Magat's research is both novel and impressive ... As the first close study of balut's cultural significance for Filipinos abroad, Balut is a much-needed scholarly contribution demonstrating the racialization of food.

Journal of American Folklore

Margaret Magat's new study Balut: Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora, takes readers on a thought-provoking journey through the history and tradition of balut ... [A] valuable addition to our folklore collection. It will also prove to be useful to individuals, scholars, students, and researchers from a variety of disciplines who are interested in learning more about the history and tradition of balut, and Filipino cuisine in general.

Digest: A Journal of Foodways and Culture

In food studies we often say that food can be a lens through which to view many aspects of culture and society: gender, race, and class; authenticity, migration, and exchange; taste, disgust, and delight; memory, tradition, and identity; and the list goes on. There is no food more apt than balut to encapsulate the power of food as a window to the human experience. We may be personally attracted or repelled by balut, but cannot be indifferent to its visceral power. With unflagging curiosity and respect for the food and its symbolic charge, Margaret Magat writes the book that asked to be written.

Jonathan Deutsch, Drexel University, USA