as their beak to inflict injury.
* A cock loses when it it submits to the other bird or has an injury which makes it unable to fight. In the fights that I saw claws were chopped off, breasts were split open and both cocks eventually gave up.
* A winner is declared by an official and then the bets are settled.
* The cocks are then taken to vets who sew them up and clean up all the mess.
* And so it goes on...

I can't say that I enjoyed the experience of watching birds try to kill each other but the cultural experience was very interesting. Cock fighting is a real guys day out in the Philippines. They sit up in the stands, eating, drinking, smoking, betting, shouting... a bit like some pubs and horse racing venues in Australia.

My own personal fear factor

Balut was made famous all around the world by the TV program "Fear Factor". Contestants were challenged to eat a bowl of balut. But "what is balut?" I hear some of you asking. Balut is a delicacy here in the Philippines which an egg with a semi-formed chick inside. To eat it you follow this procedure:

1. You crack the top of the egg
2. Peel part of the egg shell off
3. Drink the juice (embrionic fluid) inside
4. Peel the rest of the egg which contains the egg yolk (just out of interest, how are we supposed to spell it - yolk or yoke?) and a partially formed chick (the more formed the chick is the more of a delicacy it is considered to be)
5. You close your eyes, count to 3 and eat the egg whole

You must remember that it is not for chewing or crunching. The best way to do it is forget that there is a chick and just go "over the teeth and past the gums, look out tummy here it comes".

That is what I tried to do unsuccessfully. You see I knew what I was eating. I could see the chick with its bones and feathers already forming. I tried the mind over matter thing but as soon as the chick tickled my throat the rest of the egg contents came up. I don't know how it happened, but in one foul swoop (sorry for the pun) I managed to swallow the chick but bring up the egg yolk. This was at 1am in the morning mind you. I had just attended a Catholic wake complete with the open casket, iconic figurines and beautiful flowers. On the way home the family thought it would be a good idea to initiate me into filipino culture by getting me to try balut. They thought it was absolutely hilarious. Especially when I couldn't keep it down. They tried to get me to try again, but I am of the firm belief that you only try something once when it comes to particularly gross foods. The filipino's love it and say that it is very good for you. I, on the other hand, find it very difficult to eat a semi-formed chick no matter how nutritious it is.